The Malik Report

This seems a little "off." It's hockey book season, and I'd already known that Jordin Tootoo collaborated with Stephen Brunt for his forthcoming memoir, All the Way, Darren McCarty worked with USA Today's Kevin Allen on his memoir, My Last Fight: The True Story of a Hockey RockStar, and Wings pro scout Mark Howe worked with Jay Greenberg on his memoir, Gordie Howe's Son: A Hall of Fame Life Lived in the Shadow of Mr. Hockey--which Mark is signing at the Wings' prospect tournament this Saturday...

But the Free Press's Gene Myers reports that Mr. Hockey: My Story claims to be written by none other than Gordie Howe himself, and I can't find anything online to suggest that this book was written by anyone other than Howe. That seems a little strange given that Howe is battling steadily advancing dementia, and Myers thought it odd that Howe was listed as the only author as well, though he may have found a hint asto who helped Howe transcribe his tales in the book's "afterword"

The publisher lists “Mr. Hockey” as an autobiography and does not list a co-author or assistant. Howe, though, at 86 has been in declining health in recent years with a form of dementia and certainly needed a helping hand with this book. Howe’s three sons — including Hall of Fame defenseman Mark Howe, a Wings front-office executive — and Howe’s daughter signed their names to an emotional 11-page “afterword” section in which they shared memories of their famous father but lamented how “it is sad to see him struggle at things we all take for granted.” (Last year, Mark wrote “Gordie Howe’s Son: A Hall of Fame Life in the Shadow of Mr. Hockey,” a warm, loving portrait of his life as a member of hockey’s royal family.) The “acknowledgements” section includes these words: “A sincere thanks goes to Paul Haavardsrud, who helped take the thoughts in my head and put them down on paper.” He is a Canadian business reporter.

Howe's memory of the past remains much stronger than his short-term memory of the present, so perhaps that's how Haavarsrud helped Howe relate quite the tale as to why Jack Adams was allowed to dismantle the Wings after their 1955 Stanley Cup chapionship:

In 1952, after their second Cup in three years, owner James Norris died, which Howe called a hard loss for general manager Jack Adams, and which set in motion a Wings decline that lasted four decades. After Norris’ death, control was passed to his daughter, Marguerite Norris. “Her role with the team has been relegated to a footnote in sports history,” Howe wrote, “but I think she was the first woman to ever run a professional team. I don’t know how Mr. Adams felt about his new team president, but I’m sure he wasn’t thrilled about a woman in her 20s handing down his marching orders. … “I found her to be both smart and capable. Others I talked to felt the same way. She was good for the club, but unfortunately she didn’t stick around for as long as anyone would have liked. A few years into the job, she was ousted by her older brother, Bruce. … “In retrospect, it’s easy to see how bad the family infighting was for the team. Marguerite was a much more thoughtful owner than her brother, who could be something of a bully. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Marguerite’s time in charge coincided with some of the greatest years in franchise history. As president, she had enough juice to check Trader Jack’s instincts to upset the apple cart. It’s hard to say how many Stanley Cups we might have won if she had stuck around longer.”

Myers relates the rest of Howe's tale, and it's certainly quite the bombshell.

I hope he did write it himself, that at some point, the smartest woman in the Howe family--Colleen--had Gordie tell his tales, whether they were recorded via audio, video or written down...

But we'll probably find out who helped Gordie put pen to paper sooner than later, and though I know he's not the man he used to be, at least he's still around to sign some copies and know that he belongs to a worldwide family.

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