NHL ALL-STAR WEEKEND

January 19, 1996

Gordie Howe

Q. How did it feel to go out there and play?

GORDIE HOWE: My knees are bad. They have been bothering me the last couple of years. They seemed to get a little worse. Dr. Murray, our third son, said get off of certain products which I have and it enabled me at least to play. Sitting at the blue line you feel sorry for yourself; your knees are getting bad - everyone out there -- one of the guys out there had a few complaints; then you look at a very strong young man who is accepting his ill will. You see that, you got to be awful damn happy that you are even playing the game at that age.

GORDIE HOWE: Maybe I should explain it the way -- it was Jesse Owens - I think it was Jesse Owens who said, number one, you got to love the game, but he said it is the only game in the world that he knows that you play with the extension of all 4 limbs and he said you have to have the grace of the ballet dancer; the strength of a bull and while you got all that talent going for you, you got to keep one guy open for some guy taking your head off. I think that expressed it very well. It is a game that sometimes when we are practicing we are not on our toes and that is when you get hurt. It is a game where you got to be on your toes at all times, and I honestly do believe and we did that in Detroit, we brought a lot of the other athletes out from football, Kaline (phonetic) and he is a one-skater. He puts one on the ice and pushes with the other. That is all he does. So it is a game that I think you have to be born into. You know it and I know it, any professional hockey player who has ever had a son in the dressing room, they turn out to be hockey players. It is just what they see and what they feel.

GORDIE HOWE: Well there is one other great building that collapsed today and that was the old one in Detroit, the Olympian, where I spent 25 years of my life playing the game and you talk to any hockey player, it was the best ice in the world was in the Olympian and that guaranteed you had a good hockey game, period. That is what a lot of people say, well, the game wasn't that great, well, sometimes the ice isn't that great and it dictates your play, the puck is bouncing around. Olympian was always great. The Forum, when it got cold, it is almost like a natural ice and there is no concrete under the pipes. There is sand. It felt like you were skating on something hollow and it is a funny feeling the first time, but, you know, the tradition in there, I have had kids sitting on the bench, young guys looking at the banners and everything - dumb game is going on and you have to give them a wrap and say, "wake up, we have a game going here." They get so engrossed like in Toronto which is probably one of the last ones you can walk around the hallways and see the (inaudible) -- yeah, those buildings mean a tremendous amount and tradition is something you just -- you can't buy that.