Eaton's Gordie Howe Postcard

This is one of my favorite pickups in recent months. It's a postcard-sized promotional piece of hockey legend Gordie Howe from the mid-60s. It was issued on behalf of Eaton Department Stores which I've come to find out was a big retail chain in Canada back then.

Gordie, who was a spokesman for Truline Sports Equipment, is pictured in his All-Star uniform. Just a great photo. I consider myself fortunate to have seen Mr. Hockey play many times. I witnessed a handful of his games with the Red Wings in New York against my Rangers. When he came to Houston to play for four seasons with the Aeros and his sons my friends and I (and frequently my father) were there as often as possible. For the first two years of Gordie's time here the Aeros played at the dearly departed  Sam Houston Coliseum. I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed sports more than I did then.

Doing my quick research for Eaton's I found that a book was written about the chain.

Note the photo of Gordie on the cover in his Eaton's red blazer. He must have been to Eaton's what Ted Williams was to Sears down here. I also found many magazine ads that he was showcased in and some other interesting items.

Truline hockey gloves endorsed by the GOAT.

There is at least one other Gordie/Eaton's postcard. I may have to go find one for myself.

 And Truline made baseball gloves that carried Gordie's seal of approval!

Hockey, yes hockey... the 1974-75 OPC Howe Family card

This is a card I've had on my wantlist for a long time. I'd forget about it for long stretches and then someone would show off a Gordie Howe card and I'd be inspired to look around for one in my wheelhouse....decent condition at a moderate price.

It happened most recently when Fuji was gifted with this fantastic Oh-Pee-Chee Howe. I immediately went out and snagged the 74-75 OPC Howe Family card you see above. The WHA in general and the Aeros in particular were just a blast to be a fan of during the 70s. I've related a bit of my Aeros history before. Here it is cut-and-pasted:

Maybe the most fun I've had in sports venues was during the heyday of the WHA Houston Aeros during the 1970s when they played in the decrepit old Sam Houston Coliseum in downtown Houston. Those games were just a blast. The WHA was a rough and tumble league of NHL castoffs and has-beens mixed in with a few young and established stars that the league somehow was able to sign away from the NHL with big money contracts. The franchises seemed to shift every year and I recall more than one team folding during a season.

The Aeros had Gordie Howe and his sons and they captured back-to-back Avco Cups in the first few seasons of the franchise's existence. My college buddies and I loved those teams and going to the games. How could you not? The rival Minnesota Fighting Saints always lived up to their name (the 'fighting' part, not the 'saints' part) and building rocked when they were in town. In their second year they had a guy named Gordie Gallant (isn't that the coolest hockey name ever?) who was a cheap shot artist and enforcer who would whip the Aeros' fans into a frenzy.

At the Coliseum the visiting team would have to walk a gauntlet of fans between periods and at games end, trudging on their skates up a rubber mat along a path formed by a couple pieces of rope to the locker-room. It passed right through the concession area. Fans would give the Fighting Saints (we had another 'F' word that we used instead of 'Fighting') a real going over. I'm surprised that none of us ever got clobbered with a stick or kicked with a skate.

After three or four seasons the Aeros moved to the shiny new Summit (now Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church)  and a lot of the fun went out of it. Oh we still loved Aeros hockey but losing the Coliseum took away some of the charm of the whole thing. Eventually the NHL absorbed four of the WHA teams but not our beloved Aeros.

One last WHA story... It occurred the day after the Aeros won their first Avco Cup. A good friend who worked at a department store that had a tie-in with the team was headed into work when he spotted the Avco Cup trophy sitting all by itself on the loading dock. Just sitting there apparently after being delivered by the team for a promo. No one was paying any attention to it as it sat just feet from the morning downtown workers hustling by. Hard to imagine the Stanley Cup in that spot.

My copy of the card isn't bad at all for about 10 bucks. It's off-center off-centre but otherwise just fine for me. Here's a short video segment showing Gordie Howe in action with the Aeros:

And speaking of hockey...yesterday in Target I wasted $2.49 on a pack of "Upper Deck Hockey Something or Other".  I grabbed it because I was bored waiting for my wife to finish her shopping and there was nothing else of interest on the shelves. The pack contained seven cards of guys I've never heard of, the best of which is this one showing this guy knocking the warm-up pucks off the dasher onto the ice.

The eighth card is of Phil Esposito, ringleader of the Evil Empire. That was my perspective on the Bruins circa 1970. Nowadays I think Rangers fans just look at them as another team. Another byproduct of the growth of the NHL from 6 to 45 teams or whatever they have these days.

Mr. Hockey..... 1976/77 O-Pee-Chee WHA Gordie Howe

At the age of 52 Gordie Howe scored 41 points on 15 goals and 26 assists playing a full 80 game schedule. This was in the NHL, not the Eastern Ontario Junior 'B' Hockey League, the NH-freaking-L. When I was 52 I played picnic softball and needed a courtesy runner. Two years prior to that season in Hartford he had 96(!) points with the WHA Whalers. He was 50. In this past NHL season only Sid Crosby had more than 96 points. Yes, points were 'cheap' back then, but still. Gordie was ninth in the WHA and outscored his own kid.

The '76 OPC Howe card above shows him as a Houston Aeros winger. I have some great memories of Aeros games, several of them revolving around Gordie. I saw him score his 900th career goal in 1977 at the old Sam Houston Coliseum. That was quite a place.

The card itself is wildly off-center (off-centre?) but a lot of the cards in this set seem to be cut that way. I have a handful but this Gordie Howe is the only 'star' card I own out of it. There is a Howe All Star card and Bobby Hull has a regular and an All Star card.

Weird Little Collections: Original Six Favorites #3

I cheated on this one. Back in the day I was a Frank Mahovlich fan when he played for Detroit. But since I... 1) love these '63/'64 Parkhursts and 2) didn't really have a fave among the Leafs back then, I chose to have "The Big M" fill this spot.

And it's not like he didn't do much for the Leafs. On the contrary he is one of the great players in their history. He played 11+ seasons in Toronto and was the Calder Trophy winner as Rookie of the Year in 1958. He made six NHL All Star squads with the Leafs (nine overall) and won four Stanley Cups with them (six overall).

After his time with Toronto he played for Detroit (where he is planted in my memory) playing on a line with Gordie Howe, and with Montreal. After his NHL days he played four seasons in the WHA. I saw him play for four different clubs as a pro (maybe five but I don't recall him from any Ranger-Montreal games I went to). He was a great scorer and a tough guy in the corners but during his career he suffered from depression and missed games due to that and assorted issues.

Wikipedia lists some of his accomplishments:

• Calder Memorial Trophy winner in 1958.
• Played in 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1974 NHL All-Star Games.
• Selected to the NHL First All-Star Team in 1961, 1963, and 1973.
• Selected to the NHL Second All-Star Team in 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1969, and 1970.
• Stanley Cup champion in 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1971 and 1973.
• Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1981.
• Inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
• In 1998, he was ranked number 27 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.
• Inaugural inductee into the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame as a “Legends of the Game” in 2010

Those old Parkhurst cards are classic. The set contains Leafs, Canadiens and Red Wings. The Leafs all have the Canadian flag as a background (the version of the flag that was in play at the time) the Wings have the U.S, flag behind them but the Habs have a silly pattern of bars or lines. Weird and I don't know why but I guarantee one of you hockey card experts can fill me in.

My Mahovlich has seen better days but I don't mind picking up old beat-up cards if they are as cool as this old Parkie.

Old Time Hockey

This 71/72 O-Pee-Chee Norm Ferguson was a one dollar card (shipped) and worth twice that <grin>. I enjoy the expansion era NHL clubs (the expansion that brought the league from 6 to 12 clubs) and the Oakland/California Golden Seals were saddled with ugly unis, a stupid name and terrible colors and were therefore pretty cool to me. I don't remember Ferguson from his days with the Seals but I saw him play in the WHA for several teams in Houston against the Aeros. He appears to be stoned on this card doesn't he?

Maybe the most fun I've had in sports venues was during the heyday of the WHA Houston Aeros during the 1970s when they played in the decrepit old Sam Houston Coliseum in downtown Houston. Those games were just a blast. The WHA was a rough and tumble league of NHL castoffs and has-beens mixed in with a few young and established stars that the league somehow was able to sign away from the NHL with big money contracts. The franchises seemed to shift every year and I recall more than one team folding during a season.

The Aeros had Gordie Howe and his sons and they captured back-to-back Avco Cups in the first few seasons of the franchise's existence. My college buddies and I loved those teams and going to the games. How could you not? The rival Minnesota Fighting Saints always lived up to their name (the 'fighting' part, not the 'saints' part) and building rocked when they were in town. In their second year they had a guy named Gordie Gallant (isn't that the coolest hockey name ever?) who was a cheap shot artist and enforcer who would whip the Aeros' fans into a frenzy.

At the Coliseum the visiting team would have to walk a gauntlet of fans between periods and at games end, trudging on their skates up a rubber mat along a path formed by a couple pieces of rope to the locker-room. It passed right through the concession area. Fans would give the Fighting Saints (we had another 'F' word that we used instead of 'Fighting') a real going over. I'm surprised that none of us ever got clobbered with a stick or kicked with a skate.

After three or four seasons the Aeros moved to the shiny new Summit (now Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church)  and a lot of the fun went out of it. Oh we still loved Aeros hockey but losing the Coliseum took away some of the charm of the whole thing. Eventually the NHL absorbed four of the WHA teams but not our beloved Aeros.

One last WHA story... It occurred the day after the Aeros won their first Avco Cup. A good friend who worked at a department store that had a tie-in with the team was headed into work when he spotted the Avco Cup trophy sitting all by itself on the loading dock. Just sitting there apparently after being delivered by the team for a promo. No one was paying any attention to it as it sat just feet from the morning downtown workers hustling by. Hard to imagine the Stanley Cup in that spot.