How The Rangers Almost Had Gordie Howe

Everybody knows that Mister Hockey – Gordie Howe – ranks among the greatest players of any era.

And everybody knows that he earned that label starring for the Detroit Red Wings.

What few know is that the immortal Howe could have been a Ranger and not a Red Wing. Here's how;

A budding prospect among Saskatoon teenaged players, Gordie was invited to the Rangers Winnipeg training camp by Blueshirt scout Fred McCorry.

The teenager was 15 at the time; shy and introverted but not warmly welcomed by Blueshirt veterans. At the training table, one New York vet kept taking Gordie's plate.

There were other embarrassments for Howe. For one, he didn't know how to put on his equipment. "I just dropped the gear on the floor in front of me and watched the others," Howe recalled.

Others noticed Howe's equipment ignorance and teased him about it. Still, Gordie stuck it out until his roommate was injured and sent home.

Lonely, homesick and ill-treated by some of the vets, Gordie fled back to Saskatoon a few days later and no Ranger official stopped and asked him to stay.

But during that winter Detroit's birddog Fred Pinckney spotted Gordie and invited him to the Red Wings camp the following fall in Windsor, Ontario.

The Motor City hockey boss Jack Adams noticed the raw, rangy youngster from Saskatoon. "He skated so easily and always seemed perfectly balanced," said Adams. "It tickled me to watch him."

Adams finally called him over and said, "If you practice hard enough and try hard enough, you'll make good some day."

Gordie Howe did all right for himself, but not as a Ranger!