The Bashful Basher

Some people call it hockey, but its real name is intimidation. Whack, slam, hook and trip--these are the tools of the trade, and nobody employs them more ruthlessly and recklessly than Detroit's Gordie Howe, 34, a veteran of 17 years and quite possibly the most combative player who ever climbed onto a rink.

In the course of his career in the National Hockey League, Howe has had most of his front teeth knocked out and 300 stitches taken in his face. He has broken his skull, his collarbone, and assorted ribs and toes. He averages 60 min. --the equivalent of a full game--each season in the penalty box, and rival coaches complain that he does not get what he deserves. "When Howe gets knocked down." says one, "he looks like he doesn't care. But when he's getting up, he looks for the other guy's number. A little later, the guy will have four stitches in his head."

Records on Records. To Detroit's adoring fans. Howe is known simply as "Mr. Wonderful"--the best hockey player in the world. They may be right. As skillful as he is bruising, Howe has played more games (1.073) ard scored more points (1,148) than anybody else in hockey history. He holds the lifetime record for assists (with 636), needs to slip the puck into the net just 33 more times to break Maurice ("Rocket") Richard's career mark of 544 goals. He has won the N.H.L. scoring championship five times; nobody else has won it more than twice. He has been voted the most valuable player five times (another record), and he has played in 14 All Star games.

Like good brandy, Howe seems to improve--if not exactly mellow--with age. Last year, though Howe had a good year, Detroit finished fifth in a six-team league. This year they stayed out of the losing column until the eleventh game of the season, last week were battling for the league lead.

Off the ice, Howe is the same "Bashful Basher" from Floral, Sask., who signed a Detroit contract at 16 for $4,000. "I've changed my sense of values since," grins Howe, who at an estimated $30,000 a year is hockey's highest-paid pro. Yet he is still blushingly polite to fans. At a celebrity golf tournament in Ontario, a clubhouse attendant asked him for an autograph to take home to his son. Howe was halfway to Detroit before he remembered the request; abruptly, he drove back to the golf course, sought out the attendant and gave him the autograph.

Goalies Beware. But when he laces on his shoulder pads, the brawny old pro is all vinegar. "There is nothing Gordie can't do except sit on the bench," says Frank Selke, managing director of the Montreal Canadiens. Most players favor one hand. Howe can blast with either hand, and his huge wrists and forearms--toughened by summers of "throwing" concrete and gravel--propel the puck toward the net at 90 m.p.h. What sometimes seems like uncanny accuracy comes from Howe's study of every goalie's weakness: "Some are vulnerable to rebounds--like Glenn Hall of Chicago. He has a habit of falling backward when he makes a save. Jacques Plante of Montreal doesn't always cover the corners of the net."

Yet Howe is no goal-happy prima donna. "This is a team game, not an individual game," he says, and he often passes off on a power play to Center Alex Delvecchio or Left-Wing Parker MacDonald. Last week Delvecchio topped all Red Wing scorers with 23 points; Howe had 22, MacDonald 20. Coach Sid Abel had no doubt about who was sparking the Red Wings. "As Howe goes, so we go," said Abel, "and we're going fine right now."

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