One of the boldest moves in sports history came 50 years ago this month as the legendary Gordie Howe came out of retirement and signed with the Houston Aeros of the upstart World Hockey Association – and brought two of his hockey-playing sons, Mark and Marty, along for the ride. While the trio ultimately enjoyed success in the new league, they also made it interesting for collectors along the way.
While the man known as Mr. Hockey retired at the end of the 1970-71 season after 25 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, he was not happy being relegated to an office role with the club and yearned for a chance to play again. Already a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, he and his wife, Colleen, were watching two of their sons play for the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey Association. Mark was considered one of the game’s brightest prospects – but was not eligible to be drafted by an NHL club until 1975 since no one was eligible unless they were 20 years of age at the start of the subsequent season.
The WHA did not have such formal restrictions when it came to prospects and that was part of what convinced Gordie to uproot his family from their Michigan home and head south to Houston, Texas. Not long after Mark’s 18th birthday, it was officially announced that the Aeros were going to have some serious star power added to the line up. Houston had secretly drafted Mark and Marty to avoid the ire of the NHL and also put their father on their negotiation list.
When speaking with a reporter for UPI in late May, 1973, Howe revealed that Houston’s offer was significant.
“They knew my greatest wish has always been to play pro hockey with my sons and when they asked, ‘Would you be interested’, I said, ‘hell yes’.
“We’re going down there to get things on the table to see what they look like,” he continued. “I’m open-minded about going back on the ice. They wanted to see if I wanted to play with the youngsters for a year.”
Off The Ice, On The Wall
Within months of joining the Aeros on the ice, the first major collectible featuring the trio was released. Instead of issuing a stand-alone WHA hockey card set for the league’s second season, Canadian kids were able to pick up packs of 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee WHA Posters featuring stars from the upstart league. For a thin dime, you would get two folded posters along with a sickeningly sweet (but oh-so-good) piece of bubble gum.
While WHA players and logos were included in third series packs of 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee, the mixing of players from two leagues must have rankled both the NHL and NHLPA and they would not be mixed in packs while the two sides clashed. The WHA posters were not a strong seller and sealed boxes and packs could be found easily in later years, likely due by the fact that these are not cards and that the NHL was still more popular due to more widespread exposure on television. Even today, the ’73-74 OPC posters are not an expensive option for collectors compared to other items from that era. Even Howe’s smiling face on the box couldn’t help!
Of the 20 different posters in the set, two are tied to the Howe family. The first featured Gordie alone while the other had a horizontal orientation to include all three players. It would be one of the few times they all appear together in a product made by a trading card manufacturer and is generally very affordable since it is not a traditional card.
The production of this poster set was after Nov. 21, 1973 as future Howe family teammate and WHA all-time leading scorer Andre Lacroix is listed with the New Jersey Knights. Before the season began, the New York Raiders were re-dubbed the New York Golden Blades, but after just 20 games, bad box office forced the team to relocate to Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Donning the previous year’s Raiders jerseys and putting on a new crest, they only lasted until the end of the season before heading west to become the San Diego Mariners.
Looking at the other posters in the set, there is a mix of legends, stars, and obscure names that are mostly remembered by hardcore hockey historians. Each of the five teams based in Canada get a couple of players – the most notable being Bobby Hull of the Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques defender J.C. Tremblay. The most notable names among the remaining posters are goaltenders Al Smith of the New England Whalers and Gerry Cheevers of the Cleveland Crusaders along with Minnesota Fighting Saints scoring machine Mike Walton and Los Angeles Sharks sensation Marc Tardif, who were both new WHA arrivals that year.
Thanks to a strong supporting cast, the Howes enjoyed tremendous success over their four seasons with the Aeros. The club had finished second in the WHA’s West Division the year before they arrived, but the presence of Mr. Hockey and his progeny helped them go a new level in 1973-74. During regular season action, they finished on top of the league with a 48-25-2 record and Gordie became the first Houston player to reach the 100-point plateau.
The first round of the playoffs saw Houston and the Howes sweep Hull’s Jets and the West Division Final posed a bit of a challenge, but the Aeros soared past the Saints in six. In the AVCO Cup Final, they swept the Chicago Cougars in four games. In postseason play, Gordie chipped in 17 points in 13 contests, but Mark outpaced his father with nine goals and 10 assists in 14 outings. For their efforts in the regular season, Mark was named the WHA’s Rookie of the Year and Gordie earned MVP honors. The latter award would later be rechristened the Gordie Howe Trophy.
Before the next season began, Gordie and Mark were asked to be part of Team Canada as a WHA-only squad faced the best the Soviet Union had to offer.
In 1974-75, the Aeros were once again the best in the WHA as their record improved once again to 53-25-0. Once again, Gordie gave a command performance and the addition of goaltender Ron Grahame and some other minor tweaks ensured that the AVCO Cup remained in Houston.
A Legendary Card
The rival league’s first standalone trading card product came that winter in the form of 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA. A small collection featuring a clean horizontal design, it brought us the first official trading card featuring the family and was simply called The Howes – or for French-speaking collectors, Les Howe. Known for the typical rough edges O-Pee-Chee had during this era, it can also be difficult to find well-centered. It’s available for $25-$50 in ungraded, reasonably good condition..
While it was the only standard-sized card to feature the trio together during this era, there was a Sportscaster card produced between 1977 and 1979. What makes this card particularly special is that Colleen Howe is in the photo and it is the first time she appeared on cardboard.
Considering the impact she had in the careers of her husband and sons before and after her playing days, this is a fun treasure that deserves some more recognition from the hobby than it gets
All three hockey-playing Howes were part of the WHA remaining card sets from O-Pee-Chee. Mark and Marty’s first solo cards came in the challenging 1975-76 set and for the 1977-78 release, we got action shots for all three with a notation that they were now with New England – where they remained for the rest of the league’s existence.
Once the Whalers were admitted into the NHL and re-dubbed the Hartford Whalers, Gordie spent one last season in pro hockey and padded his impressive record as the league’s all-time leader in goals, assists, and points before retiring in 1980. Mark switched from the wing to defense and went on to have a Hall of Fame career as one of the game’s best blueliners before finishing out his days as a member of the Red Wings in 1995. Marty, on the other hand, bounced between Hartford and their AHL farm teams before catching on full-time with the Boston Bruins for the 1982-83 campaign. Only staying there a year, he was back in Hartford once again to wrap up his NHL days.
Limited Options After Retirement
In 1992-93, Upper Deck created a Hockey Heroes insert set and naturally, Mr. Hockey got a card that featured Mark and Marty with New England that’s cheap today.
It would be more than a decade before the three were put together on a card again in a couple of 2003-04 releases. The Sign of the Times triple auto of Mark, Marty, and Gordie coming out of that year’s SP Authentic was limited to just 25 copies and has headshots of them in Aeros gear. Today, it is not an easy card to track down and is also the only certified triple autograph card of them out there.
There were two cards of the trio in the Mr. Hockey’s Memorable Moments insert set found in the 2003-04 Upper Deck flagship product, one which repeats the photo from 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee WHA Posters and the other showing them in NHL Alumni jerseys post-retirement.
Since then, there has only been one product that created a card for the trio and it is a tough one to get a decade after the the release of 2012-13 In The Game History of Hockey. Each box of this product included an original illustrated game-used memorabilia card which focused on a great moment and number 129 was dubbed Howe Family in Houston. Limited to 40 copies for the standard version and a Gold out of 10, it had a piece of a game-used Gordie Howe Houston Aeros jersey. After Dr. Brian Price’s In The Game ceased operations, a Vault product was released with stamped cards from this set. However, no comprehensive checklist has surfaced to confirm if this particular card was included.
Half a century after the Howe’s arrived in Houston, there are rumbles that the city could be a fine candidate for NHL expansion. Mr. Hockey and his boys turned a strong team into champions and it may be a while before we see them together on cardboard again. Thankfully, there are some great items on the market and they’ll make a fine addition to every hockey card collection.
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WHA Jerseys, Awards, Personal Items Part of Latest Howe Family Auction
1977-78 O-Pee-Chee WHA Has A Difficult Legacy
The Cardboard Legacy of Gordie Howe’s Goodbye Goal
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Tim Horton Was Hockey’s Strongest Man Before He Was Hockey’s Strongest Brand
Notes: Record for Signed 1952 Mantle Card; High-End Hoops Cards; Fanatics Auctions Return; Gordie Howe Items Sell for Charity
