Meeting Gordie Howe

 In the mid to late-1990s, I worked for the New Jersey Devils hockey team.  I loved hockey at that time and was well-versed in its history.  In 1995, Gordie Howe and his wife, Colleen, wrote their autobiography, titled And ...Howe

(For those of you who don't know, Gordie Howe is one of hockey's greatest all-time players, who became a star for the Detroit Red Wings in the 1940s and was hockey's greatest player in the 1950s and 60s.  He was known as "Mr. Hockey."  He played in the NHL until 1971, then came out of retirement to play with his sons in the WHA in 1973.  He retired in 1980 - at the age of 52 - as the NHLs all-time leader in games played, goals, assists and points.  Gordie was a complete player who had all 5 tools - shoot, skate, pass, check and fight - and the "Gordie Howe Hat Trick," consisting of a goal, assist and fight in one game, was obviously named after him.)

So in early 1996, Gordie went on a short book-signing tour to promote sales of And ...Howe!  One of his stops was at the old Steinbach's department store (formerly Ohrbach's) at the Bergen Mall in Paramus, NJ.  He was scheduled to sign from noon to 1:30pm on a weekday, so I left for lunch at the Devils offices at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford at noon, hoping to be back by 1pm as we only had one hour lunches.

When I arrived at Steinbach's, the line was not too long, though other fans had begun to file in behind me.  Most fans were wearing jeans and tee shirts - some were wearing Red Wings gear - but I was wearing my Devils office garb - a suit and a hockey tie (I left the Devils in 1999 but still have about 2 dozen hockey ties).

When I reached the hockey superstar, I smiled and said, "Hello," and the personable, ball-busting Howe looked up at me and replied, "What'd you do, get all dressed up to see me?"

I laughed and explained that I worked for the New Jersey Devils and was wearing my office attire.  Gordie stopped signing, got up, shook my hand and asked how his old friend Max McNab was doing.  Max had been the Devils General Manager before Lou Lamoriello arrived.  Max built the team that went to the 1988 Stanley Cup Semifinals the year after he was replaced by Lamoriello.  McNab was still in the office in an advisory capacity by the time I began with the Devils as a free lance video editor in 1994 (I was brought on full time in 1995).

I explained to Gordie that McNab had recently retired from the Devils but had been doing well when he left.  Gordie smiled, turned to his assistant (or agent... I can't remember, but he had a handler with him) and told the guy to go get him lunch because "my new friend from the Devils will stay with me while you're gone."

Of course, by this time, it was about 12:45 and I told Gordie that I had to leave to get back to work on time.  Gordie laughed and said, "You won't get in trouble, just tell your boss that you're with Gordie Howe.  Now get back here and sit with me."

How could I refuse?  I spent the next 20 minutes listening as Gordie Howe told me great stories of his career while signing for other people.  He talked about playing with Max McNab and Ted Lindsay in the 1940s and 50s, the legendary punch he landed that broke Lou Fontinato's nose in a hockey fight, playing in the All Star Game at the age of 51 with the 19 year-old Wayne Gretzky, playing with his sons, Mark and Marty in the WHA and winning the Stanley Cup in Detroit.  He was such a gentleman to me (though, unfortunately for the people on line, he was more interested in talking to me than to the fans) and I'll never forget it.

Sure enough, I returned to work about a half hour late and managed to sneak in unnoticed.

A year or two later, I met Mark Howe at a Devils game as he was scouting for another team.  Because I kept the book in my office, I brought it up to him and had him sign it, too.  Mark was just like his Dad, a gentleman, through and through.


At this writing, December 17, 2013, Gordie is still alive at the age of 85, 3 years younger than former teammate Ted Lindsay.  McNab passed away in 2007 at the age of 83.  Unfortunately, Gordie's wife, Colleen, also passed away a few years ago at the age of 76.  The couple met when she was just 17 years-old.

It's Time To Lower the Drinking Age Back Down to 18

(First published 8th June 2014) - In the spring of 1983, I was a 16 year-old high school junior planning to attend William Paterson College in autumn, 1984, and took advantage of an opportunity to spend a day on campus with a friend enrolled at WPC.  Over 30 years later, I have no idea what classes I attended that day, but I have a distinct memory of going to lunch at Billy Pat’s Pub in the WPC Student Center.  Students and faculty filled the pub at lunchtime and enjoyed conversation and mentoring over a burger and a beer.

That’s right, students and faculty drank beer at lunch on campus.  Of course, at that time, the legal drinking age was 18, so almost every student on campus could enjoy a cold brew with their lunch before going back to class with same professors with whom they had been imbibing.  And I suspect that this was how it was on most campuses across America since the end of Prohibition some 50 years prior.

This was considered normal behavior at that time and it was great.  Students were able to interact with older adults and discuss anything from internships and job possibilities to current events.  Students practiced networking and polished their conversation skills without realizing it.

I did enroll at William Paterson, but by the time I arrived on campus about 18 months after that initial visit, the campus was dramatically changed; Billy Pat’s was closed at lunch time because the drinking age had been raised to 21 and, sadly, faculty were rarely seen in the Student Center.

While losing that faculty/student social interaction has hurt students, raising the drinking age has caused an even bigger problem:  Student drinking is no longer done in a controlled, public environment; instead, students binge drink at private parties.  In fact, According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, underage drinking accounts for 17.5% ($22.5 billion) of consumer spending for alcohol in the United States (Joseph Califano Jr., "The Commercial Value of Underage and Pathological Drinking to the Alcohol Industry,"  (168 KB) National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, May 2006).  Think about that for a moment, because underage drinkers tend to drink the cheapest beer they can find.  In other words, while some adults will spend hundreds of dollars on a good bottle of scotch or wine, underage kids drinking cheap beer still account for almost one fifth of all alcohol spending in America.  As a result, according to the Centers for Disease Control, from 2006-2010, underage drinking played a role in 4,173 deaths

(http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/DACH_ARDI/Default/Report.aspx?T=AAM&P=f6d7eda7-036e-4553-9968-9b17ffad620e&R=d7a9b303-48e9-4440-bf47-070a4827e1fd&M=AD96A9C1-285A-44D2-B76D-BA2AE037FC56&F=AAMCauseGenderUnder21&D=H).

That said, it’s time for the state of New Jersey to consider lowering the drinking age back to 18.  Sure, the old arguments still stand – if one is old enough to vote, marry, stand trial, and serve in the military, one should certainly be permitted to have a glass of wine with dinner – but there’s more to it than that.  Drinking in a pub or tavern is far safer for students than binge drinking at a “kegger.”  Students don’t play drinking games in pubs, but beer pong, flip-cup, quarters, etc., are regular features of a college keg party.  Further, binge drinking in a public establishments is difficult with bartenders policing drinking and the cost of alcohol serving as a deterrent to students on a low budget.  Clearly, lowering the drinking age would decrease unsafe drinking activities.

The drinking age in much of the rest of the world is about 16 years of age.  And while the United States saw a decline in traffic accidents following the increase in the drinking age in 1984, the rate of traffic accidents and fatalities in the 1980s decreased even more in European nations whose drinking age remains under 21 (Barry M. Sweedler, "The Worldwide Decline in Drinking and Driving: Has It Continued?," Presentation for the 15th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety in Stockholm (Sweden), www.ntsb.gov, May 2000).

Thus, the decline in accidents and deaths from drinking in the U.S. could be attributed to many factors, including safer automobiles and airbags, seat belt laws, increased awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving, and an increase in the number of college students living on campus and walking back to their dorms after drinking rather than driving.  Of course, ride-sharing apps have even eliminated the need for walking back to apartments and dorm rooms.  Students can safely return home even if they don't live on campus.

We need to treat adults like adults and give them the responsibility that they can handle.  We need to bring college student drinking back into public places rather than in illegal, private spaces.  The left constantly tells us that we should distribute condoms to minors in middle schools because students are having sex anyway, so isn’t it time we realize that because adult college students are drinking anyway, they’ll be safer lawfully drinking in regulated public places rather than at illegal keg parties?  I certainly think so!