On This Date in Sports February 7, 1965: Gordie's Century Club
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
Gordie Howe, who the NHL's all-time leading scorer in the Original-Six era, become the first and the only player to get 100 points against the five other teams. Howe reaches 100 points as the Detroit Red Wings hammered the Montreal Canadiens 6-0 at Olympia Stadium. When Gordie Howe retired, he had the NHL record with 801 goals, 1049 assists, and 1850 points. All records that Wayne Gretzky would top.
Gordie Howe was born on March 31, 1928, in Floral, Saskatchewan. Howe was bigger and stronger than most kids his age, as he stood six-feet tall by the time he was 16. Working alongside his father in construction, Gordie Howe quit school in 1944 to pursue a career in hockey. It would not take long for the imposing teenager from Saskatoon to catch the eye of NHL scouts as he signed to play for the Detroit Red Wings’ junior team in Windsor. Two years later, Howe made his NHL debut with the Red Wings at the age of 18.
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Gordie Howe quickly became an NHL star, making his first All-Star team in 1948. He would play in a total of 23 All-Star Games. In 1951, Howe won his first scoring title. A year later, he won his first Hart Trophy, given to the NHL’s MVP. More importantly, he helped the Detroit Red Wings become the most successful NHL team based in the United States, as they won four Stanley Cups Championships in six years. When his career was over, Gordie Howe would claim five scoring titles and five Hart Trophies as he became the NHL’s top star of the 1950s. In 1956 Gordie Howe was the youngest player to achieve 300 career goals. He was known for his toughness as a Gordie Howe hat trick became a name for a player scoring a goal and an assist while getting into a fight in the same game.
With an expansion in 1967 to 12 teams, no player had a chance to get 100 points against every opponent the way Gordie Howe did during the original-six era, as the NHL was a small fraternity of six teams from 1942 through 1967.