Hockey legend Gordie Howe as seen in this 2011 photoDARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Gordie Howe turns 86 years old on Monday and with that comes an announcement by Penguin Canada that his highly anticipated autobiography will be released later this year.
Penguin will publish Mr. Hockey on Oct. 14 under its Viking imprint, the second recent blockbuster hockey signing for the book publisher, which put out the bestselling memoir Orr: My Story, last year.
Mr. Hockey is being billed as the "definitive account" of the game's most incredible legacy, and is expected to cover the life of the Hall of Fame forward on and off the ice.
"I have been lucky", Gordie Howe said. "I got to do something I loved for more than my fair share of years. But no accomplishment is about just one person – no championship, no statistic, and certainly not a whole career. It's a pleasure to tell my story with this book, and especially to include the people who have meant so much to me along the way."
Gordie Howe, whose career spanned six decades, four Stanley Cups, 1,850 points (third in NHL history), and countless records that still stand more than 30 years after he retired.
"It's a pretty big deal for our family," Gordie's son Marty said over the weekend. "The timing was right. You find the older you get the more important it is to remember all the things that happened to you. The years start passing by pretty quick and you realize it is just time to tell the story the way it deserves to be told."
Will there be any big reveals about the tough player with a phenomenal scoring touch?
"You'll learn that when you read the book," Marty Howe said with a chuckle. "It's going to be a good one. We're going to do this right."