By Jim Hagarty
A friend of mine was a longtime committed member of our local Rotary Club.
Once a year, the club hosted a “sportsman’s” dinner to honour local athletes. A noted national athlete and often more than one were brought in each year to address the lavish banquet. It often fell to my friend to drive to Toronto to pick up the star athlete at the airport. He met many interesting people this way.
One year, one of the stars he picked up was Gordie Howe. Like me, my friend had always idolized the hockey star, a man who many still believe was the greatest hockey player ever. But my friend had another friend who was probably even more of a Howe fan than either one of us. She worshipped the ice he skated on.
On their way back to Stratford from the airport, my friend asked Mr. Hockey if he would mind playing a prank on his friend, the woman who idolized him. Howe immediately agreed.
My friend drove to the woman’s house and he and Gordie Howe walked up to her front door. Kevin tried the doorknob; it was unlocked. So he and Howe walked in and stood in the entranceway. (I realize, as I write this now, how badly this could have gone.)
“Hey, would you like to meet Gordie Howe?” Kevin yelled to the seemingly empty house. “I have him right here.”
From upstairs, the woman yelled down with a bunch of derisive comments directed in fun at Kevin. He called back that Howe was, in fact, standing in her house at that moment.
Finally, to end the farce and get rid of Kevin, the woman came bounding down her steps only to find her hero standing at the bottom of them.
I forget the outcome of the encounter but the woman had just been given a family story for her grandkids and beyond.
