Howe, who vies with Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr for the title of hockey's greatest player, had long seemed invincible. He played his first NHL game for the Detroit Red Wings in 1946, at 18, and didn't retire for good until 1980, at 52, having scored more goals than anyone else. But over the past decade, fans had followed Howe's slow decline from a murderer's row of ailments - heart disease, dementia, spinal stenosis - and despite the family's best efforts to keep it private, his stroke made the front page of the Detroit News. Keith Olbermann aired a preemptive obituary on ESPN. The family made funeral plans. Murray, his youngest son, wrote a eulogy.
The Gordie Howe Protocol