Gordie Howe known as Mr. Hockey for many reasons

They don't call him Mr. Hockey for nothing.

Gordie Howe, born in the former village of Floral, Sask., on March 31, 1928, moved to Saskatoon when he was a kid. It wasn't long before Howe was spending more time on the ice than in school.

It also didn't take long for hockey scouts to recognize Howe's legendary hockey skills, including his ambidextrous shooting ability and hard-nosed presence on the ice.

Howe was still a teenager when he started playing professionally for the Detroit Red Wings.

Whether it was scoring 801 goals, or winning the Stanley Cup four times or the Hart Trophy six times, Howe has plenty of career highlights.

This photo from October 1950shows Howe, 22, in his fifth season with the Detroit Red Wings.

Gordie Howe, shown here scoring against fellow Saskatchewan native Johnny Bower of the New York Rangers in 1953, started his career with the Red Wings as a rookie in 1946 and played 25 seasons with the NHL club from the Motor City.

Howe, 27, is shown in the 1955 Stanley Cup final, sandwiched between Floyd (Busher) Curry, left, and Emile (Butch) Bouchard of the Montreal Canadiens.

This photo from March 1965 shows Howe, 36, unleashing a lethal slapshot against the New York Rangers.

In one of the most legendary sports photos ever captured, Howe hooks a young Wayne Gretzky in 1972. Howe and Gretzky eventually played together in the 1979 WHAall-star game.

On March, 12, 1972, only one year after he retired from the NHL, the Red Wings retired Howe's No. 9 to the rafters of the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

After retiring from the NHL, Howe signed withthe World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1973, in order to play with his sonsMarty,left,and Mark,right. Howe's signing with Houston helped stabilize the WHA.

Howe, 46, played on Team Canada for the 1974 Summit Series. Mr. Hockey is shown checking Valeri Kharlamov of the Soviet Union in Game 4.

In May 1975, Howe, 47, andMark and Marty Howe won the WHA's Avco Cup over the Quebec Nordiques as members of the Houston Aeros.

Howe, 50 at the time this photo was taken, delivers one of his well-known elbows to the head of Quebec Nordiques forward Curt Brakenbury in 1978. Photos like thishave led people to call scoring a goal, an assistand getting into a fight in one game a "Gordie Howe hattrick."

Howe, just three weeks shy of 52, and former Chicago Blackhawks great Bobby Hull, who signed with the Hartford Whalers chat prior to a game in March 1980. It was Howe's final season playing professional hockey.

Howe's record of 1,850 career points stood until Gretzky surpassed it in 1989. Gretzky is shown here shaking hands with Howe,right,while Gretzky's wife Janet and his father Walter look on.

At age 69, Howe joined the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League, playing one shift, making himthe only hockey player to have played six decades in professional sports.