Long before LeBron and Griffey, Sr. played alongside their sons professionally, “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe and his two sons skated as teammates in the World Hockey Association and National Hockey League.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves opened their National Basketball Association season this past Tuesday, with a higher level of media attention than normal. “History in the Making” was the headline grabber. Over at the Crypto.com Arena on Figueroa Street, the Lakers’ crowd watched as NBA All-Time Leading Scorer LeBron James, 39, became official teammates with his 20-year-old son Bronny James. Lakers’ coach J.J. Redick put both players in the game during the second quarter. This was the first time a father-son duo appeared in an NBA game.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, while the visiting Timberwolves were going through warm-up drills at their end of the court, on the Lakers side, LeBron and Bronny were being photographed with another famous father-son duo in sports of decades ago—Ken Griffey, Sr. and his son, National Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, Jr.
On Aug. 31, 1990, during a home game at Seattle’s Kingdome with the Kansas City Royals, the home team Mariners were preparing to make Major League Baseball history. Seattle Mariners superstar-in-waiting Griffey Jr., 20, and his father, Griffey Sr., 40, played in the outfield together. Released in late August by the Cincinnati Reds, a team that he was an integral part of in back-to-back “Big Red Machine” World Series championships in the mid-1970s, less than one week later Griffey, Sr. was signed by Seattle.
During the remaining 1990 schedule, and into the Mariners first two months of the 1991 season, Griffey Sr. shared manager Jim Lefebvre’s lineup card with his son for 51 games.
But, before the Griffeys put on their spikes or the Jameses laced their sneakers, it was during the 1973–1974 Houston Aeros second season in the fledgling World Hockey Association (WHA) that sports history was made. Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe, the sport’s most celebrated all-around skater for 25 NHL seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, after sitting out in retirement for two years, at age 45, returned to the ice.
Marty Howe, 19, and his younger brother Mark Howe, 17, signed as Aeros teammates with their famous father.
“It was great. We never argued,” Marty Howe told The Epoch Times in a phone call from his suburban Hartford, Connecticut, home. “When me and my brother became teammates with him, we could no longer call him dad. If you wanted to talk with him, you had to call him Gordie. I think he felt weird having his sons playing on the same team and calling him dad.”
At an advanced age for athletes, and coming off a two-year layoff, most in hockey were skeptical of Mr. Hockey making the Aeros roster, let alone being a driving force on the ice. What the Aeros were hoping for was merely a semblance of Howe Sr.’s NHL past. The 801 NHL goals scored, six MVP awards, 21 all-star appearances, and four Stanley Cup championships, anything close to this level of excellence would be considered a success for the WHA.
“We were really fortunate to have Bill Dineen as our coach. He picked a really good group of guys. There wasn’t anyone on that team (1973–1974) that I wouldn’t go in a fox hole with,” said Marty Howe, a defenseman, who skated in 646 WHA and NHL matches.
The Howes’ presence with the Aeros made a positive and immediate impact for Houston and the WHA. The money spent on the father-sons trio by Aeros chairman of the Board Paul Deneau brought more than 6,800 fans per game into the Sam Houston Coliseum during the first season. Gordie, Marty, and Mark led their team to two consecutive WHA championships; capturing the Avco World Trophy.
Whereas Bronny James is expected to be shuttling between the Lakers and their developmental affiliate in the NBA’s G League (South Bay Lakers in El Segundo, California), Howe talks of only needing five exhibition games during his rookie campaign to feel like an equal with his teammates.
“It would have been harder for me if I had to put up points. For Mark, it took him a little longer to be at ease, Marty Howe said.
When at public speaking appearances, Gordie, just as in the locker rooms and in the rinks, directed his boys to address him as Gordie.
“I always had to explain that if my dad was giving a speech at a banquet, I wasn’t being impolite by addressing him as Gordie. The only time me and my brother were able to call him dad was when we were hurt or he was injured.”
Today, Marty Howe, 70, labels fishing and gardening as he favorite hobbies that keep him busy in retirement. Along with his brother Mark, they run the Howe Foundation. Monies generated through auctions are distributed for programs in the name of their mother, Colleen Howe, for kids in sports. This past January the Howe Foundation presented a $50,000 check to Ed Snider Youth Hockey and Education in Philadelphia.
During Bronny James’s rookie season, his base salary is reported to be more than $1,1 million. Marty Howe states that his initial salary as a professional with the Aeros was $100,000.
But of his eagerness to play professionally, Marty Howe said, “I would have signed for a sandwich. If they only knew.”
