DETROIT – Red Berenson grew up idolizing Gordie Howe.
As a fellow native of Saskatchewan, Canada, Berenson said Howe was the guy to pay attention to. Little did he know just how close he would get to "Mr. Hockey."
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Berenson first got to share a sheet of ice with Howe back in 1958.
"I first met him when the Red Wings came over and practiced at Michigan when I was a freshman," he said.
That's what the Red Wings did when Olympia Satdium was taken over by the Ice Capades. Berenson and his college teammates would get the chance to practice with the pros.
"Howe, Lindsay and Delvecchio were the big line at the time," he said.
Fast forward a few years and Berenson was playing in the pros himself. His NHL career started under legendary coach Toe Blake. He remembers his first game against Howe, who had a way of welcoming young guys to the league.
Toe Blake put me on left wing and he said, ‘I want you to watch No. 9 on that team … I think you can keep up with him.’ So anyway, I was doing a pretty good job of keeping up with Howe and then all of the sudden I saw stars. He nailed me when nobody was looking and the puck wasn’t even near us. I guess he thought I was getting too close to him and he nailed me with one of those famous elbows. I could see the guys on our bench laughing. They knew it was coming," said Berenson. "If anyone got too close to Howe, he created space."
He and Howe eventually became teammates on the Red Wings in the early 1970s.
"When I came to Detroit it was ’71, and I got to play with him. I roomed with him a little bit. That as the time when he had a serious wrist problem … but he was still one of our best players night after night," said Berenson.
Gordon "Red" Berenson is in his 32nd year as the University of Michigan's hockey coach. He said college hockey is something Howe admired.
"When I came here as a coach at Michigan, I was recruiting a player from western Canada and I was meeting him at the airport in Toronto, and who do we run into in the corridor? Gordie Howe. Gordie couldn’t say enough about Michigan because his son Murray went to Michigan. We had this great conversation … talking to this recruit about school and hockey. And even Gordie would say from time-to-time, ‘You know, I wish I had the chance to go to school like you guys do,'" said Berenson.
Howe visited Berenson's teams in Ann Arbor. He would talk to the young players about the old days and how it compares to hockey today.
When he was about 80, he came over to Ann Arbor. We asked him to come over and spend a day. He visited with our players, and he visited with everybody who walked in the rink that day.
He loved to sign autographs … he was just a joy to be around. He knew more about the game than you might think. Some players are just great players, but he understood the game as well as just being a great player," said Berenson.
That's how Berenson remembers Gordie Howe: A great player and a great guy. He was saddened by Friday's news of Howe's passing, but he said he hopes everyone takes this opportunity to reflect.
This is an opportunity for people to look back at a special player, a real special player. It’s an opportunity to sit back and enjoy, relish and remember the great things about Gordie Howe."