Born in 1928 in Floral, Sask., Howe was the sixth of nine children. In his recent autobiography, Mr. Hockey, Howe says his mother was chopping wood when she went into labor with him.
“With only a couple of kids around for company, she put some buckets of water on the stove and got into bed,” Howe wrote. “After I was born, she cut the umbilical cord herself and waited for my father to come home.”