Students at Gordie Howe's old Saskatoon school request minute of silence

Students atGordie Howe's old Saskatoon school asked their teachers to hold a minute of silence for the inspirational "Mr. Hockey" on Friday.

King George Community School principal Krista Sego said Howe, who died Friday at the age of88, was a huge source of pride for the school.

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"He would come to the school often, on his own, in the weekends, when nobody was around and sign his name in various places, kind of for the kids to just discover when they came back to school," said Sego.

"Years before I became principal, when he was in town students and staff were eager to get back to school and see where he had left his mark."

Howe played his first year in a community league while he was a student at King George.

In the 1930s, the Howe family struggled just to feed Gordie and his eight brothers and sisters. He got his hockey start with donated equipment in a free community hockey league.

Today, kids at Howe's old school play in a similar league now run by the Kinsmen Club. It pays for equipment, transportation, and icetime for 250 kids from 16 community schools. The league runs about 10 weeks.

Memorabilia donated by the famed hockey player, including a signed hockey stick, is on display at the school.

Students also wrote get well lettersto Howe when they first learned that he had become ill, about two years ago.

Sego said some of the school's students, who are at a camp at Christopher Lake, had requested a minute of silence when teachers broke the news about his death.

"We told them the news today and they were all very sad," she said.

"They asked to have a minute of silence in his honour, which we did, and there was another school there from Saskatoon and they stood with us and remembered Gordie Howe and the great legacy he's left."

The school is also flying its Canadian flag at half-mast, and students back at the school sang O Canada as a tribute.

She saidMr. Hockey's player Number 9, which he wore with the Detroit Red Wings, would be incorporated into planned new brick-work around the school sign.

"He inspired them, he didn't come from a home with a lot, he would just get out there in the cold on the rink outside and practise and work hard to be the best he could be and I think that alone inspired our students," said Sego.