Father J.J. Mech was filled with anxiety before officiating the funeral of Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe.
“I was extremely nervous,” Mech said Wednesday afternoon, standing outside Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. “With such a legend, how do you encapsulate this?”
How do you capture the spirit of a legend? The essence of hero? The legacy of the greatest hockey player ever in Hockeytown?
“It was an honor,” Mech said.
Howe died Friday morning at age 88, and an estimated 850 people packed the church for a funeral that brought together everybody from hockey royalty to everyday fans — one man wore a Howe jersey, while a woman carried a No.