Ted Lindsay

After three years in Chicago, I decided to call it a career.

At 39, I was back in a Red Wings uniform and loving it.

They thought we were going to hurt the game, but we just wanted to help ourselves, because the players needed to get together to protect their interests.

I hated everybody I played against, and they hated me. That's the way hockey should be played.

Owners never paid my salary. I always recognized that it was the people in the seats who did. I always wanted to give my best.

My penalty for rocking the boat was being traded.

I love people and I love to be around people.

I had a chance to make a living at the thing I love, and I have always appreciated that, and I have always wanted to give something back.

But a funny thing happened four years later. I was invited to play for an alumni team against the Red Wings.

Through the years, I have so many wonderful memories of playing with the Red Wings: winning four Stanley Cups, scoring big goals, going into battle every night side by side with my teammates, playing with every ounce of effort I could muster.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd not change a thing - unless I could be a little meaner still.

What you had at the time was a dictatorship with the team owners.