WAYNE GRETZKY is one of my sport heroes. This review will be about before I knew him then after I met him. BEFORE, (from information I have read): ’Wayne began to play hockey with his Brothers in his back yard in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
Every winter his Father flooded the yard to make an ice skating rink and he was their coach. When Wayne was 10 years old he began to play hockey in a Junior League. He was so good he wanted to play hockey in the National Hockey League but he was too young to be considered. The World Hockey League, (1978), tried to compete with the NHL and they had not age limit. Wayne first went to play with the Indianapolis Racers and he was traded during his first year to the Edmonton Oilers.’ EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA: Wayne asked for his number to be ’99’ and the Edmonton Team gave it to him. Our seats were behind the home team bench and we had a ‘birds eye view’ of his antics off and on the ice. When the World Hockey League folded, Edmonton was allowed to have a NHL Team and Wayne and number ’99’, (who was now a legal age to play in the NHL), became part of the Edmonton Oilers. He met a local singer, (who now lives in Los Angles), Vikki Moss. They fell in love and moved into our Condo. Their apartment was just above ours and the room plans were exactly the same. I had a lot of fun telling everyone that I ’slept under Wayne every night’!
The first time I met Wayne was in an elevator in our building. He was with Vikki’s brother Joey. Joey is a mentally challenged man. Wayne got him a job as the Oilers water-boy and if you watch the Oilers home games you will see Joey in the home teams box. He played for nine years in Edmonton and during that time he made 43 goals and 61 assists in 72 regular-seasons games for Oilers and 10 goals and 10 assists in 13 playoff games. During his time in Edmonton the Oilers won 4 Stanley Cups, (in 5 years). He also was not with Vicki any longer because she wanted to move her career along and moved to L.A. He met the actress Janet Jones, (who appeared in ’A League Of Their Own ’that was about a real Woman’s Baseball League that half the Women who played in it were from Canada). Janet didn’t want to live in the same place that Vicki had lived so Wayne sold that Condo and bought one across the street. Their wedding was at the Catholic Cathedral a few blocks from our Condo. I must tell you a Royal Wedding couldn’t have been more wonderful. No, I wasn’t invited but my friend owned a flower shop that was hired to do the flower arrangements and I helped her set up the flowers. All of Edmonton watched the wedding on TV. While he was in Edmonton Wayne visited every children’s ward in every hospital in Edmonton. He had a free hockey school for children every summer. I remember the day he was traded to the Los Angles Kings. I was in my office at West Edmonton Mall on August 9, 1988 when someone ran in to tell me that Wayne had been traded. Edmonton went into morning after they saw Wayne cry on TV as he said good-bye to us. He stayed with the L.A. Kings for 7 1/2 seasons. During that time the Kings only went to the Stanley Cup finals once and did not win the cup. What he did during his time in California was make the United States people aware that hockey was a great sport to watch.
In 1996 L.A. traded Wayne to the St. Louis Blues. He wasn’t too happy there and he didn’t finish out one year there before he was traded to the New York Rangers. For the first time in his hockey career he was not the focus of the fans attention. Mark Messier, (who comes from the Edmonton area and played with the Oilers when Wayne did), was the Captain of the Rangers. He played for the Rangers for 3 years before he retired from hockey in 1999. On every team he played his number was ’99’ and it was retired when he left each team. In front of the Hockey Rink in Edmonton is a Wayne Gretzky Stature. In 2001 the street next to the Arena, (99th Street), name was change to Wayne Gretzky Way. HIS RECORD ARE IMPRESSIVE, (from the NHL statistics): During his hockey career Wayne set 61 NHL records. In 1999 the Hall of Fame opened a special exhibition called ’Wayne Gretzky - The Legend.’ He received the following awards: ’Hart Trophy (most valuable player, regular season), 9 times Art Ross Trophy (leader in points, regular season), 10 times Lady Byng Trophy (most sportsmanlike player), four times. Conn Smythe Trophy (most valuable player, Stanley Cup playoffs), twice. Lester B. Pearson Award (for the most outstanding player of the league), twice.’
FOLLOWING HIS RETIREMENT: Wayne played for Canada during the Nagano for the Winter Olympics in 1987. He bought the Phoenix Coyotes a new team in the NHL. He has a Cafe in Toronto and Roller Hockey Centers in many Cities. He was the manager of Canada’s Hockey Team at the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002. When the Canadian men won the gold medal Wayne stayed in the players box allowing his players to shine in the glory of winning this title. Wayne us about 40 years old and he and Janet have been married for over 13 years. They make their home in NYC where they live with their 2 sons, (Ty and Trevor), and their daughter Paulina. SOME THOUGHTS: Other Hockey may be great but Wayne will always be the ‘great one’ to me. ©LL