focus paragraph

Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky learned how to skate in a back yard rink. Wayne was born on January 26, 1961, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, of Russian and Polish descent. Wayne has an alternative name/nickname, "The Great One". In the 1983 NHL All-Star game, Wayne scored 4 goals in the third period, set three records, tied one, and won a car. On his first shift in a game in L.A., he’d been checked cleanly, fallen against the boards and felt something give in his right shoulder. A bruise, he thought. As the days went by, it got worse, they thought it might be a sprain. 2 days after the All-Star game, they X-rayed it. The shoulder wasn’t bruised and it wasn’t sprained. It was separated. They called it “Class 1”. He played with a separated shoulder. In 4 NHL years, he’d set 24 league records and shared 10 others.

Wayne’s Granddad died in 1973. There was a special kind of closeness between Wayne and his grandparents. After he died, Wayne was even closer to his grandma, Mary. When Wayne was 5 years old he told her that some day he was going to have a car. From that day on she started putting a little of her pension money aside. In fact, she buried it and by the time Wayne was 16, she was ready. "I'm going to buy you a car," she told him. "I've got the money buried." Wayne thanked her but couldn't let her do that. A year later when Wayne turned pro, he bought a car of his own, a new Pontiac Trans-Am that he got in Indianapolis.

If you cross-check Wayne or knock him down, he just gives you that funny smile, then goes and tries to score the goal that will beat you. Wayne needed a police escort to get in and out of rinks. In his first year, he had that one goal. In his second, he scored 27, in his third, 104 plus 63 assists in 62 games. In their second tournament, Brantford beat Beaconsfield, Que., 9 to 1. He finished with 2 goals and 3 assists. Hockey has taken Wayne all over the world. He’s been to the Soviet Union, he played in Europe, and he’s hopped back and forth across North America. The longest, toughest trip he ever took was 60 miles, from Brantford to Toronto. Bill and his wife, Rita, offered to take Wayne into their home. He could live there, go to school, be in a good family situation, mix with new kids, even get a trip to Europe with the Nats for a couple of exhibition games.

Wayne has received so much recognition in his career, and most of the publicity was centred on him. Wayne stayed with the Nationals, playing 3 age groups above him. Although he hadn't started until the season was almost 6-7 years old, he scored 27 goals and got 33 assists for 60 points and was named the league's rookie-of-the-year. In pre-season Wayne had 31 points (9 goals and 22 assists) including 6 in his first game as a junior "A". He was 16 playing against 18 and 19 year olds. It ended up with Smith on top with 69 goals and 123 assists for 192 points, Wayne second at 70-112-182, and Ciccarelli third at 72-70-142. Pocklington phoned Gus and told him he wanted to sign Wayne to a 21 year contract- 9 years plus 26 year option, at $180,000 per year for nine years, plus a $100,000 bonus. That would make him an Oiler until 1999. Peter called back and offered the same deal, only at $280,000 for each of the first 9 years, plus the $100,000 bonus. Wayne's birthday was on Friday and now he is legal and was 18 so now he can go into pubs with the boys and could afford to buy a round that is if he remembered to bring any money. The Oilers put season tickets on sale and sold all 15,242 in 11 days. Edmonton set NHL records for most goals (417), most assists (706) and most points (1,123). In 1981-82, Wayne had broken his own NHL records for assists (120) and points (212). We're through the 1983-84 season and Wayne's a veteran pro at 23. Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 22, 1999, becoming the tenth player to bypass the three-

year waiting period.

Gretzky met American actress Janet Jones in 1984 when he was a judge on Dance Fever and she was a dancer. In 1987 they began dating after running into each other. Janet was four months pregnant when they got married on July 17, 1988. Now they have 4 other children: Ty Robert (b. July 9, 1990), Trevor Douglas (b. September 14, 1992), Tristan Wayne (b. August 2, 2000), and Emma Marie (b. March 28, 2003). Wayne has won many awards. There were rumours about Wayne becoming the Alternate Governor and Managing Partner of the Phoenix Coyotes NHL team then on August 8 2005 Gretzky agreed to become the new coach of the Coyotes.

quotes

• "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is."
• "The only way a kid is going to practice is if it's total fun for him... and it was for me."
• "You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
• "The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it."

Post-retirement

• Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 22, 1999, becoming the tenth player to bypass the three-year waiting period. The NHL then stated that he would be the last player to do so. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2000. In addition Gretzky's #99 was retired league-wide at the 2000 NHL All-Star Game.
• Later that year, he became Alternate Governor and Managing Partner of the Phoenix Coyotes NHL team. Rumours began regarding Gretzky becoming the head coach of the team, but were nixed by Gretzky and the rest of the Coyotes' ownership.
• on August 8 2005 Gretzky agreed to become the new coach of the Coyotes.
• Gretzky made his coaching debut on October 5, 2005, the opening night of the 2005-06 NHL season, losing 3-2 to the Vancouver Canucks. His first coaching victory was October 8, 2005, beating the Minnesota Wild 2-1.
• Gretzky took an indefinite leave of absence as coach on December 17, 2005 to care for his ill mother in Brantford, Ontario. His mother lost her battle to lung cancer two days later, passing away on December 19, 2005. Assistant coach Rick Tocchet assumed the position until Gretzky's return on December 28. Coyotes' CEO Jeff Shumway announced on June 5, 2006 that Gretzky has agreed to a new five-year contract to remain as head coach.

Off the ice

• Gretzky met American actress Janet Jones in 1984 when he was a judge on Dance Fever and she was a dancer on the show. They began dating after running into each other at a Los Angeles Lakers game in 1987.
• Janet was four months pregnant with Paulina when they married on July 17, 1988.
• "The Royal Wedding" was broadcast live throughout Canada from Edmonton's St. Joseph's Basilica, although neither Gretzky nor Jones is Roman Catholic. Members of the Fire Department acted as guards at the church steps. The lavish event reportedly cost Gretzky over US$1 million.
• They have 4 other children: Ty Robert (b. July 9, 1990), Trevor Douglas (b. September 14, 1992), Tristan Wayne (b. August 2 2000), and Emma Marie (b. March 28, 2003). Gretzky also obtained American citizenship after the marriage and currently resides in the United States. His son Ty lived with Wayne in Arizona during the 2005-06 NHL season while the other children lived with Janet in the family's Thousand Oaks Georgian home.

transactions

• June 12, 1978 - Signed as a free agent with the Indianapolis Racers
• November 2, 1978 - Traded by the Indianapolis Racers, along with Eddie Mio and Peter Driscoll, to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for $700,000 and future considerations.
• August 9, 1988 - Traded by the Edmonton Oilers, along with Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley. to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, Los Angeles' 1989, 1991 and 1993 1st round draft choices and cash.
• February 27, 1996 - Traded by the Los Angeles Kings to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Roman Vopat, Craig Johnson, Patrice Tardif, St. Louis' 1996 5th round draft choice and St. Louis' 1997 1st round draft choice.
• July 21, 1996 - Signed as a free agent with the New York Rangers.

some more awards

-Lou Kaplan Trophy (WHA rookie of the year) — 1979
-Hart Memorial Trophy (most valuable player) — 1980–87, 1989
-Art Ross Trophy (scoring champion) — 1981–87, 1990, 1991, 1994
-Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff most valuable player) — 1985, 1988
-Lester B. Pearson Award (outstanding player, voted by the players) — 1982–85, 1987
-Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (sportsmanship) — 1980, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999
-NHL Plus/Minus Award (best plus-minus rating) — 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987
-Chrysler-Dodge/NHL Performer of the Year – 1985–87
-Lester Patrick Trophy (outstanding service to hockey in the United States) — 1994
-Lou Marsh Trophy (Canadian athlete of the year) — 1982, 1983, 1985, 1989
-NHL All-Star Game MVP — 1983, 1989, 1999
-NHL First All-Star Team — 1981–87, 1991
-NHL Second All-Star Team — 1980, 1988–90, 1994, 1997, 1998
-In 1998, he was ranked number 1 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey -Players
-Officer of the Order of Canada
-First international recipient of the Horatio Alger Award
-Received star on Canada's Walk of Fame

more info

• Was born on January 26, 1961, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, of Russian and Polish descent.
• His father, Walter, had hoped himself to become a hockey player but was discouraged because of his size.
• Wayne displayed an early interest in skating and recieved his first pair of skates when he was 3 years old. He learned how to skate on the Ninth River near his grandfather's farm in Canning, Ontario, and at public rinks on weekends. But it was the rink built for him by his father behind the little house on Varadi Avenue in Brantford that recieve the acclaim of being the birthplace of his skating skills.
• He was only 6 years old when he saw his first year in organized hockey, scoring one goal, the lowest yearly total of his career. As a 9 year old in 1970-71 he scored 196 goals in 76 games, with 120 assists. The next year he scored 278 goals in 82 games.
• In 1972-73 he scored 105 goals in the major pee wee league, and in 1974-75 he scored 90 goals in the major bantam league.
• During his career Gretzky, a left-handed shooting center, developed a style that was as distinctive as it was exciting to watch. Listed in the program as 6 feet and 170 pounds, he always stayed away from fights, preferring to drift and glide around the ice.
• In becoming the leading scorer in NHL history, he set a new record for assists (more than 1,300) in just 12 seasons. In 1989, he passed his idol Gordie Howe's all-time point record of 1,850. Howe supported Gretzky, according to Maclean's and called Gretzky "a great kid," and "great for hockey."
• He was centre and captain for the Edmonton Oilers (1979-88), he lead the team to 4 Stanley Cup Victories, becoming the first player to average more then 2 points a game.
• He was traded successively to the Los Angeles Kings (1988), the St. Louis Blues (1996), and the New York Rangers (1996). When he ended his career in 1999, he held 61 National Hockey League (NHL) records. He holds the all-time NHL records for goals (894), assists (1,963), and points (2,857), as well as corresponding seasonal records (92 goals, 163 assists, 215 points). He is the only player to have led the league in scoring for seven consecutive years (1980 – 87) and the only one named most valuable player for eight consecutive seasons (1979 – 87).
• Wayne has a altenative name or a nickname and it is "The Great One".
• His 47 playoff points in 1985 and 31 assists in 1988 are still records for a single post-season round, and he holds the record for career playoff goals (122), assists (260), points (382), hat tricks (10), and game winning goals (24).
• Gretzky set impressive records in both regular season and post-season play, holding the record for most career regular season goals (894), assists (1,963), points (2,857), and hat tricks (50).
• The regular season records include most goals in a season (92), most assists in a season (163), and most points in a season (215). He also holds the record for the fastest 50 goals, accomplishing that feat in only 39 games and the record for most goals in a 50 game period (61, which he accomplished twice). In 1983-84, he had a 51-game point-scoring streak that has been compared to "Joltin' Joe" DiMaggio's streak in baseball, during which he scored 61 goals and received credit for 92 assists (153 points).

more Wayne Gretzky's NHL Records

• Most points, one playoff year (38) 1982-83.
• Most assists, one playoff year (26) 1982-83.

*-Most shorthanded goals, one playoff year (3) 1982-83 (with three others).

*-Most shorthanded goals, one game (2): Edmonton, April 6, 1983 in 6-3 win over Winnepeg (with 2 others).

• Most Points, one game (7): Calgary, April 17, 1983, 4 goals and 3 assists in 10-2 win.

*- Most goals, one period (3) (with 16 others).

*- Most assists, one period (3) (with 29 others).

*- Fastest goal from start of period other than first (9 sec.): Edmonton, April 6, 1983 in 6-3 win over Winnepeg (with 6 others).

All-Star Game

• Most goals, one game (4) 1983.

*- Most points, one game (4) 1983 (with 4 others).

• Most goals, one period (4) 1983.
• Most points, one period (4) 1983.

Wayne Gretzky's NHL Records

Career

• Highest Goals-per-game average: .905.


• Highest assists-per-game average: 1.41.


• Highest points-per-game average: 2.325.

Single Season

• Most goals (92) 1981-82.


• Most assists (120) 1981-82.


• Most points (212) 1981-82.


• Most assists, one playoff year (26) 1982-83.


• Most points, one playoff year (38) 1982-83.


• Most three-or-more goals games (10) 1981-82: One 5-goal game, three four-goal games, six three-goal games. 1983-84: Four four-goal games, six three-goal games.


• Most short-handed goals (12) 1983-84.


• Most goals including playoffs (97) 1981-82 (92 league, 5 playoff).


• Most assists including playoffs (151) 1982-83 (125 league, 26 playoff).


• Most points including playoffs (234) 1982-83 (196 league, 38 playoff).


• Most goals by centre (92) 1981-82.


• Most assists by centre (125) 1981-82.


• Mosts points by centre (212) 1981-82.


• Most goals in first 50 games of season (60) 1981-82.


• Most consecutive games, one or more assists (17) 1983-84.


• Most consecutive games, one or more points (51) 1983-84.


• Most assists, one game, in first NHL season (7): Edmonton, Feb. 15,1980, in 8-2 win over Washington.

*-Most assist, one game (7) (with Billy Taylot, 1946-47 Detroit Red Wings).

*-Most goals, one period (4) (with 6 others).

*-Most assists, one period (4) (with 19 others).

Awards

• First All-Star team: 1981-82-83-84.
• Second All-Star team: 1980.
• Hart Memorial Trophy (NHL most-valuable player to his team): 1980-81-82-83-84.
• Art Ross Trophy (Leading scorer, regular season): 1981-82-83-84. (Tied Marcel Dionne for scoring title in 1980. Dionne awarded trophy on basis of most goals scored.)
• Lady Byng Trophy (Sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability): 1980.
• Lester B. Pearson Award (NHL's most-valuable player as voted by players): 1982,1983,1984.
• Emery Edge Trophy (Player who appears in minimum 60 games and leads NHL in plus-minus statistics, in which player gets a plus when on ice for an even-strength or shorthanded goal by his team, and a minus when on ice for even-strength or shorthanded goal by opposing team): 1984, plus 76.
• Officer of the Order of Canada, 1984.
• Sports Illusctrated Sportman of the Year, 1982.
• ABC's Wide World of Sports Athelte of the Year, 1982.
• Associated Press Athlete of the Year, 1982.
• Chicago Tribune Athlete of the Year, 1982.
• Sporting News Man of the Year, 1981.
• Sporting News Player of the Year, 1980-81-82-83-84.
• Hockey News Player of the Year, 1979-80, 1980-81 (with Mike Luit), 1981-82, 1982-83, 1983-84.
• Victor Award (excellence in your sport in North America) 1980-81-82-83.
• American Academy of Achievement Award (honouring world-wide excellence in your chosen field) 1982.
• Canadian male athlete of the ear, 1980-81-82-83.
• Charlie Conacher Award (humanitarianism and community service), 1981.
• Seagram Seven Crowns of Sport Award (dominance in your chosen sport), 1981-82-83-84.
• Vanier Award (awarded annually to 5 outstanding young Canadians by Canadian Junior Chamber of Commerce), 1982.
• Dunlop Award (North American professional athlete of the year), 1983.

post 20

• Wayne's dad told you about the rest of the family. Now i'd like to tell you about my dad. I've heard all the stories about how he pushed me into hockey and kept me out in the back yard practicing because he wanted me to be a star in the NHL. But my Dad never put pressure on me; I put pressure on me. All he ever said was, "I don't care what the outcome is. It's good to win and I want you to do your best, but as long as you prepare and do the job to the best of your ability that's all anyone can ask for." If he knew that I hadn't prepared or wasn't ready, then he would question me.
• We lose the game, the season's over, and now it's May and I'm at the farm with Dad. It's hot and Grandma's watering the garden. My Dad looks at me, looks at her, looks back at me and says: "See! She's 79 and she's still working, and you're in the playoffs and you're not even practicing!"
• He is a man who works at the phone company, but now he reads every contract I have from top to bottom - hockey, endorsements, everything. I guess the bottom line is that he's looking out for me. He's looking out for Wayne Gretzky and Wayne Gretzky only.
• When i was 9 or 10, Dad and I would play catch in the back yard maybe 20 minutes every night. One day I decided what we really needed was a pitcher's mound. Down at the end of our street there was a vacant lot covered with rocks and stuff, so I went down there with the wheelbarrow and a shovel and loaded up. I was wheeling it up the driveway when Mom came out the door. "Where do you think you're going with that junk?" she said. "Back yard," I said. "Build a pitcher's mound." "Oh no, you're not," she said. Well, i knew that my Mom Meant business. But i also knew my Dad. I just left the wheelbarrow in the driveway and waited for him to come home from work. "Where are you going with that?" he asked. "Back yard," I said. "Build a Pitcher's mound." "Sounds good," he said. He went to the basement, nailed a couple of boards together for a slab and helped me build the mound. It was there for 11 years. He loves the back yard.
• In 1979, I told a reported for the Toronto Sun that my Dad and I would be on the rink for hours a day. And I was quoted, accurately, this way: "Honest to God, It was cold I'd Come in the house crying." Now I can just see a bunch of kids coming in crying and hearing their Dads say: "Get back out there! Wayne Gretzky froze. He's sitting in a penthouse in Edmonton. Where the heck are you?"
• I did a lot of other things, and that's important. I playe other sports, I swam - for a couple of years I crocheted. Got pretty good at it, too. I read somewhere that Jacques Plante, the famous goaltender, crocheted as a hobby, so I tried it. Made my Mom a purse, did a rug. I still try to do a lot of other things. I didn't sing on The Paul Anka Show because I plan to be a singer, or appear on The Young and the Restless because I want to be an actor. There were new things to try. Hockey can't be everything. I'll keep trying things that look interesting or challenging, looking ahead to the day when hockey will be over and I'll need something else.

post 19

• Everything happened so quickly. We're through the 1983-84 season now and Wayne's a veteran pro at 23 - but only 6 years ago he was a 17 year old kid getting by on his $24.01 a week playing junior hockey.
• Since then, he's met the President of the United States. He's been to Hollywood, become a celebrity and put hockey numbers on the board people thought were impossible. The family has ridden private jets and gone to Moscow as guests of the Soviet government.
• The Pittsburgh Penguins used to train in Brantford. The year Wayne scored the 378 goals, I was sitting in the rink watching them work out and Wayne asked me if I could get him into their dressing room.
• Morris is a family memeber you havent met yet - Morris Gretzky, a cat who thinks he's a dog. Morris is Brent's cat. Brent can do anything with him. Sometimes he throws him around his neck and wanders around the house wearing him like a fur.
• We argue about trying up the phone and i beef about the phone bill. That runs anywhere from $400 to $800 a month because there are so many things going on, and all 3 kids who are waway phone home a lot.
• Hockey is 5 things: puck-hanling, thinking, skating, checking and desire. If you've got those 5 things you can be a hockey player and at a young age I'd put those first 3 skills in about that order.
• The problem is that some coaches get so invovled in teaching kids the advanced hockey, they forget to show them the basics that will allow them to perform all the tricky things they're trying to teack.
• Sticks were $7 each and there I was cutting and chopping them. But it was the only thing that made any sense.
• watch Wayne when he turns. Most players lean over. Wayne does, too, to an extent, but when he turns quickly, watch his ankles. He flops his ankle over. 2 or 3 years ago he was having trouble when he turned. He'd make the sharp cut and just fall down. I knew what what it was. He'd start the turn, the ankle would go over, the leather would touch the ice and down he'd go.
• I can still remember the day Wayne first went out for baseball. At the time you didnt just register nd play, you had to make the team in your area. I'd told Wayne I'd get him to tryouts as soon as they started, but he missed the first couple because we didn't know they were on.
• I've seen junior hockey coaches who carry 24 kids on the roster and sit 5 out every game.
• I once saw a coach split a team of 14 year olds into 2 groups, one along the blue line. First, he told them to put down their sticks. Then he explained what he wanted them to do. They were to skate full speed at each other, with each boy ramming into the one opposite him. No slowing down. The man wanted full-out collisions.

post 18

• I came home after makin persentations at an afternoon basketball tournament at St. John's College and found a big, dark blue Cadillac in our driveway with a ribbon aroung it. The license plate looked familiar, which figured - the last time I'd seen them that morning they'd been on my station wagon. There were 2 strange people sitting in the living room. "dont look at me," Phyllis said. "I had nothing to do with it." The kids had scattered, heading for cover. It was April 23, 1983, our 23 wedding anniversary.
• Phyllis tried to get back the Station Wagon but the dealership sold it and how was i going to get to work? I couldn't drive that thing. Walter Gretzky, driving to the Bell in a Cadillac? What would the other guys say.
• The Blue Goose was a '65 Chevy, and there probably wouldn't have been to many White Tornado stories without it.
• I remembered that Phyllis sold the Goose when I wasn't looking. I came home one day and it was gone. It was the Cadillac story all over again, only this time there was no other car. "Phyllis, where's the Goose?" I demanded. "Here is your $25," she said. "I called the wreckers. They towed it away." Boy, I was mad. The Goose was only ten years old. Couldn't have had more than 180,000 miles on her. I could of squeezed out at least another 40,000. Woman didn't know a great car when she saw one. The 2 station wagons that followed the Goose were special, too.
• I had enough money to pay for the first part of the first one. The other $3,000 I borrowed from Dad. He was pretty sick at the time. When I tried to discuss how I'd pay it back, he just looked at me and said, "Don't worry about it." He knwq rhwew wasn't much time left. The second one - the one Wayne wound up trading in on the Cadillac - just showed up. Wayne was home. and he'd taken Kim out to buy her a car for her seventeenth birthday. they were gone for hours. When they finally got home, Wayne handed me a set of keys. I went out the front door and just about fainted. there wasn't just one new car in the driveway, there was 2. Kim's firebird and a station wagon.

post 17

• Last Christmas Eve, he was about to board a plane from Edmonton, after he and Glen had been visiting Wayne. When he said he wanted to sleep on the plane so he'd be in shape for Christmas, Wayne suggested he take a Gravol. Brent was horrified.
• We landed at Sheremetyeve International Airport on June 28, 1982, and before we left for home on July 5, we had packed in enoguh sightseeing and memories to indeed last a lifetime.
• Once, though, after a particularly late night, we had a craving for some down-home Cnanadian food and wound up at an Embassy staff member's house, munching peanut butter and jam sandwiches! Home is a lot of little things. We played tourist, of course, did Red Square, saw the incredible Moscow Circus, and watched one of the most inpressive sights ever: the changing of the guard at Lenin's Tomb. One night he couldn't sleep, so he wandered down to the lobbyh at about 1:30 a.m., found Charlie (who never sleeps), and they walked until 8 a.m. Every time they passed through the square on the hour, the'd stop and watch the guard change.
• He first played the Soviet Union in the Junior World Cup competition in 1977 at the Forum in Montreal. He was 16, and he almost didn't make it. Then he went out and won the tournament scoring championship with 8 goals and 9 assists in 6 games.
• Team Canada lost 3-2 in the big game against the Soviet Union after being up 2-0. The Soviets went on to beat Sweden 5-2 for the title.
• The next time Wayne faced the Soviets it was as a member of the WHA All-Star team, playing on that line with Gordie and Mark Howe against touring Moscow Dynamo.
• The WHA swept the series, 4-2, 4-2 and 4-3.

post 16

• There was the day Kim got into the cupboard when she was very small and tasted the oven cleaner. It peeled the top layer off her tongue, and Phyllis hadn't been there in a hurry, rinsed her mouth and gotten treatment for her, heaven knows how badly she'd have been hurt.
• There was the morning, where 5 year old Wayne ran into the house, bolted under his bed and quivered there, while Phyllis answered the door to an angry man who explained that the boy who'd just ran into the house had thrown a rock at his car.
• Wayne sets records and the phone rings and people want interviews.
• Kids need to be accepted for themselves, and when you've got a famouse brother, sometimes it's hard to be sure in your own mind whether people want to be friends because you're you or because your brother is Wayne Gretzky.
• Glen may turn out to be the sharpest of them all, in more ways then one. When Wayne's home, Glen will follow him around the house watching him dress, seeing how he combs his hair, how he puts his shoes on, everything.
• The entire family hasn't been together for Christmas since 1977, the last one before Wayne turned pro. That bothers Wayne. Last Christmas, he flew Glen and Brent to Edmonton to spend a few days with him and shipped them home Christmas Eve.
• Wayne's sister Kim said "It used to bother me, being known as Wayne's sister. Not that I was left out, because I never was. My parents gave me whatever I wanted within reason. It was just that everything was built around hockey and I didn't play hockey. I guess that's why it hurt so much when i had to give up track, because it was something I was doing for myself, by myself."

post 15

• He lied. He told them the 4 were there to do a special story about Wayne - for the Oilers. They bought it, SI got its cover picture, and Wayne got his award. Estimated cost of that one cover picture: $80,000. The episode had an interesting sidelight. The Wayne Gretzky on the cover of the magazine didn't look quite like the Wayne Gretzky who received the Grcian Urn trophy between periods of a game in Edmonton, on December 22.
• For Wayne, that's becoming a problem. For instance, how do you think he felt on November 2, 1983, when an RCMP officer knocked on his door and asked him what he knew about his investment in a pirate ship? We'd heard something about it 2 weeks earlier - a call to CorpSport from a man in Pennsylvania who'd heard Wayne was in on some investment in Europe. About 2 hours after that, I got a call from Gus Badali. Did I know anything about an investment Wayne had made in some ship? Something about a 40 per cent investment in some kind of pirate ship in Europe. The FBI was involved and about $600,000 had been put into it by other investors and now the money had disappeared and they're trying to get it back; then they'd heard from a gut in Trenton, N.J. that the investment had been made on Wayne's behalf by his father, Walter Gretzky, and the FBI will be in touch with the RCMP. Then they were talking about it and Wayne said he was under age and if he had signed anything, it wouldn' have mattered. It was a pirate ship, all right. But not a movie pirate ship. Not a Errol Flynn kind of pirate ship, roving the seas and knocking off merchant ships. A genuine pirate ship positioned off the coast of Europe.
• A lawyer from somewhere in the U.S. wrote to Wayne a nice letter congratulating him on being one of the new investors in the sip, pointing out that he (the lawyer) had been working on the project since 1981 - and enclosing a bill for services rendered, requesting immediate payment. The bill was for $113,575.
• The Wayne Gretzky Celebrity tennis Tournament actually was born at 4 a.m. late in the 1980-81 hockey season during one of those late-night bull sessions between Wayne and Charlie Henry.
• Brantford, Ont., population 74,800.
• If Wayne Gretzky was holding a tennis tournament then it wasn't guiet or little. It was an Event. It was a Place to Be.
• The tournament is big now, the costs incredible. Air fares run about $14,000, accommodations $5,000, ceivic centre and banquet hall rental $12,000 - the list goes on and on. We make money every year. For the 2 years it went into research for the blind. Funds from the 1983 event were used to purchase machines to play the "talking books" to the bling - 275 units at a total cost of $45,000, distrubited across Canada, all with money raised through the tournament.

post 14

• 20 hours after signing his latest contract with Peter Pocklington - the one the media reported could be worth as much as $20 million - and 16 hours after scoring a hat trick to make it 60 in 49 games, Wayne is standing alone on a stage in the CBC TV studio in Vancouver, staring up at cue cards and trying to sing a parody of the The Devil Came Down to Georgia. It was not going well.
• From the time Wyne really became a celebrity, people have worried about him, worried that he might burn out, that he puts too much on himself, that he feels obligated to accept too many commitments.
• There came a moment in the summer of 1981 when Wayne realized that there was something more important and far more precious, something called free time.
• A guy phones from Vancouver and says he'll give me $10,000 and 2 first class tickets from Brantford to speak at a Saturday night banquet.

post 13

• As 99 became as sybibymous with Wayne as as the black mask is to the Lone Ranger, People started slapping 99 on items coloured in shades of orange and blue that looked suspiciously like the colours of the Edmonton Oilers.
• One of the things Wayne has always tried to do with his outside activities is to get the family invovled wherever possible. Keith did 2 national commercials with him for 7-up. All 3 boys appeared with him in advertisements for Jofa, the hockey equipment manufacturer.
• Nike had signed a 5 year deal with Wayne to endorse its footwear, which is quite a thing when you consider that Nike doesn't manufacture skates or any other piece of hockey equipement. The company had also made a deal with the Oilers in whcih the company would provide the team with their uniform sweaters, and the sweaters would carry the Nike logo.
• The Neilson chocolate people put out a series of 50 Wayne Gretzky player cards, each with a different photo of Wayne on the front and some information or a hockey tip on the back, inside their Mr. Big chocolate bar packages. In New York, in 1983, collectors were offering $900 for a complete set! Wait till they find out there's going to be 49 more to make it 99.
• Every 3 months some people at the University of Alberta run a random sample of 2000 letters, breaking them into age group, sex and point of origin.
• Then there are the people who think they've got troubles.
• A year or so ago a magazine article on the family made mention of the fact that the fan mail had grown so heavy that Wayne's girlfriend, Vickie, and her mother, Sophie<>
• Wayne does contribute to many charities - more than anyone hears about, including us.
• Somewhere on the road Wayne has donated an appearance fee or something personal that can be used to generate money for a worthwhile cause.

post 12

• If you look in the NHL guide today, you'll see that Peter Stastny of the Quebec Nordiques holds the records for mosts assists (70) and most points (109) by a rookie in a single season, set in 1980-81.
• It was December 30, 1981. Wayne was sitting in the Oiler dressing room getting ready to play the Philadelphia Flyers in Edmonton. He was 5 goals short of Maurice Richard's record of 50 in 50 games, the one scoring record set in 1944-45 that had survived expansion and the changing style of hockey, until Mike Bossy of the Islanders had tied it the year before.
• The Flyers had been down 4-1 and had climbed to within one at 6-5. Now there was 1:14 left and they pulled goalie Pete Peeters. The net was empty. The puck came to Wayne at centre. He wheeled, fired - and shot wide. The Oilers were called for icing. Then, with 7 seconds left, Glenn Anderson grabbed a rebound and he and Wayne had a 2-on-1 break on Bill Barber.
• Wayne's third season as a pro and second in the NHL (1980-1981) had been a triumph. He'd scored 55 goals, set NHL records for most assists (109) and points (164) in a season, while winning his second Art Ross and Hart Trophies and making the first All-Star team at centre.
• They'd followed the upset of the Canadiens by losing the quarter-finals 4-2 to the New York Islanders, but they were obviously a team to watch.
• Wayne remembers the 1981-1982 season as starting off innocently enough.
• After 34 games he had 35 goals, so obviously he had a chance at 50 in 50 - but Bossy had done that the year before.
• We could see it that night when he slipped home to spend that night with the family. The next night, with Maple Leaf Gardens jammed and scalpers outside getting $3OO for a pair of seats, the Oilers got thumped 7-1. Wayne got a goal, but he missed an open net and Bunny Larocque stopped hime on a penalty shot.
• Edmonton set NHL records for most goals (417), most assists (706) and most points (1,123).
• IN 1981-82, Wayne had broken his own NHL records for assists (120) and points (212).

post 11

• The Oilers were in the National Hockey League. For only $6 million apiece, plus agreement to share equally the $6.35 million "closedown costs" of folding the Cincinnati Stingers and the Birmingham Bulls, plus agreement to give back all former NHL players signed by WHA teams and pay $125,000 for every player they bought back in an "expansion draft," the Oilers, the Winnipeg Jets, the Quebec Nordiques and the New England Whalers were grudgingly granted membership in the lodge.
• The Oilers put season tickets on sale and sold all 15,242 in 11 days.
• Wayne got his first NHL point opening night, and assist on a goal by Kevin Lowe at 9:49 of the first period in a 4-2 loss to Chicago. His first goal came four nights later with 69 seconds to play to give the Oilers a 4-4 tie with the Vancouver Canucks.
• Wayne had remembered his mother's bet - a 40 ounce bottle of rye that he'd score at least 42 goals on the season.
• At the half-way point of the season, he was sitting fifth place in the scoring race with 22 goals, 35 assists and 57 points, 26 behind Marcel Dionne of the Los Angeles Kings - and the Oilers were dead last in the standings.
• The team was struggling, but Wayne was pecking away. After 52 games he had reached third - a distant third, but still third - with 84 points, trailing Dionne by 15 and Guy Lafleur by 10. The three of them were to fight it out the rest of the way.
• On October 25, he played 2 periods in a game in Atlanta. 2 days later he managed only one period at home against Washington.
• On March 21, Wayne scored 3 third-period goals in a 9-2 win over Pittsburgh to reach 121 points. Now he was in second place, only 5 back and was 3 games left for each team, tied Dionne for the lead at 133 points after 2 goals and 4 assists in an 8-5 win at Maple Leaf Gardens.
• On Wednesday, Wayne scored his 50th goal of the season in a 1 - 1 tie with Minnesota. On Thursday, Butler shut out Dionne as the Canucks beat the Kings 5-2. On Friday, Wayne took a 2 point lead with a goal and 2 assists in a 6-2 win over Colorado in the Oilers' final league game.
• Dionne, great player that he is, came through. The Kings lost, but Marcel shook Butler enough to collect 2 assists in a 5-3 loss to the Canucks. So now Wayne and Marcel had finished in a tie for the scoring title with 137 points. They'd share the Art Ross Trophy, right? Wrong. The Trophy, the title and the $1,000 went to Dionne because he'd scored 53 goals, 2 more than Wayne.

post 10

• Garry Stockdale, the Polonaise manager, gave them one scoop. "I asked wayne for his registration fees," he said. "I told him you have to pay to play minor baseball. "See my Dad,' he said. I tell you, money hasn't changed the kid a bit." He pitched 5 games in a midget tournament in Oshawa, won the first 4 and lost 3-2 in the final.
• For his first 5 days in Edmonton, Wayne moved in with Glen Sather's family ("I've never seen a kid who eats like that one," Sather told reporters. "He eats more at meals than my whole family, and he's always up for snacks.") Then he moved in with Ray Bodnar and his wife. Ray was the brother of Jim Bodnar, with whom Wayne had lived in the Soo, so he was comfortable with Kevin Lowe, who happens to be a great cook.
• Mr. Poklington paid $20,000 on behalf of the club and another $20,000 on behalf of Wayne, which came off his signing bonus. That really made me mad. Phyllis and I spent half a day with a lawyer. He said he didn't think Wayne should pay anything because, after all, he'd only been in the OHA for a year and was such an attraction he brought money in for everybody.
• In 1982, the people of Brantford honoured Wayne by renaming the North Park Arena Complex the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre. At the official dinner, Wayne stood up and thanked everyone, including his former coaches.
• Pocklington phoned Gus and told him he wanted to sign Wayne to a 21 year contract- 9 years plus 26 year option, at $180,000 per year for nine, plus a $100,000 bonus. In a nice little prmotional touch, that would make No. 99 an Oiler until 1999. Peter called back and offered the same deal, only at $280,000 for each of the first 9 years, plus the $100,000 bonus.
• Wayne's birthday was on friday and now he is legal and No. 99 was 18. He could go into the pub with the boys and he could afford to buy a round, that is if he remembered to bring any money.

post 9

• As Wayne skated past, one of them shouted, "Let's see you get 4 in a row now, hotshot!". Wayne looked over at him for a second, then lned up for the faceoff. He won it, carried the puck into the slot and fired it over the goalkeeper's shoulder. Now it was 6-4. At 9:25 he scored again on a power play to make it 6-5. Brian wood, anther Brantford minor hockey product, tied it at 10:39, and 57 seconds later Wayne cut the Nats up 7-6.
• One day in November, a man phoned from Weekend Magazine and asked for an interview. Wayne said, "Sure, as long as it's over breakfast and you buy." That same day he had to do an interview with the Toronto Star, one with the Toronto Sun, do some filming with CBLT-TV, and finally a film with the Hockey Night in Canada crew. I guess he figured breakfast wasn't to much to ask.
• Since 1963, the National Hockey League Association had had an agreement with the Canadian Amuteur Hockey Association that it would not sign juniors under 20 years of age. That way the junior clubs wouldn't lose their star attractions early, and it gave them a better chance to make money and kept what amounted to an almost-free farm system pushing that talent along.
• There was a rumour that John Ferguson, the former Montreal Canadien star, was going to coach in Winnipeg. That scared Wayne a little bit because we'd heard Fergie was kind of rough, tough guy who like his hockey and his players just that way. We also heard another rumour that Rudy Pilous, the Jet's general-manager, had advised the team owners not to buy Wayne because there was no way he was worth the money, Mr. Skalbania was asking, and there was no way he'd be that big in the NHL, where the Jets figured they'd be once the leagues merged, which now seemed inevitable.
• In shifting from Indianapolis to Edmonton, Wayne hadn't missed a game. He'd played the full 80, and in this first season as a pro - a year he entered with a target of 20 goals and 40 assists - he'd wound up with 46 goals, 64 assists and 110 points. He'd finished third in WHA scoring and been chosen rookie-of-the-year as well as second-team All-star centre behind Cincinnati's Robbie Ftorek.

post 8

• Wayne stayed with the Nationals, playing 3 age groups above his years. Although he hadn't started until the season was almost 2 months old, he scored 27 goals and got 33 assists for 60 points and was named the league's rookie-of-the-year.
• Wayne didn't look good or well, so they took him to their own doctor in Brantford. He couldn't find anything , either. Meanwhile Wayne was staying at home doing nothing but sleep - and no matter how much he slept, he was still tired. He'd got home from school at 3:30 and go to bed. He'd get up at 5:30 long enough to have something to eat, then go back to bed. By 11 p.m. he'd be up because he was hungry, but then he'd fall back into bed and sleep until it was time to go to school. It went on like that, day after day.
• In the meantime, he was finishing his grade 10 at West Humber Collegiate, playing for the school basketball team and running cross-country. It was Christmas before he felt totally right, at which point he was so far down in the scoring race you'd have had to tunnel to find him. In the end he did have a pretty good season. The Senecas won the league title and Wayne finished fourth in scoring with 36 goals and 36 assists for 72 points, plus 75 points in 23 playoff games.
• One of the first things Wayne found out when he joined the Greyhounds was that the club had an initiation rite for rookies. They had to "streak" naked through the park, But the rookies werent worried. It had to be a joke.
• Here was this kid who'd just scored 3 goals and had 3 assists in a 6-1 win over the Oshawa Generals in his first game of junior "A", and he was still too young to shave.
• In pre-season Wayne had 31 points (9 goals and 22 assists) including 6 in his first game as a junior "A". He was 16 playing against 18 and 19 year olds.
• It ended up with Smith on top with 69 goals and 123 assists for 192 points, Wayne second at 70-112-182, and Ciccarelli third at 72-70-142.

post 7

• Hockey has taken Wayne all of the world. He's been to the Soviet Union, he's played in Europe, he's hopped back and forth across North America, and sometimes he's made the planes with seconds to spare and the door starting to close because, except for game trips, that's the way he is.
• But the longest, toughest trip he ever took covered only 60 miles, from Brantford to Toronto.
• In 1975, Wayne was 14, and by the time we knew we couldn't let things go on the way they had been. The pressures of being Wayne Gretzky in his home town, and a small town at that, were too much. It got to the point where we were afraid that he was losing his childhood.
• The MTHL said it was perfectly lefal for Wayne to play in Toronto, providing he had his release from the Brantford association and was residing in Toronto.
• Ron Sevier, president of the Brantford Minor Hockey Association, gave us that release and wished us well.
• Bill Cornish, Manager of the Nats' major bantam team for Wayne would be playing, had a boy who'd played on it 2 years earlier. Bill and his wife, Rita, offered to take Wayne into their home. He could live there, go to school, be in a good family situation, mix with the new kids, even get a trip to Europe with the Nats for a couple of exhibition games. He is living with Bill and Rita because his real parents think that it would be best for him to move out or live somewhere else for awhile.
• If we'd sent hime off to boarding school twice as far away, no one would have thought anything about it. People do that all the time, mainly because they want to give their children a better education.
• Wayne wasn't the only one in trouble. The parents of a 13 year old named Brian Rorabeck of Brighton, Ont., had also arranged to have their boy live in Toronto under legal gaurdinship so that he could play for the Young Nats' minor bantam team. So in fact, there were 2 similar cases, not one. But because Wayne was Wayne and had received so much recognition in his career, most of the publicity centred around him.
• We went around and round. They asked us why he was moving and we told them. One man said he understood what Wayne was going through in Brantford, that he had seen him play and seen it happen. We told them it was for Wayne's well being more than for his hockey.
• Wayne's father wanted him to move back to Brantford but Wayne didnt want to go, he decided to stay in Toronto and go to school and play in the junior "B" team.
• For the first time in months, he had a place to play and in his first game as a junior "B" he scored 2 goals.
• When he first joined the team, Wayne had tried to compensate by wearing defencemen's shinpads so that at least his legs would look bigger, but then he had to ditch them.
• Wayne played seven games with the nationals and had 5 goals and 5 assists. Wayne had a lot of things to learn - he couldn't make those soft passes he'd made in minor hockey, the league was to fast for that and he was having trouble getting the face-offs.

sixth post

• In their second tournament game, Brantford beat beaconsfield, Que., 9-1. Wayne had a touch of flu, but, except for 2 minutes in the penalty box, he played the entire third period until he took himself off in the final seconds. He finished with 2 goals and 3 assists.
• Now Brantford was in the quarter-finals against Verdun Maple Leafs, a team that included a young man named Denis Savard, who now stars with the Chigaco Black Hawks. For Wayne it was getting a bit scary. So many people stopped him on game night, he was afraid he couldn't get to the dressing room in time. Finally he stopped a policeman, asked for help, and wes escorted the rest of the way. Brantford won 7-3 with Wayne scoring 3 goals, 2 of them unassisted.
• All through minor hockey, Oshawa was Brantford's stumbling block. And the tournament semi-final was Brantford vs Oshawa. It was the same story. Oshawa won again. Wayne was playing defence as usual, but with the score tied at 4-4. Coach Ron St. Amand moved him to forward. It was a gamble, a calculated risk. Wayne finished with a goal and 3 assists and Brantford lost, 9-4.
• There are times, you know, when parents are a lot smaller than their kids. I don't know why it has to be that way. Jealousy, maybe, or frustration.
• As i mentioned earlier, Wayne was a heck of a lacrosse player until the other sports got in the way and he had to drop the game. He had a great touch with the stick. He could shoot, he could pass, he could roll off a check- a skill learned in lacrosse that he took with him into hockey. One day when he was 10, he had a gmae in which he scored 2 goals and assisted on the other 9, including 7 by 1 boy.
• Some people come knocking at the door asking for a autographed pictures like nothing happened or they will drop off books that have bee written about Wayne gretzky and say "Will you get Wayne to sgn thses and mail them to this address?". The neighbourhood kids make up for a lot of it. They find out when Wayne's home, and the come knocking at the door for autographs. Sometimes when Wayne's in for a fast hello between games and he'll be dead tired, and the temptation is to tell them he's sleeping.

fifth post

• Wayne was 12, just about to start his major pee wee season. He needed new gloves and naturally he'd left it until the last minute. so there we were in the sporting goods store run by our friend, Gerry Dallaway, shopping for gloves with practice due to start in half an hour and the rink is 20 minutes away. We were not exactly prepared to browse around.
• 6 months later, when Wayne neede a police escort to get out of one rink and a police escort to get into another, and the Turkstra Lumber team was pulling into the crowds of 11 thousand in Quebec City to see the kid they'd dubbed "Le Grand!" and "The White Tornado" I remembered that remark.
• In his first year he had that one goal. In his second, he scored 27, in his third, 104 plus 63 assists in 62 games. In 1970-71, as a 9 year old, he scored 196 in 76 games, plus 120 assists. People were shaking their heads and wondering how anyone could score that many. So the next year he played in 82 games and scored 378 goals.
• In 1972-73, as a 11 year old competing against kids in major pee wee he scored 105 goals. a few people nodded knowingly: it was a lot of goals, sure, but not compared to the year before.
• So it wasn't as if people were looking at Wayne when he was 11 or 12 and saying, "There's the next Bobby Orr."
• you've heard of the 50-goal season? When he was 11, Wayne had a 50-goal weekend in 9 games at the Hespeler, Ont. Olympic Tournament.
• In the summer of 1971, coming off the 196-goal hockey season, Wayne scored 158 goals and added 66 assists in 31 games for brantford PUC in the inter-city lacrose league, pitched and played baseball in the house league.

forth post

• When Keith was old enough to start hockey, Wayne was still at home. That meant twice as many practices, and twice as many games.
• Keith is almost like Wayne. Keith has a temper. If you cross-check Wayne or knocke him down he just gives you that funny little smile, then goes and tries to score the goal that will beat you. If you knock Keith down and you're going to get it right back in spades.
• There was a playoff game when he was 11 years old for a Magnetic Metal minor peewees. Keith is their big scorer. Stop him and you pretty much stopped the team.
• So there they are, the Gretzky kids, each one different, each one special as every kid is to every parent.
• From Wayne through Brent, we've made it clear that once you started something, you finished it. School project, sport, hobby, it made no difference. You finished what you started, like it or not, because if you do it early in life, you'll do it later, too. We wanted them to learn early: in everything you do, you follow through.
• Respect fo others was and is essential, of course, especially towards adults, but other kids, too. And you never laugh at anyone about what the are or what they do.

third post

• My father died in 1973.
• There was always a special kind of closeness between Wayne and his grandparents. After my father died, Wayne was even closer to his grandma-my mother, Mary.
• Wayne's grandma told him that if you were hairy that means you are going to be an awfully rich person. she was sure of that, but she was also pratical.
• When Wayne was 5 years old he told her that some day he was going to have a car. From that day on she started putting a little of her pension money aside. In fact, she buried it. And by the time Wayne was 16, she was ready. "I'm going to buy you a car," she told him. "I've got the money buried." Wayne thanked her but couldn't let her do that.
• A year later when Wayne turned pro, he bought a car of his own, a new Pontiac Trans-Am that he got in Indianapolis, and he drove it to the farm.
• The farm wasn't just a hockey place. It was the kind of growing -up place city kids might dream of.
• Wayne had been fooling around with a lacrose stick, bouncing a ball, and trying fancy stick-work, like that kind of thing, and when the ball got away and went crashing through the farmhouse window. His grandfather wasn't all that upset. After all, boys will be boys.
• Now, my father mad his own wine in the basement.
• I guess our back yard is a little bit famous. Just about every book or story on Wayne's life gets around to it: the rink I made in the yard behind the little house on Varadi Ave. in Brantford where Wayne learned to skate and Walter Gretzky built a hockey star.
• I flooded the yard the first time in the winter of 1965 and I've done it every year since. It hasn't always been easy. One day the sprinkler on the hose broke when i was flooding. Someone had to go to Canadian Tire and ask the salesman where he kept his lawn sprinklers. It was December.
• The second winter we had the rink and I tried to get Wayne registered in minor hockey. He was 5 years old, he was living on the ice and he was bugging me. But in those days, minor hockey in Brantford started with 10 year-olds. There was no place for Wayne to play. Boy, was he disappointed. The following year, a few weeks before the 1967-68 season, we saw a notice in the paper: open tryouts for the major novie team. Just come to the civic centre.
• A man named Dick Martin, who became Wayne's first coach, ignored his size and age, he only looked at his skating, and signed him up.
• When we first movied into the house on Varadi Ave. it had 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom and covered 900 sqaure feet. Plenty of room for a huband, wife and a 7 month old baby. Then, overnight it seemed, there were 7 of us and the house wasn't big anymore.
• In the fall of 1982, we extended the kitchen and dining room and bath upstairs, which gave us more breathing space.

2 post

• in the 1983 NHL All-star game, Wayne scored four goals in the third period, set three records, tied one, and won another car.
• In the 1984 game, he missed 2 breakaways, scored 1 goal, played about 25% as well as he can, and didn't win anything.
• On his first shift in a game in Los Angeles, he'd been checked cleanly, fallen agaisnt the boards and felt something give in his right shoulder. A bruise, he thought at first. As the days went by and it got worse, the Oilers thought it might be a slight sprain, but it would clear up. Two days after the All-star game, the x-rayed it. The shoulder wasn't bruised and it wasn't sprained. It was separated. A "Class 1" they called it, which is the least serious on a scale of 3. He still played but with a separated shoulder.
• In 4 NHL years, he'd set 24 league records and held a share of 10 others. He'd won 3 straight league scoring championships, setting those goal, assist and point records along the way.
• In 1975, he bought the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association, for cash, 2 Rolls-Royce cars, Mrs Pocklington's diamond ring and 2 Krieghoff prints. At one point he owned 4 Rolls-Royces 3 condominiums, a 165-foot yacht, the jet, and this house he'd bought for $1.5 million in 1979 and now he wanted to buy Wayne.

first post

• Wayne Gretzky has a getaway place that is 15 minutes from the back yard where learned to skate and a million miles from the National Hockey League.


• Walter and I were sitting on the porch with a beer and they were talking about a book when suddenly a bunch of people was on the porch. There were Micheal Barnett, his associate, Rod Proudfoot, Wayne and a couple of his Brantford Buddies. They talked of the old games and coaches and friends and girls, and all at once it was 2:30 am and my plane left in 11 hours.


• When Gretzky got there, he had a miserable time with just 2 shots and no points.


• In 2 games in the Stanley Cup final series, Gretzky has more penalties than points. He took a hooking penalty on Paul Boutilier in the 3rd period.


• Two-game totals: 5 shots, no goals, and no assists.


• In 1981-82, he had the greatest season in the history of the NHL. He'd set recorrds for most goals, most assists, and most points.


• The Oilers took the first game 7-1, with Wayne getting a goal and 3 assists before being crashed into the boards by defenceman, Lars Lindgren behind the Miniesota net with 4:21 left to play.


• At first it was said to be a bruised cheek, then a wrenched back. It turned out to be a bad blow to the jaw. He was back 2 nights later to score the winner in the second game, which ended 4-3, but Grant Fuhr, the goalie who'd been so hot through the playoffs, came out of it with a hyper-extended elbow


• The whole family moved to Edmonton - Phyllis, Kim, Keith, Glen, Brent and me. Phyllis and Kim left on Wednesday night and i brought the boys out on the early flight Saturday. We arrived and our luggage didn't, so Phyllis had to bundle the kids to go downtown for some new gear.

what i knew before reading about wayne gretzky

the things that i knew about wayne gretzky

• he learned how to skate and play hockey in a backyard rink
• he played hockey with kids older then him
• he is the coach for the Pheonix Coyotes
• his nickname is "The great one"
• he was born in Canada