Wayne Gretzky

Birthdate: January 26, 1961
Birthplace: Brantford, ON, Canada

Height: 6'
Weight: 180 lbs

This man is the king of hockey. He has won numerous awards; he's been featured on every form of media through his lifetime; he's been granted the title of the all-time greatest hockey player by The Hockey News. Wayne has represented Canada many times in world-class hockey. He's a Canadian Ambassador. He is hockey.

The Childhood

Wayne first started playing hockey in his own backyard. The 'Wally Coliseum', named so because his father (Walter Gretzky) made it every winter, was his training ground. He would practice every night. The neighborhood kids would come over and have a scrimmage with him. He would come back into his house every night with his toes numb from the cold. But every night, his talents grew.

"All I wanted to do in the winters was be on the ice," said Gretzky in his autobiography. "I'd get up in the morning, skate from 7:00 to 8:30, go to school, come home at 3:30, stay on the ice until my mom insisted I come in for dinner, eat in my skates, then go back out until 9:00."

"I was so addicted that my dad had big kids come over to play against me. I suppose that's how I was always able to do well against bigger guys later on. That's all I could get to play against."

It may be surprising, but Gretzky wasn't very successful in his first season. As a first-year atom, he would only score a single goal. However, he soon became the star of his league. The following year, he scored 27 goals, then 104 the next year, and 196 in his fourth year.

"And then came the year that was a dream and a nightmare at the same time," recalls Gretzky. "It was the first time unhappiness really crept into my life. I was ten years old, still four foot four, and I scored 378 goals in sixty-nine games. I won the scoring race by 238 goals. People asked me how that happened, and I don't really know, except that I had a five-year head start on most of those kids."

Wayne in his junior years

The Dynasty Years

Before Gretzky came along, nobody had totaled more than 152 points in a single season. He raised the record to 212, approxamently a 40 percent increase. Later he upped it to 215.

He lifted the goal-scoring record from 76 to an incredible 92.

His personal output, after only nine terms in the NHL, stood at 1,669 points. Gordie Howe had taken 26 years to hit 1,850, the most ever.

Gretzky, the captain, had carried out a pivotal role as the Edmonton club won four Stanley Cup championships in five years - 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988.

Yet he was only 27, with a long and prosperous career still ahead of him.

Surprisingly, though, he won't fulfill that destiny as a member of the Oilers. He moved on to a big new challenge when he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for a parcel that contained high-scoring Jimmy Carson, as well as a substantial cash payment. The deal was the most sensational story of 1988 in North American sport.

"I feel I'm still young enough and capable enough to help a new franchise win the Stanley Cup." Gretzky said, in bidding a tearful farewell to Edmonton. He didn't need to add what his stardom would mean to the Kings, away from the ice. Their costlier seats, 8,500 of them, were sold out for the entire 1988-89 schedule only days after the Gretzky deal was wrapped up.

Still, few people were prepared to predict that the Oilers, even without Gretzky, wouldn't go out and capture a fifth title. They remained solid all through their roster and the addition of the 20-year-old Carson was sure to help. he had ammased 55 goals and 52 assists as a 1987-88 NHL sophomore.

"The Oilers go from being prohibitive favorites," said Harry Sinden, the Boston Bruins general manager, "to just strong favorites. That's the effect of this deal."

But it wouldn't be easy. Gretzky had played some of his finest hockey during playoff tournaments and was voted the most valuable springtime player of 1985 and '88. These, remember, were two of the Oilers' Stanley Cup years.

Their first attempt, in 1983, had been unsuccessful. They met the New York Islanders in the final round that May and were unable to prevent them from picking up a fourth straight title.

"I had always thought that was a fortunate thing," Gretzky said. "The Islanders were the team we admired the most. They'd won the Cup in my first NHL season, 1979-1980, and they were able to defend it three times. In other words, they knew what it took to win. That was the thing we had to learn before we could become a really good club."

A year after losing, the Oilers got the matchup they wanted. They faced the Islanders again, and dethroned them. They retained the title in 1985 - another important test, in Gretzky's view - and then reclaimed it in 1987 and gave yet another encore in '88.

Just as hockey has a Bobby Orr and a Guy Lafleur and a Wayne Gretzky and finally a Lemieux, there is a toddler somewhere in the world right now, taking his first wobbly steps along the road to hockey greatness. His time will come. This, you see, is the richest of all hockey's noble traditions and it will never die.

The Great One, Wayne Gretkzy