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Wayne Gretzky! |
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Did you know that Wayne...Wayne Gretzky played all his games with the back right side of his jersey tucked in. This stems from his time as a six-year-old with the Nadrofsky Steelers. His jersey was too big and reached his knees, so his father tucked the back right side in to facilitate his shooting.The OHA Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds knew the Gretzkys didn't want their son to play outside of the Toronto area, so they offered Gretzky a deal: the Greyhounds would pay four-years tuition at any North American university if he didn't make it to the team or was injured. He had two nicknames when he played with the Greyhounds: "Ink" because of all the articles written about him and "Pretzel" because of the way he skated hunched over. He got to play with his idol, Gordie Howe, in a 1980 three-game series pitting the WHA All-Stars against the Moscow Dynamo, the Soviet elite team. Howe's son, Mark, also played. His first year with the Oilers, he lived with Oilers coach Glen Sather and his family. Sather remarked that Gretzky ate more than his family combined. That first year in the NHL, he had his tonsils removed in a Paris, Ontario hospital, admitted under the name "Smith." When he was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the L.A. Kings, he switched from a Canadian-made wood Titan stick to an aluminum one made by the U.S. company, Easton. After the 1981 Canada Cup loss to the Soviets, 8 to 1 in the one-game final, he was so devastated he locked himself into a Florida condo for several days. No one knew where he was; not even his parents. In 1981, late pop artist Andy Warhol painted a portrait of Gretzky. "As an artist, what I see in Wayne is great joy and energy," said Warhol at the time. He likes to put baby powder on the stick because it prevents the "snow" on the ice from collecting on the stick. At his first NHL appearance in Toronto, he couldn't get tickets for his parents so he signed a hockey stick and told his brother Brent to find a scalper and pay for two tickets with the stick. Walter and Phyllis got to watch their son play. Philadelphia Flyers captain Bobby Clarke broke NHL protocol after a 1981 game against the Edmonton Oilers by going to the Oilers' dressing room after a game. Gretzky had scored five goals that game --reaching 50 in 39 games. Clarke told him: "I know everything that's been written about you. I think none of its adequate." In the mid-1980s, his fear of flying was at its peak. As a NHL player, he couldn't avoid taking the airplane so he tried several remedies: hypnotherapy, mind-control and sitting in the pilot's cabin. The day he was traded to the L.A. Kings, workers started installing a swimming pool in his parent's backyard - where the rink used to be. His parents resisted offers by their son for a new, bigger home. When he began a relationship with Janet in 1987, it wasn't the first time he had met her. Back in 1981, he met her on a dance show in which he had been a judge. They had been casual acquaintances since then. Canadian actor Alan Thicke gave Wayne and Janet a wedding gift of two cushions from the seats of the L.A. restaurant where they had their first date, inscribed with their names and the date. By 1991, the L.A. Kings were the only sports franchise in Southern California to sell out every home game for an entire season. His investments in racehorses with L.A. Kings' owner Bruce McNall were fruitful: "Golden Pheasant" won the Arlington Million one year and also the $2.77 million US Japan Cup. On Oct. 22, 1997, Janet Gretzky was knocked unconscious in Madison Square Gardens when a section of Plexiglas loosened during a game and landed on her. On his last NHL game in 1999, he used 51 sticks and three sweaters in order to give them away as souvenirs. In his professional career, he has held or shared 61 NHL records. |