Wayne Gretzky: On the Ice With... (2 page)

After the Quebec tournament Wayne Gretzky was truly a national celebrity. Yet in his hometown, the animosity toward him was
even stronger than before. But it wasn’t until February 2, 1975, that Wayne finally said “enough is enough.”

February 2 was Brantford Day, an event of civic pride that included a youth hockey game played in a real National Hockey League
arena. Fourteen-year-old
Wayne and the Chargers were going to have a chance to skate at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Like the rest of the kids there,
he was excited about the competition and eager to do well. But when he skated onto the ice, his excitement vanished.

Brantford natives — the same people who would later put up a sign proclaiming “Brantford, Ontario… Home of Wayne Gretzky”
and speak of how proud they were of their town’s hero — were booing and catcalling their own star player.

The incident at the Brantford Day game was a painful but eye-opening experience for Wayne and his family. Torn between his
love of the sport and the desire to be a normal kid, Wayne became withdrawn and unhappy. Something had to change.

Then, in the spring of 1975, a solution presented itself. A friend of the Gretzkys’, Sam McMaster, was in charge of an organization
called the Young Nationals, a member of the Metropolitan Toronto Hockey League. He and Wayne had become friendly over the
preceding two years. So when McMaster learned of Wayne’s situation in Brantford, he simply offered him an opportunity to play
in Toronto.

Wayne was very excited about the prospect of leaving Brantford.

For Walt and Phyllis Gretzky, it was time to make a difficult decision. They realized that if Wayne was to continue his hockey
career, he couldn’t do it in Brantford. They knew that Wayne could be more anonymous as both a hockey player and a person
in Toronto. But how could they possibly let their son leave home at age fourteen? Toronto was sixty miles from Brantford and
a big city with all the problems that big cities could present for an impressionable kid.

At first, the Gretzkys didn’t think the move was in Wayne’s best interests. But Wayne wouldn’t let up. After a long period
of consultation with his school principal, teachers, and hockey coaches, Walt and Phyllis came to the decision that Wayne
was mature enough to go. That turned out to be the easy part.

Sam McMaster assured the Gretzkys that Wayne would have no trouble switching from Brantford hockey to Toronto hockey. The
necessary releases were obtained. Bill Cornish, the general manager of the Toronto Nationals bantam team and later Wayne’s
legal guardian, would house him in Toronto. Wayne enrolled in school in Toronto. All seemed to be going smoothly.

Then the adults intruded once again.

The Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) stepped in to prevent Wayne from playing for the Nationals. The association contended
that Wayne’s move was made only to further his hockey career. Wayne’s parents pleaded that sending their son away from home
was for his overall well-being. Walt stated his disbelief that “parents couldn’t send their own child to the city of their
choice, have him live with the people he wanted, and do what they all wanted as a group.” But their protests fell on deaf
ears.

Wayne was suspended from hockey. His career was in limbo.

He had three options. He could try to appeal OMHA’s decision in court, which could cost him a half season or more; play hockey
with the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) at the Junior B level in Toronto; or return to Brantford and play with his peers
at the bantam level. Walt felt that the third option was the only possible one. Wayne would have to return home.

Wayne saw things differently. He refused to deal with the continued animosity in Brantford. But he wasn’t interested in fighting
a time-consuming court
battle that would keep him from playing, either. In his mind, there was only one direction to go: OHA’s Junior B. After much
discussion, his parents agreed.

Suddenly fourteen-year-old Wayne, all 135 pounds of him, was going to compete against twenty-year-olds. He would be the tiny
six-year-old, lost in his oversized jersey, playing with the bigger, ten-year-old boys all over again. His parents were worried.
Would he be able to hold his own against the more experienced players?

In his first game for Coach Gene Popeil’s Junior B squad, the Peterborough Petes, Wayne dispelled all doubts. He scored his
first goal early on. With his team two men down due to penalties, he skated faster and played harder. But only after he added
another goal later in a 4–2 victory did Wayne’s parents breathe a sigh of relief. It appeared things would be okay, on the
ice.

Through 7 games in 1975, Wayne had 5 goals and 5 assists. He was adjusting well to the faster pace played at the Junior B
level. Most important, he was happy. Then the adults stepped in once again.

The governing body of the OMHA threatened to extend his suspension to the Ontario Hockey
Association (OHA) and thus prevent him from playing Junior B in Toronto. If successful, Wayne would be forced back to Brantford.

The national media across Canada pounced on the story. They were staunchly behind Wayne, supporting his choice to play where
he pleased.

On December 5, 1975, some six months after the ordeal had begun, the OHA made its decision. In its opinion, Wayne was eligible
to continue playing Junior B hockey for the Nationals.

While the situation was under discussion, Wayne had been sidelined for almost two months of hockey. Yet he still managed to
post 27 goals and 33 assists for 60 points that first season. He was named the league’s Rookie of the Year for his efforts.

Although the Gretzkys could claim an ultimate victory by eventually getting Wayne on the ice and keeping him there, they didn’t
succeed in removing the spotlight from their son. If anything, the media attention intensified. Throughout the hockey world,
rumors abounded about money and gifts that had been paid to Wayne’s family to move him to the Nationals.

There was no truth to the stories. All that Walt and
Phyllis had ever wanted was for their son to be happy. While playing Junior B for the Toronto Nationals that season, he was.
Luckily, the rumors died out, leaving Wayne to do what he did best: play hockey.

The following year promised to be a vast improvement over the previous one. All the controversy was behind him. Wayne was
a legal hockey player who could now simply concentrate on the game. As a tenth-grader at West Humber Collegiate he did well
in school, participating in basketball and cross-country as well as hockey.

Despite his successes in previous years early in his second season of Junior B Wayne was rated under two hundred on the Major
Junior scouting evaluation list. He was still adjusting to his new environment and he battled some health problems, including
a strain of mononucleosis. But as the season continued, the Gretzky name moved up the charts steadily. He finished the 1976
season fourth in league scoring with 36 goals and 36 assists for 72 points. In the playoffs, he racked up 75 points in 23
games and led the Nationals to the league title. By the time of the final evaluation Wayne was ranked as the number two overall
prospect.

Members of the Major Junior A league were beginning to take a serious look at Wayne. Such attention was important for Wayne’s
career. The Junior A league produces most of the National Hockey League’s players; those who can’t cut it in Junior A rarely
make it to the NHL.

Wayne Gretzky was eligible for the Junior A draft in the spring of 1977. His chances of being selected looked good. But behind
all the excitement was an important consideration. Depending on the team that drafted him, Wayne, all of sixteen years old,
could end up over five hundred miles away from his family.

Walt and Phyllis Gretzky had reluctantly allowed their son to move sixty miles away at age fourteen. This time they stood
firm. They couldn’t allow their son to move ten times farther away two years later. So Walt Gretzky wrote letters to the teams
that were the farthest removed from the Toronto area stating that if drafted by one of those teams, Wayne wouldn’t report
to play.

Angelo Bumbacco, the general manager of the OHA Sault Sainte Marie Greyhounds, paid no attention to Walt Gretzky’s letter.
His hockey club,
some five hundred miles away, selected Wayne with the third pick in the draft.

Walt pleaded with Bumbacco to trade Wayne’s rights to a team closer to Brantford. Bumbacco flatly refused. He insisted that
Wayne play hundreds of miles away from home at age sixteen.

The Gretzkys eventually visited Sault Sainte Marie, but the efforts of Bumbacco and the Greyhounds to sign Wayne on seemed
for naught until Wayne met with the Bodnar family. Jim and Sylvia Bodnar had moved from Brantford to Sault Sainte Marie; their
son Steve had played hockey with Wayne. When the Bodnars offered to take Wayne into their home to live, Wayne decided to sign
with the Greyhounds. For the second time a good family had influenced Wayne’s life in a positive way.

Wayne was ready to make the jump to Major Junior A. For the first time he could honestly think of his professional hockey
dream becoming a reality. He was now one step away.

Wayne Gretzky’s Junior A debut was a most auspicious one. He scored 3 goals and added 3 assists for 6 points in a 6–1 win
over the Oshawa Generals. His reward for being named “player of the game” was a bottle of aftershave. There was only one small
problem: he hadn’t begun to shave.

As a sixteen-year-old playing against the best eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds in hockey, Wayne was in a familiar position.
He had always been the youngest player on his team. It was a trend that would continue throughout his early career.

It was while playing for the Greyhounds in “the Soo,” as Sault Sainte Marie is familiarly known, that Wayne wore his trademark
number 99 for the first time. Upon reporting to his new team, Wayne requested number 9, the number worn by his hockey
idol, Gordie Howe. Unfortunately, 9 was already worn by a three-year veteran. In his first game in Junior A Wayne wore number
19, then switched to number 14. Neither number felt right.

Then a news story caught his eye. A major NHL trade shifted future Hall of Fame center Phil Esposito from the Boston Bruins
to the New York Rangers. Esposito had worn number 7 for the Bruins. But the Rangers had a number 7: Rod Gilbert, a veteran
and one of their most popular players. So the new Ranger center switched to number 77.

Greyhound coach Muzz MacPherson suggested Wayne do the same. Why not two nines instead of one? Wayne agreed to try out the
new number. It’s been his signature ever since.

Nicknamed “Pretzel” because of his hunched-over skating style, Wayne followed his opening game success with a 6-point game
followed by a 7-point game early in the season. After 7 games he was the league scoring leader with 10 goals and 16 assists
for 26 points. The fear that Wayne would be intimidated at the Junior A level disappeared.

Under Coach Muzz MacPherson’s offense-driven
system, Wayne was a scoring machine. MacPherson let him play the role to the hilt — but not necessarily to the team’s advantage.
Although Wayne succeeded in breaking the old league record of 170 points, collecting 70 goals and 112 assists for a total
of 182, the Greyhounds were not a good team that year. With so much emphasis placed on offense, their defensive capabilities
suffered.

Critics began to question Coach MacPherson’s handling of Wayne, forcing him to defend the huge amount of ice time that his
prize scorer received under his system. There was grumbling among the Greyhounds as well. MacPherson did his best to eliminate
the potential for controversy by meeting privately with the team; in his opinion, he told them, their youngest teammate was
going to some day “set records that aren’t going to be broken for a long, long time.” But as the media focus on Wayne and
his scoring accomplishments increased, nothing could stop the inevitable jealousies. The public couldn’t get enough of Number
99, yet the team’s dismal performance — and criticism of MacPherson — continued.

In the end, Coach Muzz MacPherson was unable
to resolve the tension. In February of 1978, only halfway through the season, he resigned. The new Greyhounds coach, Paul
Theriault, took charge immediately. Among the changes he made were a decrease in Wayne’s playing time and an increase in attention
to the defense. His strategy helped turn the team around down the stretch of the 1977–78 season, though they were quickly
knocked out of the playoffs.

Wayne was happy about the team’s performance, but unhappy that he wasn’t playing as much. With less time on the ice, his scoring
totals were only good enough for second place in the league; future NHLer Bobby Smith beat him out with 192 points. Wayne
also finished second to Smith for Most Valuable Player honors, though he did win the league award for most gentlemanly player,
with just 14 penalty minutes for the entire season.

With the defense-minded Theriault firmly established as the Greyhounds’ coach for the following year, the prospects for Wayne
and his creative offensive style of play looked bleak. It became clear that remaining in the Major Junior A as a Sault Sainte
Marie Greyhound would be a serious mistake
for Wayne’s overall future hockey development. Something had to be done.

The next logical career move was to turn professional. But as always, Wayne’s age presented a barrier. The National Hockey
League had developed very strict age restrictions to protect the junior hockey league. No NHL team could sign a player under
twenty. As a result, junior clubs kept the star performers so vital to their financial survival and the NHL maintained the
junior A level as its own developmental farm system. This system had kept order in the hockey world since 1963.

Then, in 1971, a new rival league, the World Hockey Association (WHA), challenged the domination of the NHL.