Gretzky, Wayne 1961-

GRETZKY, WAYNE 1961-

Hockey superstar

The Great One

No individual dominated his or her sport in the 1980s the way Wayne Gretzky dominated professional hockey. Regardless of how greatness is measured, whether in terms of individual accomplishments such as statistics and awards, team championships, or peer respect, Gretzky distanced himself from virtually everyone over the course of the decade. According to Gretzky, "the best players in hockey are the ones who make their teammates look good, the ones who make their teams win." By that standard, too, Gretzky was in extraordinarily select company, including such players as Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr, and Gordie Howe. Even such players as these are unstinting in their praise of the "Great One." "No one I have ever seen has been able to think like Wayne Gretzky can on ice. You can hone that talent by studying the game, but believe me, it comes from God," testified Esposito. "No one can do the things he does out there—the back passes, toying with people with the puck right in front of them, and they can't get it from him. It's miraculous," marveled Hull. "There are great players, but no one can ever compare" to Gretzky, asserted serted Orr. "If you want to tell me he's the greatest player of all time, I have no argument at all," conceded Howe.

Accomplishments

Of course, numbers also tell a good deal of the Gretzky story. "I have to admit," said Gretzky, "my childhood was a little different from most. I could skate at two. I was nationally known at six. I was signing autographs at ten. I had a magazine article written about me at eleven and a thirty-minute national television show done on me at fifteen." He turned professional at seventeen. In his nine seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, from 1980 to 1988, Gretzky scored 583 goals and handed out 1,086 assists. For six of those years he averaged 73 goals and 130 assists a season, a remarkable achievement considering that no one else in the history of the NHL had managed to score 200 points in a season. He won eight MVP awards and led the Oilers to four Stanley Cup championships. Traded to the Los Angeles Kings before the 1988-1989 season, Gretzky continued his excellence. In his first year with the Kings he scored 54 goals, passed for 114 assists, and won the league's MVP award. The next season, on 15 October 1989, he broke Howe's all-time scoring record of 1,850 points. All this before the age of thirty. Perhaps just as important, wrote E. M. Swift, "Gretzky's style of play was changing hockey's image as a goon sport as night after night he put on a show of offensive creativity worthy of the highlight tapes."

Legend

A man of seemingly ordinary physical gifts, of average size and never the fastest or strongest player on his NHL teams, Gretzky was a hockey legend nonetheless. Noted for his modesty and teamwork, his consistency and endurance, his leadership and sportsmanship, Gretzky has been called by many the greatest athlete of the twentieth century. Such a claim is far from hyperbolic. One national newspaper poll rated him the fourth greatest athlete of this century, behind only Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth, and Jim Thorpe. In 1985, years after his greatness had bloomed but years before it would begin to fade, Tom Callahan wrote that as "long as men beat sticks against the ice, not to mention each other, Gretzky will be remembered." He will be remembered for his statistical achievements and the way his name reappears time and time again in the hockey record book and on NHL trophies; for his ability to make clever passes and shots appear commonplace by their sheer frequency; for his ability to dominate the flow and pace of a game without monopolizing the puck; his grace, quiet determination, and competitive drive. But to truly understand why he was the best hockey player ever it has been suggested that one will have had to see him play.

Sources:

Tom Callahan, "Masters of Their Own Game," Time, 125 (18 March 1985): 52-60;

Wayne Gretzky, Gretzky: An Autobiography (New York: Harper Collins, 1990);

Allan Safarik & Dolores Reimer, Quotations On The Great One: The Little Book of Wayne Gretzky (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1992);

E. M. Swift, "Wayne Gretzky," Sports Illustrated, 81 (19 September 1994): 76-77.