| | There are those of us huddled together up here in the great frozen tundra of Canada
whose teeth are set on edge every time we hear Anne Murray launch into
"Snowbird"; who remain convinced that David Cronenberg is the most
overrated director of our time; who'll
snatch a Budweiser sitting side-by-side on a shelf with a Molson Extra Dry in
a heartbeat; who don't own a piece of native art or an eskimo carving, nor ever care if we do;
who dive in desperation for the channel changer every time a curler slides
out of the hack hollering "Sweeeeeep! Sweeeeep!"
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Remembering Wayne
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For those of us who were allowed a little bit closer than most -- the people
who chronicled his exploits through the years -- his induction will, as his
retirement did, trigger a flood of memories:
At the time of my honeymoon in Milan, Italy, I resided and worked in Edmonton and was sick to death of all that was Gretzky in the mid-'80s. But guess whose face donned a magazine cover in a train station in Milan?
Having said that, however, Gretzky went out of his way to be friendly to a 20-year-old sportswiter, knowing it made it OK for the rest
of the Oilers to feel relaxed around him, too.
Gretzky introducing his
girlfriend after a Canada Cup game and the poor slob (me) not knowing Janet Jones
from Janet Jackson.
Gretzky, by then a father himself, overruling his own
dictum of no interviews before practice, so a father/writer could get back
home to look after his two-year-old daughter ("Didn't you hear the man?" he
said to the flabberghasted PR woman. "He said he has to babysit!').
-- George Johnson
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We are the outcasts, the heretics, the lepers. Viewed with scorn or a good
deal of puzzled pity by our fellow countrymen who feel it a patriotic duty to
support anything and everything that is distinctly Canadian.
But for us -- as for the rest who dwell in this vast, wonderful, imperfect and
all-too-often divisive land -- there has always been Wayne Gretzky.
He is something special we all shared together.
"Wayne Gretzky," says Bryan Trottier, the former Islander great and now an
assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche, "has been a source of pride for
all Canadians, regardless of language, political affiliation, east or west,
rich or poor.
"Even when I was playing against him, my kids, they'd boo him 'cause he was
the enemy of daddy's team, but they could never hate him.
"Ask most Canadian fathers who they'd like their sons to grow up to be, and
they'd answer 'Wayne Gretzky.'"
Canadians are, by and large, a reticent bunch, overshadowed and overwhelmed
as we are by our superpower neighbors to the south. We're fascinated by
celebrity as much as any American but really don't want to let on. Deep
inside, we find it somewhat self-promoting and well, beneath us.
Which is part of why Gretzky fit our needs so perfectly. He always seemed a
little embarrassed by all the fuss.
When we'd see him on Letterman or Leno, or hob-knobbing with the glitterati
at a Versace show or opening a restaurant in Times Square or flogging
products on TV, we'd smile. That's Wayne. OUR Wayne. Walter might've been his
real father, but we all felt a paternal pride in his accomplishments.
When he married actress Janet Jones in Edmonton, it was our version of a
royal wedding. The basement in the family home in Brantford, Ont., stocked with Gretzky's collection of trophies and memorabilia, has become a sort
of national museum.
He was our Babe Ruth -- without the booze and the women. We didn't need a Paul
Simon to sing for us, our nation never stopped turning its lonely eyes to him.
In a confusing age when athletes admitted to all sorts of sexual infidelity, were
caught snorting coke or packing heat in their glove compartments or smacking
their wives around and blaming it on the violence inherent in their
jobs, Gretzky stayed clean. So clean, he squeaked.
In her autobiography, Martina Navratilova wrote that she would've enjoyed
having a child with Gretzky. His response? Much blushing, stammering,
shuffling of feet.
He had a Jimmy Stewart-like Ah Shucks! innocence that we all warmed to.
"As a kid, I remember Jean Beliveau being called The Prince of Hockey," says
Trottier nostalgically. "Imagine ... The Prince of Hockey. What a title! And
there was something regal about Beliveau's bearing. Still is. When he walks
in a room, even now, he stops it dead.
"Wayne has that same sort of aura about him."
About the only thing he ever said that sparked any hint of controversy was
the night he called the New Jersey Devils "a Mickey Mouse organization,"
after his buddy, goalie Eddie Mio, had been hung out to dry in a game against
the powerhouse Oilers.
He immediately regretted it. And, typically, never made the mistake again.
He wasn't enthralling off the ice, or particularly quotable (although
always, always, accessible). He didn't make significant social change, as Ali
and Jackie Robinson had before him. But he took the game we love above all to
new heights of artistic endeavour.
It's an easy, safe, cliched image, that of the cowlicked kid from small-town
Canada worshipping Gordie Howe and leaving home to become a legend but never
forgetting his roots. Truth be known, however, it isn't that far off the
mark. Oh, he wasn't without fault. No man -- especially one with as much
wealth, fame and influence -- can be.
But he held the mantle of 'star' with as much simplicity and care as we have
any right to expect of our heroes.
|  | | Gretzky played for Canada long after he stopped playing for a Canadian NHL team. |
"When he was traded to L.A., a nation cried," says his former teammate Steve
Smith, now a defenseman with the Calgary Flames. "But Wayne Gretzky never
forgot Canada. He never turned down an opportunity to represent his country
and, remember, he played a hell of a lot of hockey in those days. He felt it
was his duty. No one wore the maple leaf with more pride, and I think people
responded to that.
"The most impressive thing I can say about Wayne Gretzky, from having had a
front-row seat, is that he's every bit as good a person as he was a player."
All of which is why when No. 99 is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, the
moment will be, for all Canadians, a kind of coronation.
"I'm so happy for Wayne," says Trottier, himself a 1997 inductee. "I'm so
happy for that entire family. They really represent Canadian heritage,
Canadian morals and values. They're our version of a Norman Rockwell
painting, really.
"I'm so glad his dad, Walter, will be there to share it with him. I felt a
void at my induction because my dad had passed on by then.
"When you're in the public eye, there is a tendency to retreat. I wanted my
privacy. I wanted to keep people at a distance. 'No. No. No.' Don't get too
close. But Wayne has let us all into his family. We've all been allowed to be a
part of it. Now isn't that a wonderful, wonderful thing?"
Yes. Truly.
And now, the waiting period justly waived, Wayne Gretzky readies to enter the
last frontier of an unparalleled career -- the Hall of Fame. Just where we all
knew he'd wind up from the first time we saw the scrawny kid weave his spell
on the ice. Every year, of course, the Hall welcomes different players.
But only once can it roll out the red carpet for THE player.
"I defy anyone," Smith says in summation, "to name an athlete who has
represented his sport with so much grace."
Or represented his country, an entire country.
George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Sun. His Western Conference column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com. | |
ALSO SEE
Lucky fans go one-on-one with the Great One
Great One receives hockey's greatest honor
Stats Class: How great was The Great One?
Gretzky busy enjoying his early days of retirement
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