PHOTO: Wayne is on the right, with the white gloves. The goalie on the left is Les Binkley, one of the first goalies for the Toronto Toros of the WHA, the World Hockey Association. Look at the crowd in behind. This was a special promo night where I believe the boys were invited to shoot on Binkley.
I believe this story was originally writt
en by Rick Reilly (and Wayne) in the first biography done on Wayne in 1990. It goes something like this. Back in the day of Wayne’s youth, there was this one particular weekend where he wanted to play for two teams in a tournament, his own age group and a team comprised of players that were one year older. These two tournaments were running simultaneously in arenas west of Toronto. I believe one of the towns was Hespeler; the other might have been Wayne’s home town of Brantford. The distance between the two tourneys was 21 miles.
Gretzky was in the midst of a 378 goal season so scoring goals in bunches was becoming quite common. That was about to be ratcheted up a notch. On this weekend in question Wayne helped both teams to the finals. It was a daunting task for his father Walter, but their beloved station wagon ruled the roads back and forth as the tourney’s progressed without a conflict in time until…the finals. There was going to be an overlap in the final and the pressure was so great on Wayne because he wanted to play so badly for both teams that he was quite emotional trying to decide what to do.
Even Wayne couldn’t be in two places at one time so, Walter, being the sage father that he was, suggested to Wayne that he play with his own age group first. It technically was his team, the game did start a bit earlier and the very second it was over, he was to doff his skates, take his sweater off and come running out the door where Walter would be waiting, car ready to go and they would race to the other tourney and join in and play whatever was left. What you are about to read is in the book, I’m not making this up.
With his own team Wayne scored I believe 9 goals in a 10-0 win, in the final. Upon completion of the game he did as instructed and raced out the door and father and son motored to the other rink only to arrive at the conclusion of the second period, with Wayne’s team down 6-0. No problem. The white tornado, as he was called in those days due to his white gloves, hit the ice and he scored seven goals in the third period- yes you read that correctly, seven in the third, to win the game 7-6. These sixteen goals, coming mere hours apart were part of a fifty goal weekend, a number he would make even more magical in the NHL a decade later when he took the pedestrian approach scoring fifty in thirty-nine games over several months.
Wayne Gretzky remains today and for all time as the single greatest offensive force in sports history. There has never been anything like him on the planet in my opinion and observation and when you factor in his compete level, his drive and determination his ability to take that extreme talent and elevate it to unworldly heights he truly does belong in the above mentioned rarified air.
Post script; Wayne Gretzky scored 1000 points in the NHL in 424 games…..It took him 575 games to score 500 goals. He routinely had 100 points by Christmas time. He played twenty seasons in the NHL and recorded fifteen 100 point seasons, four two-hundred point seasons! Four….For five consecutive seasons he would finish approximately 75 points ahead of the second place scorer-not on his team but in the entire league. And you know what else? Every single time he was asked, every time, he answered the bell for Canada. Every time.
4 comments
Paul G.Tymchuk
February 11, 2012 at 7:43 pm (UTC -5)
Liam,
Excellent little bit of history on the “great one” I had never heard before. Keep little tidbits of history such as this one coming!
cheer,
Paul
Liam Maguire
February 13, 2012 at 1:47 pm (UTC -5)
Will Do Paul…Thanks for the comments pal.
Liam
Tim Spraggs
February 15, 2012 at 1:25 pm (UTC -5)
Great story Liam, I love hearing about the early days
Liam Maguire
February 15, 2012 at 6:04 pm (UTC -5)
Gidday Tim, glad you gave it a read buddy, thanks.