Gretzky on Howe: “He was like a second father”
By @StefanKubus –
DETROIT – Before Wayne Gretzky became The Great One, he grew up idolizing Mr. Hockey.
And on Tuesday, Gretzky served as a pall bearer at Gordie Howe’s visitation at Joe Louis Arena ahead of the funeral on Wednesday morning.
“My wife and I got to meet Pope John Paul II, I got to light the torch at the Olympic Games in Vancouver, which was pretty special, but when the boys asked me to be part of the procession, it was one of the great honors of my life,” Gretzky said. “He was everything to me, he was like a second father, a mentor.
“I was really lucky; not everybody gets to meet their hero or their idol. And sometimes when you meet them, it wasn’t a good as you thought it was gonna be, and man, I got so lucky that the guy I chose happened to be so special. Over time, not only do you become a mentor to me, but we became friends, and our families became friends. I played hockey with his youngest son, spent a lot of time traveling, we did charity events together.”
Gretzky recalled a story from the first game he ever played against Howe, a WHA tilt that didn’t go entirely as imagined.
“I remember my first game with Gordie,” Gretzky said. “I was 17. I was so nervous to be on the ice with him and play against him. He was winking at me the whole warm-up. I thought, ‘This was pretty cool, Gordie Howe is winking at me.’ I took the puck from him on the second or third shift and all of a sudden I got a whack on the thumb. I thought I broke my thumb. He said, ‘Don’t ever take the puck from me again.’ OK. So in the locker room, we had our old goaltender named Gary Smith and I said, ‘Gary, I don’t know what just happened. Gordie was winking at me the whole warmup and he tried to break my thumb.’ He said, ‘Winking at you? He’s not winking at you. He’s got a bad blinking problem.’ Why didn’t somebody tell me? I thought he was wishing me good luck.”
MORE: Legends pay homage to Gordie Howe at Joe Louis Arena (with photos)
Gretzky also didn’t hide the fact that it was his childhood dream to play for the same team his idol played for. After all, Howe was the reason he wore No. 99.
“Listen, I made no secret of it that my childhood dream was to play for the Red Wings. Somehow, in my mind I’d be wearing No. 9. Obviously that’s not possible. No one’s ever gonna wear his number. I even tried to go to get my haircut and asked for the Gordie Howe haircut when I was nine years old. Everything I did was to be a Red Wing and be around Gordie Howe and be part of Gordie Howe’s world. It was all I dreamed about as a youngster. I used to talk about this all the time. Still to this day, my favorite Christmas ever was getting a Red Wings No. 9 jersey when I was five years old. It’s still the best Christmas present I ever got.”
With fellow icon Muhammad Ali having passed away within such a short time of Howe’s death, Gretzky also shared a story of the two crossing paths in New York.
“When I was 17, I went to New York with Gordie and Bobby Hull to try to promote the WHA,” Gretzky said. “Nobody knew who the hell I was. We were in the hotel lobby and Muhammad Ali came over to talk to Gordie. I remember I called my dad that day: ‘Muhammad Ali just came over to say hello to Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull. I was in shock.’ That was pretty neat. Everybody knew him, everybody knew how kind he was, too. He was never rude or bad to anybody. If he was at a charity dinner event, he would talk to the ladies serving the meals or the gentleman who might’ve been serving waters or sodas. He talked to everybody. He never forgot about anybody.”
Above the records, accolades and achievements, it’s Howe’s humility that Gretzky said he’ll remember most.
“It goes without saying that he’s the greatest player that ever lived and in my mind it’ll always be that way, but more importantly, he’s the nicest person, and I mean that sincerely,” Gretzky said. “He just was genuinely a nice man that had a big heart. That’s the one piece of advice that I’d give my kids and grandchildren.
“The two guys I won’t go to dinner with are my dad and Gordie Howe; everybody knows who they are, and they like to talk to everybody, too, so you never get a chance to eat.”