CANADA LOSES ITS NO. 1 HOCKEY DAD
Walter Gretzky signed almost as many autographs as his famous Hall of Fame son
Walter Gretzky's patch of ice at 42 Varadi Ave. in Brantford, Ont., was hockey's most famous backyard Field of Dreams.
Wayne's mom, Phyllis, helped out by going to the hardware store in February to buy a new sprinkler.
And now the beloved hockey dad is up in heaven with Phyllis, maybe checking out garden hoses. Maybe Wally is hanging around with his old pal, John Muckler, who knew the couple in Paris, Ont., before they were married.
Walter, who died Thursday at 82, and Phyllis, who passed away in 2005, were Canada's golden couple, writing the book on humility for their sons Wayne, Keith, Brent and Glen and daughter Kim, even in the harsh glare of celebrity.
“The story that encapsulates who they were was when Wayne was chasing Phil Esposito's record,” Wayne's longtime agent Mike Barnett said of scoring 76 goals in a single season.
“The Oilers were in Buffalo, and I told Walter I would get three tickets. I'm outside the will-call and in walks Walter and friend Charlie Henry. No Phyllis. Walter says, `Brent had a peewee game that night and Phyllis is driving him to his game.' That was the night Wayne set the alltime record. Buffalo was only 90 minutes away.
“Sixty-one NHL records for Wayne, and Walter was still the Bell Canada blue-collar installer whenever he met people,” said Barnett from his home in California.
“I'm watching TV in Canada and they're saying Walter is being mourned by a nation. How better to describe Walter?”
Mark Messier, whose dad, Doug, is still alive but his mother, Mary-jean, passed away last year, knows how tight-knit both families have been.
“Wayne was who he was because of Wally. Wayne realized at a very early age there was a great responsibility coming his way with the player he became, and he was well-prepared for it,” said Messier.
“He learned those lessons from Wally.
“I read about Wayne in a Canadian magazine when he was nine years old. The Gretzkys let people into their lives, people felt a part of the journey. They felt a part of the Canadian icon. Wally becoming the celebrity, and how many kids he touched, they were not a closed book by any stretch of the imagination over the last 30, 40 years.”
Walter signed almost as many autographs as his famous son.
“He turned strangers into friends in every arena, every restaurant, every (airport) terminal, all the trips to hospitals,” said Barnett.
“Once he retired, he loved going to hospitals. He took carloads of things to give away, particularly at kids' hospitals.
Walter built a backyard rink for four-year-old Wayne and taught him to think the game, maybe more than play it.
“For sure, the one thing about, `Go where the puck's going to be, not where it is,' that was Walter. That was a big thing about Wayne's game, for sure,” said Oilers Entertainment Group vice-chairman Kevin Lowe.
“Wayne had very few down times, but he would reach out to his dad and Walter always had a nugget or two to help out.”
The Tim Hortons commercial, where it showed Walter had kept a napkin from 1968 when Horton signed an autograph for a seven-year old Wayne, was a treasured memory of a hockey dad.
They knew Walter everywhere. “Quite frankly, Walter became as famous in our country as Wayne. You would see him at hotels and he would give people all the time they needed,” said Lowe.