Wayne Gretzky, Hockey's Number 99

Wayne was born Jan . 26, 1961 in Brantford, Ontario 26, 1961 in Ontario Canada near to Toronto. At 2 years of age he had his first ice skates. He began to skate and his every move was put on film by his dad .

By heeding his dad"s advice to get to where the puck was going , not where it was he learned his craft .

Was he the greatest ? At a time when 100 points a year was spectacular , Gretzky was boasting 200 plus. He did it four times , no other player has ever accomplished this and 215 was his all time peak in 1985-86 . In the 1981 season at the age of twenty Gretzky crushed the record held by the famous Maurice Richard of scoring 50 goals in 50 games . With nine goals in the last two games he did it in just 39 games. He went on to do it again 9 times in the 80's!

Wayne scored a phenominal 92 goals in the 1980 season easily broke the then record of 76 held by Phil Esposito. And finally, Gretzky holds the mark for most assists in a season with 163 in 1986.

In the 1980's he alone won the Hart and the Ross trophies. Wayne won the Hart trophy(MVP) nine times , the most of any athlete in a team sport , and the netting trophy (Ross) seven times in that decade, plus three more times in the '90s . He wasby far the best player on the best team in those years , giving Edmonton 4 stanley Cups in 5 years on top of achieving playoff MVP honors twice in that period . you might not think that 175lbs and 5'11" is the making of a sports phenomenon.His splendid talent lay elsewhere, not in brawn and muscle. His gift was brains , anticipation and an ablility to see the whole play as it developped.

Gretzky could see what should happen, where the others on the ice would be in the following seconds.

He couldn't beat opponents with brawn; Gretzky did not have a powerful shot; He wasn't the quickest of skaters . His vision, his smarts and his anticipation were his great weapons

Wayne said he sensed the other players rather than actually see them . Then he could pass without really looking .

Gretzky was always approachable despite his fame. The Great One never refused an autograph request. Gretzky new that for that fan, that youngster, it could seem like the greatest thing that ever ocurred in his life.

The Great Gretzky was great as a kid, great as a teenager and finally perhaps even greater as a pro in the NHL. He alwaysproved worthy of his moniker, the Great One.

On his eighteenth birthday he got a wonderful deal from the Edmonton Oilers, a $10-million, three-year contract. He proved worthy finishing his rookie yr. with 104 points and the rookie-of-the-year award.

The following year Gretzky confounded any remaining disbelievers by becoming the youngest player at 19 to score 50 goals in a year and lead all others with 137 points.

It was in 1988 that he was traded to the L.A. Kings by the Oilers who were then in financial straits. Gretzky played in L.A. for eight years and went on to St Louis then the N.Y. Rangers

In 1989 he reached 1,851 career points to become the mark holder, beating Howe. Four years went by before he passed his hero once more with a 802nd goal

When he retired in 1999, he had scored 2,857 points in the NHL roughly 1,000 more than Howe. Known for his playmaking Gretzky has all the same scored a record 894 goals in his 20 NHL years.

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