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KRAVITZ: Gretzky - The Great One - returns to where it all started, right here in Indy

His name is Wayne Gretzky. Or, as the Indianapolis Star wrote in a handful of unfortunate headlines during his time here, Wayne “Gretsky’’.
Gretzky-AP-image

The greatest athlete ever to represent Indianapolis is neither Peyton Manning nor Reggie Miller, although the pair both made a remarkable impact on this city and this state. No, the greatest athlete ever to represent Indianapolis, albeit for only eight regular-season games, was on hand Monday for the ECHL All-Star Classic at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum.

Name is Wayne Gretzky.

Or, as the Indianapolis Star wrote in a handful of unfortunate headlines during his time here, Wayne “Gretsky".

Let’s just say, the fans and some in the media had no earthly idea what to make of the spindly, blond-haired wunderkind, who tore up junior hockey as a teenager and then began his professional career at age 17 with the WHA’s Indianapolis Racers. They knew he was supposed to be a big deal, but hockey was, and remains, a niche sport in these parts, and so he wasn’t recognized like a player who would go on to become known simply as “The Great One.’’ He was royalty in Canada, where hockey courses through the country as its lifeblood, viewed far and wide as the successor to Gordie Howe, but here in Indy, he was little more than a curiosity.

“The city had no clue," said Peter Driscoll, an Indianapolis resident who was one of Gretzky’s best friends and a Racers’ teammate. “Not in the least. It’s probably not much different now than it was back when we were playing (with the Racers); you have your hardcore 5,000 hockey fans every night, and some nights we had more than that, but this isn’t a great hockey town. I wish that it was; I live here and all, but I’m just being honest."

First impressions of Gretzky?

“First, I thought, `Man, he’s got to pop some of those zits, this kid,’" Driscoll said with a laugh. “Then you saw him play and the sense he had on the ice, it was a pleasure to watch him skate and play."

For those who aren’t hockey fans or are too young to remember Gretzky at his very best, understand this: He wasn’t the best skater, didn’t have close to the same speed as a Connor McDavid. He wasn’t a dead-eye shooter, like a Mike Bossy. He didn’t have the hands of a Mario Lemieux or the physicality of his old Oilers’ teammate, Mark Messier. I met him in the early 1980’s while covering hockey at various publications, and thought, `The wind could knock this guy over. How does he do what he does?"

What made Gretzky the greatest, though, was his ice vision, his instincts, his ability to decipher where the puck was going to be rather than where it was. He saw the game unfold two, three seconds before everybody on the ice. He was Larry Bird on skates, a hockey prodigy, a savant of the highest order whose talents were revealed at a very young age.

“When you were on the ice with him, you always had to be ready for the pass,’’ said one-time Racers teammate Hugh Harris, also an Indy resident. “I think it was hard for his linemates at first because they thought, `No way is he going to get that pass through.’ Then, next thing you know, it’s right on your tape. It was unbelievable."

Gretzky wasn’t here a terribly long time. He played just eight games, scored three goals, including his first professional goal against goalie Dave Dryden of the Edmonton Oilers. While he was here, he lived with a family in Carmel – like most outsiders, he pronounced it “Car-MEL’’ – and took some high school classes at Broad Ripple High School. “Yeah, periodically,’’ he said with a laugh.

In November of 1978, Gretzky was practicing at the Coliseum when he was told he’d been traded along with Driscoll and goalie Eddie Mio. Now, there are several stories, some apocryphal and some not, surrounding the deal, one involving a high-stakes backgammon game involving owner Nelson Skalbania. But what Driscoll remembers is being told to get on a plane bound for Canada, and at some point during the flight, the pilot would be told where to take the Racers’ trio.

Ultimately, the destination was Edmonton, where Gretzky was the central building block to one of hockey’s greatest modern-day dynasties.

Once Gretzky was gone, the Racers were done. A month later, the team disbanded, largely due to the owner.

With it, Indianapolis’ scant hopes for a National Hockey League franchise went by the wayside.

“We were probably all a little ahead of ourselves," Gretzky said. “I probably wasn’t old enough or good enough to be a flag bearer for a young franchise, so maybe I was in a little over my head…But I lived with a family in Carmel, they were wonderful to me, treated me like one of their own children. It was the most comfortable part of being here. When I was at the rink for practice and games, I was playing with grown men, so it was a whole different animal. My memories are good. I wish I could have been a better player at that age; maybe I still would have been here."

When Gretzky arrived, the older Racers quickly took him under their wing, understanding that he was the future of the game. But they also wanted him to understand that helmets, at least at that time, were not to be worn by professionals. So one day, his father, Walter, drove down from Ontario to watch him scrimmage.

Wayne came out without a helmet.

Within minutes, Walter was on the glass, pounding away, getting his son’s attention. “Put that helmet back on," he yelled.

Wayne put the helmet back on.

In the end, the problem wasn’t Gretzky.

The problem was Skalbania.

“I came to the right city," Gretzky said. “At the time, obviously, I was here to help a franchise grow on and off the ice and help sell the sport of hockey. But in a lot of ways, there wasn’t a lot of pressure from fans or media. They understood I was so young, only 17 years old."

Gretzky was asked if hockey could have taken root in Indianapolis.

“Listen, hockey has grown so much, you see the success they’re having in place like Columbus, Nashville, San Jose, Anaheim, lots of cities like that," he said. “There’s no question this is a pro sports city. If the franchise has been better, had the team been better, there’s no question it could have sustained itself. But we’ll never really know."

Gretzky only played eight games here; he was a shooting star across the Indianapolis firmament, and for the most part, the locals didn’t have any notion what they were watching. But at least Indy can lay claim to being part of The Great One’s creation story, a strange and satisfying footnote in sports history.

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