Behind every Great One…

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/03/2021 (1911 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Free Press reader Bette Jayne Taylor wasn’t quite sure why she forwarded me the email — but I’m glad she did.

The email contained a heart-tugging story in which her son, Jim Taylor, described the unforgettable day he was able to give Canada’s most beloved hockey dad, Walter Gretzky, a private tour of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Like so many hockey fans in North America, Jim was devastated last week when Walter died at age 82 after a nine-year battle with Parkinson’s disease and a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 1991 that robbed him of his short-term memory.

Walter’s passing has prompted an avalanche of tributes for a man who, along with being the father of Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of modern times, became a household name for his dedication to minor hockey and charities and the kindness, compassion and patience he showed to everyone whose life he touched.

When I reached out to Jim Taylor — a “proud Winnipegger” who moved in 2013 to Rockford, Ill., to live with his American wife and work at the local science museum — he was delighted to share memories of a day spent with the man who nurtured Wayne’s incredible talents on the family’s famed backyard rink in Brantford, but also never forgot where he came from.

“A couple of decades ago, I worked at the Hockey Hall of Fame,” Taylor wrote in his email and on his Facebook page of spending 2001 to 2004 as a guide and floor staff employee at Canada’s shrine to our national obsession.

“It was an amazing place, staffed by amazing people, with amazing opportunities to meet legendary people in the game. One afternoon, Walter Gretzky paid us a visit. At the time we had a massive exhibit featuring his son, and he wanted to check it out,” Taylor recalled.

“He didn’t even make it through the door before someone recognized him and, before long, he was swamped with autograph seekers. He never complained. He was pleasant and patient, and he spent close to three hours talking to every person and signing every single autograph.”

When closing time rolled around, Taylor’s manager asked whether he’d be willing to stick around and give Canada’s hockey dad a private tour of the exhibit honouring his son’s career.

“Of course, I said yes, because I’m not insane,” he recalled. “We spent nearly two hours together, walking through the exhibit. He was showing me around a lot more than I was showing him.”

At one point, when they stopped to examine a photo of The Great One as a child, skating on the family’s legendary back yard rink, Walter paused and said: “That’s a pool now.”

Taylor recalled how Walter laughed as he talked about how his famous son changed the elder Gretzky’s living room furniture three times while he recovered from the brain aneurysm that cost him much of his memory in 1991.

Then there was one of the most famous photos in hockey history — the one in which Gordie “Mr. Hockey” Howe playfully hooks his stick under the chin of a jug-eared 10-year-old boy who idolized him and would one day grow up to break his records. “Some photographer wanted to do a reverse pose years later, with Wayne hooking Gordie with a hockey stick, which… of course… Wayne refused to do,” the former hall of fame guide wrote.

“We looked at all Wayne’s trophies, and it seemed like Walter had a story for every single one. When we got to the famous … jersey where they spelled Gretzky wrong, Walter told me about how his grandparents were given that last name at the border, because the immigration officer wrote (the) wrong spelling down on the form.”

In the museum’s great hall, Taylor and the elder Gretzky looked at hockey’s Holy Grail, the Stanley Cup, and laughed at how, after the Edmonton Oilers claimed the title in 1984, team owner Peter Pocklington had his own father’s name engraved on the Cup, which was later covered with a row of Xs by the NHL.

“I joked that if any Dad should have his name on the Cup, it should be Walter. He just shook his head. ‘That was all Wayne,’ he told me,” Taylor recalled.

That singular tour with a famously down-to-earth Canadian who was never too busy to talk hockey, sign an autograph or take a photo with fans ended with an unforgettable moment for a former Manitoban with an abiding love for our national game.

“When he was ready to leave, Walter shook my hand and said: ‘I’m glad they’ve got such a good guy looking after my son’s stuff.’ It remains one of the best days of my life,” Taylor wrote. “Walter Gretzky was more than Wayne Gretzky’s Dad. He was Canada’s Dad. And he’ll be terribly missed.”

I think we can all get behind that sentiment, Jim, and I’m glad you (and your mom) shared that heart-touching memory of a famously humble Canadian who became a sort of blue-collar symbol of devotion to family and hockey.

Initially, I considered ending today’s column by saying they don’t make them like Walter Gretzky anymore, but the truth is, they do.

One of the things Canada is famous for is the army of Hockey Moms and Hockey Dads who sacrifice their time and energy to ensure their children can play the greatest game in the world. Their devotion, like Walter’s memory, will never be forgotten.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca