Hockey Legend Wayne Gretzky Shared His Father With A Nation

One of the greatest hockey fathers in Canada, Walter Gretzky, has died. He was 82 years old.

Wayne Gretzky’s father made a reputation for himself and was a constant in his life. Throughout Wayne’s rise to fame, Walter remained an iconic figure of a hard-working hockey parent.

Hockey Legend Wayne Gretzky Shared His Father With A Nation

According to Wayne Gretzky’s social media message on Thursday night, his father had passed away.

Wayne expressed his grief over his father’s death, saying, “It’s with deep sadness that Janet and I convey this news.” As he heroically battled Parkinson’s and other health difficulties, he never succumbed to despair. ”

I fell in love with the sport of hockey because of him. In life as much as in hockey, he encouraged me to be the best I could be.”

Commercials for Tim Hortons and Coca-Cola featured the father-son relationship between the two. They also made Brantford, Ontario, famous in the footsteps of Alexander Graham Bell.

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The fact that Walter was hailed for more than merely having fathered a famous child was one of his many accomplishments. His down-to-earth approach to life and love to his family resonated with Canadians.

I have to pinch myself to be sure I’m not dreaming at times,” Walter stated in his 2001 book, “Walter Gretzky. On Family, Hockey, and Healing”

It’s Wayne’s opinion, too.

After a spectacular recovery from a stroke in 1991, Walter’s fame soared. He wrote an autobiography and a TV movie about it in 2005.

Wayne Gretzky learned to skate on the banks of the Nith River in Canning, Ontario, where Walter Gretzky was born in 1932, the son of Polish and Russian immigrants. They paid $600 for it.

Gretzky of Gretsky Fame

Because Tony’s father Tony having relocated to the US from Russia, he changed his last name from Gretsky to Gretzky when he enlisted in the First World War because he couldn’t write in English. As an 18-year-old in 1921, Walter’s mother Mary emigrated to Canada on her own.

On a trip to Toronto during the thirties Walter’s parents met. He was born in the fifth generation of a family of seven.

A minor hockey player in Paris, Ontario, he moved on to junior B hockey in Woodstock for four years. He went on to play senior hockey, but he refused to play professionally because he felt he wasn’t good enough.

Walter and his future wife Phyllis met during a family farm wiener roast. At the moment, she was 15. After three years of dating, they tied the knot.

There were six children born in 1961, starting with Wayne and Kim, then Keith, Glen, Brent, and Kim. Keith and Brent were both professional ice hockey players, too.

Walter suffered a head injury while working as a Bell lineman the year Wayne was born. He was out of commission for 18 months after a near-fatal accident that left him in a coma for several weeks. Deafened in his right ear from birth, he worked his way up through the ranks at Bell, eventually landing a position as an installer/repairman.

He called it the Wally Coliseum since it was the name of the rink his father built in their backyard in Brantford, Ontario, when he was just four-years-old. Wayne was a hockey fanatic from the time he was a child.

Walter built his own rink so he wouldn’t have to stand outside in the freezing cold while Wayne skated at another outdoor rink — or sit in his car with the engine running to keep warm. He complained that gas was too expensive.

“It was for My Own Good,” He Insisted.

By enlisting bigger kids to play against Wayne in the backyard and getting him on a team of 10-year-olds when he was just six, Walter fostered his son’s hockey addiction.

At his age, Walter remarked, “you knew he was good at what he was doing. “But you couldn’t say that one day he’d do what he did.” “No one could do it.”

When Wayne didn’t receive a trophy at the year-end banquet for his first year of organised hockey, he cried.

If you keep working hard, Wayne, you’ll amass so many awards that we won’t be able to store them all, his father warned.

Walter was a Firm Believer in Hard Effort Paying Off.

Dad: “People are going to judge you on how you perform every night.” Wayne was 11 at the time. This should never be forgotten.”

When he was 21, he was subjected to a similar barrage of abuse during the 1983 Stanley Cup Finals.

In his autobiography, Wayne stated, “I don’t know where I’d be without him, but I know it wouldn’t be in the NHL.”

Walter Confessed, “I Just Think I told him to Play Good.

Hockey got in the way at times. In 1972, Walter missed the birth of their eldest son, Brent, since Wayne was competing in a minor tournament in Mexico.

In the maternity ward, he wrote, “Phyllis recalls my first words to her were, ‘We won, we won!'” As if I were crazy, she told me, ‘It’s a boy, Walter.'” My dedication as a hockey dad went a little too far at times, so I think I’ll have to own up to that. My new son, who is also a budding hockey player, was of course welcomed with open arms.

One after the other, Walter drove an old blue Chevy station waggon, naming each one of them the Blue Goose, until it reached 200,000 miles or broke down. He described it as a “reliable family automobile.”

For his Parents’ 25th Wedding Anniversary, Wayne gave his Father a Blue Cadillac.

He described his childhood hero as “a man with continuous headaches, ulcers, and ringing in his ears,” which is exactly what Wayne described. When it comes to teaching, he does things the same way he always has, believing in the same things he always has. He never changes.”

“I used to say that everything I had was thanks to hockey, but it turns out that wasn’t the case. His parents are the source of everything he has.

When “On Family, Hockey, and Healing” came out, it was reprinted in paperback. Walter provided a solution to a pre-existing query in the introduction: When you’re the father of a hockey star, what’s it like?

According to him, the experience had been “amazing beyond and above my greatest hopes.” The ability to see the world, meet fascinating people, and do things I never would have done otherwise has been made possible because to this project. ‘I’m a big fan of telling stories, and these experiences have given me a lot of material!’ It’s been a wonderful experience, and I’m glad I could share it with my loved ones.”.

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His Point was that there was More to the Story than Meets the Eye.

As he put it, “it’s a privilege, but it also comes with a responsibility,” While living in a place where you’re always in the public eye, you’re a magnet for “some really bizarre stuff,” he wrote.