Wayne Gretzky: The Great One

Raymond B. Blake is an assistant professor of history at Mount Allison
University and the author of Canadians at Last: Canada Integrates
Newfoundland as a Province.

This slender book examines the career of Gretzky from the early days in
Brantford, Ontario, to the Kings’ Stanley Cup loss to the Montreal
Canadiens in 1993. Gretzky was a teenage prodigy, scoring more than 1000
goals in his first five years in minor hockey and becoming a
professional athlete at the age of 17, when he signed a $4 million
contract with the Indianapolis Racers of the struggling World Hockey
Association. Gretzky is best-known, of course, for leading the Edmonton
Oilers to four Stanley Cups in the 1980s and, in the process, rewriting
the National Hockey League Record Book for individual achievement.

Gerry Redmond sees Gretzky not only as a great hockey player but also
as a great individual, devoted to his parents, friends, and family, and
to the game of hockey. Redmond mentions in his conclusion that, despite
Gretzky’s greatness, he has never won the support of those hockey fans
who demand of their heroes the rugged, tough, Don Cherry image. If this
is his only criticism of Gretzky, the book would be better without it.
Even Grapes loves the Great One.