Walter Gretzky coached a young Wayne, who ended up setting N.H.L. scoring records that will never be matched, and became a role model for hockey parents.
In an instant 30 years ago, a huge piece of Walter Gretzky’s legacy went missing. Gretzky, the father of the greatest hockey player of all time, had an aneurysm while painting his mother’s farmhouse in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. An ambulance and a nearby hospital saved his life, but when he came to he could remember not a single one of his son’s extraordinary feats. It was as if someone had accidentally deleted the folder holding Wayne Gretzky’s four Stanley Cups, dozens of National Hockey League records, even his 1988 trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. “It’s like I was asleep for 10 years,” Walter Gretzky told The Ottawa Citizen in a 1994 interview. “It’s all kind of like a dream.” He said he tried to recapture those precious father-son moments through video, “but it was not the same.” Walter Gretzky — widely known as “Canada’s Hockey Dad” — died Thursday night in Brantford, Ontario, after a nine-year struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 82. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada tweeted: “Walter Gretzky cared deeply about his family and his community — his kindness was undeniable, his passion was obvious, and his impact was immense. My thoughts are with Wayne and the entire Gretzky family, and all who are mourning the loss of Canada’s hockey dad.” Indeed, it seemed the entire country was grieving this small man with the crooked grin and prominent nose. Gretzky became a hockey icon himself over the decades, appearing in television commercials and at charitable events. Obliging, humble and supportive, he was an ideal model for hockey parents, many of whom lose control and a sense of reality while encouraging their children to excel in the sport that is Canada’s national obsession. He was the hockey parent you wanted in the stands. Wayne Gretzky, who was a Ranger when he retired in 1999, released a statement on Friday saying: “For my sister and my three brothers, Dad was our team captain — he guided, protected and led our family every day, every step of the way.
