On The Record, with Jeffrey Reed
May 30, 2026
The Real Reason Gretzky Is The Great One
As a 19-year-old sports reporter making my bones with the Fanshawe College student radio station, CIXX-FM – or 6X-FM, as it was known by a loyal legion of London sports fans – interviewing sports superstars was enough to make me piss my pants, or worse. And that’s exactly what almost happened when I was about to conduct my first feature interview with none other than The Great One – Wayne Gretzky.
Let me backtrack a bit. Even before I had entered the halls of the local community college which sat on the edge of my northeast London neighbourhood, I had already seen my byline published in The London Free Press, a newspaper for whom I was the most oft-published freelancer for parts of four decades – back when freelancers were actually valued and published by dailies. That’s a story for another column. But in 1980, the Freeps published my op-ed on the need for high school baseball in London – a topic I had tackled previously for my high school newspaper, The Montcalm Tribune.
After my story ran in the Tribune, one of my gym teachers literally grabbed me by the collar as I made my way in line for greasy fries and lumpy gravy – I lived on that shit during my high school days: explains why I never grew past 5’8”. But I did run cross country for the Montcalm Cougars. In any event, the teacher was upset that I had written about the lack of baseball amongst high school offerings. Red-faced, spitting on me, he said – loud enough for the entire cafeteria to hear – “Reed, I read your article. How the hell do you think we can afford baseball when we barely have enough money for existing sports?”
That’s all I needed to hear. I was hooked. Sports journalism was my calling. I knew then that I could make people think and, hopefully, make a difference in this world. Sports may be the “toy department of the newsroom,” as my college prof, Bob Collins, would remind me daily. But as legendary sports broadcaster Bob Costas once quipped, “They say that sports don’t matter much. And if they’re talking about what’s on the scoreboard, then in the end, they’re right. But the people matter. And the memories they let us share matter.”
Certainly, Gretzky has shared a lifetime of memories with Canadians – not only hockey fans (and how can you be Canadian without loving hockey?) but all Canadians. And for a very young sports reporter, the Great One was certainly great in my eyes after a kind gesture one September 1981 morning.
At the 1981 Canada Cup, played in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Montreal, Gretzky sustained a bruised elbow during a preliminary match against Sweden and then was ineffective taking face-offs during the remainder of the tournament. Yet he led the entire tournament in scoring with 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists). In the September 13 championship game, however, the Soviets crushed Canada, 8-1.
A few days later, Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers held a morning practice at the old London Gardens before heading to Kitchener for a pre-season game. Gretzky was not supposed to attend – media were told he would be resting his elbow before the regular season started. This was an Oilers team on the cusp of greatness, with the likes of coach Glen Sather, netminders Grant Fuhr and Andy Moog, defensemen Paul Coffey and Kevin Lowe, forwards Gretzky, Glenn Anderson, Mark Messier, Dave Semenko and veteran Gary Unger, plus a solid lineup of supporting players. They were the buzz of the hockey world, finished 48-17-15 for 111 points, won the Smythe Division but were eliminated in five games by the Los Angeles Kings in the division semifinals. Edmonton set an NHL record with 417 regular-season goals. The Great One, of course, shattered the single-season scoring record, posting 92 goals, 120 assists and 212 points. This was the year he scored 50 goals in just 39 games. Hockey’s Golden Boy was now a hockey god.
Wayne Gretzky’s 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee bubblegum card
Yet Gretzky was still just a young, ordinary guy from nearby Brantford, Ontario, and just a year older than me. To this day, not only is Gretzky a media darling, but he remains humble and accommodating.
Sure, there have been speedbumps along the way – nobody is perfect. Sports Illustrated ran an article in 1986 reporting that at least five unnamed members of the Oilers had a significant cocaine problem – only Fuhr admitted to using cocaine.
In 2006, Gretzky’s wife, Janet Jones, was investigated (and cleared) in association with Operation Slapshot, a large sports betting ring financed by Rick Tocchet, then an assistant coach for the Phoenix Coyotes – Wayne was head coach and part-owner. While investigators found that Jones had placed at least $100,000 worth of bets including NFL and NBA games, she denied ever placing any bets on behalf of Wayne, and neither she nor Wayne were charged with any wrongdoing.
In the eyes of many sports fans, Gretzky’s image has been tarnished for his chumming around with close friend and sometimes golf partner, U.S. President Donald Trump. And when Gretzky did not wear a Team Canada jersey at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off final, and appeared to be cheering for Team USA, even Edmonton hockey fans demanded that the city’s Wayne Gretzky Drive see a name change.
No one is perfect, in particular professional athletes. Trust me, I’ve been around them all of my professional life, and very few of them are role models. But trust me when I say, Gretzky is one of the good ones – not only because of the story I’m about to tell you, but also because he is a genuinely good guy.
Back to that morning practice in mid-September 1981 at the London Gardens. Half way through the practice, in walks Gretzky – totally unexpectedly. Soon, he was on the ice, laughing, hugging and yelling with his Oilers teammates during a scrimmage that resembled a bunch of pre-teens playing pond hockey. The Gretzky factor was now on – the entire mood of the rink changed. He had that kind of star charisma. I stood in the London Knights bench area watching practice, but was told that Gretzky would not do any interviews.
After the practice, I did what any 19-year-old hockey fan would do: I walked into the visiting team’s dressing room where the Oilers were just a few minutes ago, and looked for any pucks, sticks or other Oilers paraphernalia which may have been discarded. Alongside me was my life-long friend, Chris Kubinski, who would study in the same college program as me, one year later, and would go on to enjoy a successful career in media sales and marketing. Chris tagged along with me a lot during my first year at 6X-FM – good on him for wanting a first-hand view of how journalism worked. But like me, he was first and foremost a sports fan. Any sports journalist who says they are not is a liar.
As we walked into the dressing room, I literally walked right into Gretzky – bam! – who was about to escape to Brantford to visit his family, including his famous hockey dad, Walter. A shiny, new Porsche was waiting for him in the parking lot where literally hundreds of screaming teenage girls were also waiting for Gretzky.
The back of Wayne Gretzky’s 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee bubblegum card.
Tongue-tied and, yes, almost pissing my pants, holding a large cassette recorder, I introduced myself to Gretzky and asked for an interview. “I’m really pressed for time,” Gretzky said, “but let me give you my phone number in Brantford. Give me one hour and then call for an interview.” One hour. Hell, he did have a Porsche.
I quickly produced a piece of paper and a pen – the Great One wrote down his phone number (I still have that piece of paper tucked away with my large collection of sports memorabilia), shook my hand, and then walked through a sea of autograph seekers before jumping onto Highway 401 for Brantford.
Really, I was quite stunned that his had happened – Gretzky was not supposed to be in London. And whose number did he give me, anyways? Was this a joke – was it the number for Gus’s Pool Hall in downtown Brantford?
I was still living at home during my two years of college. I quickly jumped into my car – not a Porsche, but a beaten-down 1973 Chevy Nova. It did have a killer stereo, though. God, I wish I still had that car. Anyhow, I drove home to do the phone interview. Here’s another piece of early-1980s electronic gear: I used a suction cup with attached wire from Radio Shack which stuck to the earpiece of a dial telephone and recorded the lengthy interview onto a Radio Shack cassette tape.
Yes, I still have that recording. Years later, I would dub a copy for Walter, who had forgotten most of that era of his famous son’s hockey career after suffering a stroke. My father, Ken, had suffered a stroke about the same time as Walter, and the two became friends during our lunch one afternoon. Walter thanked me for the kind gesture, but the real kindness stemmed from how Wayne had accommodated a young sports reporter.
How many superstar athletes today would do that for a college radio station reporter – or any reporter, for that matter? Very, very few. Maybe none. Ironic, given the fact we live in the age of communication and everyone has a cell phone attached to their ears.
I often tell this story when recounting my career during speaking engagements, and it never gets old. I was lucky back then – not just because I was at the right place at the right time, looking for a stick, but running into Gretzky. The real luck came from knowing that Gretzky really was a good guy, and that not all sports superstars are asses like Barry Bonds (read my previous column about the home run king).
The Oilers, of course, would go on to win the Stanley in 1984, ’85, ’87, ’88 and again without Gretzky (who signed with the Kings) in 1990. As for Gretzky, he still holds 56 NHL records and remains The Great One.
As for me, I’ll always be grateful for his kindness and greatness off the ice.
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On The Record is published every Saturday at LondonOntarioSports.com. Jeffrey Reed is Southwestern Ontario’s senior sports journalist, with roots dating back to 1980. A three-time author, Reed penned, EBBA 40 Years of Baseball (1994) and, The Canadian Seniors’ Golf Association, Celebrating 100 Years of Seniors Golf 1918-2018 (2018). Reach him at jeff@londonontariosports.com.
