Booking Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky Biography

The former professional ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky was born in 1961 in Ontario, Canada. Young Wayne grew up playing hockey, starting at the age of three. His father had built a small rink in the backyard and coaching Wayne and his siblings in the sport, and by the time Wayne was six, he’d starting playing for his first team, although most of his teammates were a few years older than he.

By the time he was a teenager, Gretzky’s talents were already garnering him significant attention, and the family moved to Toronto so that he could begin playing Junior B hockey with the Toronto Nationals. Throughout his teens, Gretzky’s performance grew to legendary proportions, and after being courted by a number of different teams, Wayne Gretzky signed with the Indianapolis Racers in 1978 at the age of seventeen.

Wayne Gretzky went on to play twenty seasons for the NHL starting in 1979 and ending in 1999, playing for the Racers, the Edmonton Oilers, the Los Angeles Kings, and the New York Rangers. Considered to be among the greatest hockey players that ever lived, Gretzky was referred to as “the great one,” and upon his retirement he held more than sixty NFL records. Following his retirement, Wayne Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, bypassing the standard three-year waiting period.

Wayne Gretzky has remained active in his retirement, serving as Executive Director for the Canadian men’s hockey team at the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics. In the 2010 Winter Olympics, Wayne Gretzky was the final torchbearer, and he served as special advisor to the team.