Wayne Gretzky may be 'The Great One' but #99 says the late Gordie Howe is the “greatest player who ever lived.”
Gretzky shared a few anecdotes about his childhood idol and long-term friend in an interview with CTV Chief Anchor Lisa LaFlamme Friday, after learning of Howe’s death at the age of 88.
Gretzky was just 10 when he first met his hero at a charity dinner.
“I got a new suit that morning and my mom and dad took me over to the hotel to meet with Gordie,” he said. “I can remember … like it was yesterday.”
That 10-year-old Gretzky probably never imagined he would find himself seated with Howe and U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a White House dinner a decade later.
“I turned to Gordie (and) said, ‘There’s so many forks here, what fork do I use?’” he recalled. “He said, ‘You know what? I have no idea. I’ll follow President Reagan, you follow me.’”
When Gretzky met Muhammad Ali in New York in 1978, it was Howe who introduced them. Gretzky remembered calling his father and telling him, “Everybody knows Gordie Howe -- he’s so popular.”
Gretzky said Howe told him he wanted to be there when his NHL records got broken.
“I remember saying to my dad, ‘You know in some ways I’m kind of embarrassed to (break the records),’” he said. “Gordie played in an era of six teams. It was a lot harder to score goals.”
His dad told him to “make sure of one thing,” Gretzky recalled: “When you see someone come along that has an opportunity to break your records, (be) as genuinely happy for them as Gordie Howe is for you.”
“Obviously you chase down your idols and you want to accomplish what they accomplish,” Gretzky added. “But at the end of the day, I always felt Gordie was so special that, in some ways, I didn’t want to break his record.”
