Wayne Gretzky: On the Ice With...
“NHL writers and broadcasters openly questioned his decision to go pro. At five feet eleven inches and 164 pounds, Wayne was far from an imposing physical presence. But as had been pointed out by his first coach, Dick Martin, Wayne looked small only until he took control of the puck. Then everyone on the opposing team looked scared.
The summer before his pro hockey debut was a relaxing one. Wayne worked on his skating and played a lot of baseball, a sport he had always loved. Then, on September 11, 1978, exactly three months after signing his personal services contract with Nelson Skalbania, Wayne Gretzky began his first professional training camp.
Wayne got along well with his first pro coach, Whitey Stapleton, a former standout NHL defenseman. If anything, Stapleton seemed overly protective of his young phenom. What Stapleton and most adults didn’t realize was that Wayne had been playing under intense pressure for years. He was used to it.
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