DEER LAKE, N.L. — Less than a week after Walter Gretzky was laid to rest, Darren Langdon was remembering The Great One’s father as a proud hockey dad, a humble man who obviously knew his son was blessed with special talent, but never treated or acted as if Wayne was, “bigger than anyone else.
“Here was the father of the greatest hockey player ever,” recalled Langdon, the Deer Lake product who played 11 NHL seasons, including three with Wayne Gretzky on the New York Rangers.
“Most of the time, Gretzky doesn’t mind signing autographs,” Langdon said, “but if Walter saw someone out there who wanted an autograph, he made sure Wayne did it. Without saying anything, Gretzky had to do it.”
Walter Gretzky passed away earlier this month at age 82.
Langdon initially got to know him in the backstretch of the 1999 season, Wayne’s last in the NHL.
Walter followed his son around that spring, from Wayne’s final game on Canadian ice in Ottawa, to the last few games of the season in New York.
Langdon was among Wayne’s Gretzky’s favourite teammates, to the point where No. 99 ensured the Newfoundlander was invited to the Wayne Gretzky Fantasy Hockey Camps which operated for a few years until recently in Las Vegas.
“That’s where I got to know Walter, the last time I saw him,” Langdon said. “There’s not much more to it other than he was just a normal dad. So down to earth.”
"... he was just a normal dad. So down to earth.” — Darren Langdon
Walter Gretzky was not a stranger to St. John’s. He had been in the city a bunch of times, as a special guest for the Peter Gzowski Invitational Golf Tournament for Literacy, which had been a regular event at Bally Haly Golf and Country Club.
“Parents sometimes take the fun out of the game,” Walter told The Telegram a few years ago. “You have to let your children enjoy the (hockey) game. Wayne was out in the backyard skating in and out of pylons hours at a time because it was what he wanted to do. He enjoyed it. It has to be fun.”
“There’s no doubt a lot of parents put a lot of pressure on kids nowadays,” Langdon said. “For sure, there was pressure on players back then, too. Walter saw it, but his philosophy when Gretz was growing up was to let him play multiple sports. I know Gretz was really good at lacrosse, he was good at baseball, he ran track.
“It all worked pretty good for Gretzky.”
Robin Short is the Telegram's Sports Editor. robin.short@thetelegram.com | Twitter: @TelyRobinShort
