Name: Wayne Gretzky Was Already a Legend in Canada at 10 Years Old
Uploaded: 2023-11-23T01:00:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Wayne Gretzky Was Already a Legend in Canada at 10 Years Old' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-11-23. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Wayne Gretzky Was Already a Legend in Canada at 10 Years Old' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-11-23. Transcript available.

know by the time i was 10 11 12 years old i was playing in arenas that were
selling out that's
like crazy you were like a circuses in town a little bit and i mean not like
that but i know
what i mean but in those days too it was such a big world because there was no
internet there was
no cell phones and so yeah a kid might be three hours away and you would hear
about them and then
when you play against them my dad would be in the car and after the game he
would say to me
his favorite line was always no matter how good you think you are there's
somebody out there better
than you and i'd say okay and even when i was 15 16 when people said okay he's
going to be a
professional hockey player my dad never one time said you know oh he's a can't
miss or he's going
to make it i mean he hoped because he knew how much i loved it but he never
pressured me the only thing
he pressured me about is he would call me say you didn't miss any classes today
so really oh yeah he
i said dad i don't miss class because if i miss class the team so i was playing
junior hockey and
it was hard because we practiced every day and we travel a lot yeah and so they
were the team was
always on you like you better be in class so he was more concerned that i was
in class i remember i was
17 and i had this uh school teacher and he it was i was taking a physics class
and i hated physics and
chemistry was i kept thinking now where's this gonna where am i gonna use this
in the world yeah so i
kept thinking um anyway and he said if you just put the work in i'll pass you
so i did i went to class
i went to an extra class every day with him and he worked an extra half hour
every day he passed me
and that was the year that month i got offered to turn pro and i signed a pro
contract and i remember
i came back and i i bought him a gift it wasn't a whole it wasn't a big thing
it was like a briefcase
or something thanking him for not for being so patient with me and being so
nice to me he was so
grateful and it was always sort of when i signed my dad said you're going to
stay pro hockey you're
going to stay in high school till you're 18. i don't care what you do but you're
going to school to
you're 18. so here i am playing pro hockey i was going to high school i was
picking up my teammates
daughter we were in the same class no way the guy's name was jim nielsen and i
would pick his daughter
up we were in the same school same class then i'd go to practice you were like
ice vs presley so
the principal called me in one day and he said son i don't know you're not
going to amount to anything
you're missing too many classes i'm like well and he said you know i should
just kick you out
and i said listen it was like early january and i said listen do me a favor and
he goes what i said
give me till january 26 and if i haven't changed my act by then you can kick me
out but i knew i
couldn't go to class because we're always traveling and playing i was playing
pro hockey playing in
quebec city and going to cincinnati and did you have an ego were you in class
were you like the
fonds at this point in class i sat in the back corner i just mind my own
business so the day i
turned 18 i walked into the principal and i said i just want to thank you for
not kicking me out but
i quit i'm done and i quit school and my i said i called my dad and and my dad
said well you promised
me you'd stay at 18 because the contract wasn't valid unless he would sign it
unless your father would
sign it because i wasn't 18 yet and so he said i'll sign it but you got to stay
in high school
so did you ever finish high school technically um no but i'm a doctor yeah does
that mean anything
i'm an honorary doctor um hey it counts to me bro so if you get most of the 12
grades i think that's a
lot people are always like you got to do all of them yeah um i'll give you an
example when i was 15
years old i was playing on a junior hockey team and it was so exciting because
my one of my teammates
was murray howe who was gordy howe's youngest son oh wow and he's just a
wonderful kid and i wore number
nine that year because i always loved gordy and so when he came in i said look
you should wear number
nine your dad's gordy house which my number oh and he was no no no no this is
wayne this is my last year
of hockey um i'm going to enjoy it and i go okay he goes i'm going to be a
doctor he was a really
intelligent guy and he did go on to become a doctor so we'd get on the team bus
and we'd travel to the
city he he'd get on there and he'd have all these books right and i'd get on no
books and he goes
wayne you got you got to get your education you gotta i'm going to a hockey
game i can't think
about reading right now and doing homework and so about two weeks later i got
on the bus and i had like
five or six books i sit down beside him and he he goes good to see you're
taking notes here wayne
that's good good for you and he said he goes what do you got geography history
i go well i got gordy
hockey my way gordy howe hockey tips i said you want to be a doctor christmas
you want to be a doctor
i want to be a hockey player gordy was so nice he was just so it was a dinner
it was a charity dinner
this is an incredible story uh-huh and 700 people were at the dinner and that
was the year i scored
400 goals so the city wanted me to be part of it and you know when you're 10
years old you can't even
stand up and do a speech in front of your classmates right so they had told the
guy so you're only 10 at
this time yeah so they told the emcee wayne's just introduce him he's not going
to talk and so um joe
theisman was there what yeah gordy howe when you were 10 yes sandy holly a
famous jockey and so they all
get up and they kind of talk for seven or eight minutes and people laugh and giggle
so the guy announces
my name and i'm like oh no and i i'm already frozen and gordy says to me now
listen when you go up there
just tell them you're lost without your skates and your hockey stick and so i
got okay okay so i got
up there and i was shaking and i i remember i said thank you and i started bawling
i got a standing
ovation i went and sat down so you remember like the first date you ever went
on when you were a kid
or something like that oh really hockey was my life it was huh it was your
girlfriend i didn't have one
just hockey yeah just you know i had a um junior a coach when i 16 years old
playing with 19 20 year
olds and he would say playing junior hockey is really hard um but being a
professional hockey
player is a great life and so you said you got hockey you got um uh schooling
and you got uh night
life and you can only do two of the three so make sure you pick the right two
so when you're 16 years old
it was my life i loved lived and died it go to school from 8 30 to 3 o'clock
practice four to six
every night play usually thursday saturday sunday back to school right same
things when you when you
see like how you were compared to like how some other players were right did
you think that you almost had
like a uh abnormality how much you liked it or how much you focused on it like
was it that kind of thing
um because i see players i have friends that are good at things and friends
that really are let's put it
this way um i knew there's a lot of other really good players and athletes but
for us for me you know
especially when i got to be 16 i knew i knew that was my life like i knew it
wasn't going to be
a great student um i knew it was going to be hard for me to get a college
degree i i understood that
i knew my forte was going to be hockey and growing up playing baseball track
and field lacrosse
and i encouraged parents all the time all those sports helped my hockey oh yeah
and so by the time
i got to 16 i was like okay this is what i'm gonna do i i want to be a
professional hockey player um and
so i i really that was my focus and the only advice my dad used to say give me
really was um you got a
great opportunity here to really have a wonderful life and the good lord
blessed you with a love and a
passion like i've never seen before and sort of like don't blow it don't throw
it away and so i always
kind of thought that that i never thought i was missing out going to a
different city or going here
or doing this if i was my enjoyment was being on the ice yeah i didn't think i
was missing anything else
like wow i never even never even faced me yeah that was the thing and you know
i can remember um
my dad saying you know you're gonna have so many opportunities here for some
reason
you know with your aunt being down syndrome and you growing up with that in the
canadian institute
for the blind was in my hometown of brantford like there's more than just
hockey like you're gonna be
one day you're gonna be a symbol for good things and so i always i kind of grew
up with it right it
was that was kind of my education what a powerful thing to say to a child too
you know oh yeah that they
have the that they if they do their best you know not even do their best but if
they
they can help people they make enough effort that they have a the possibility
to be a a symbol for
for good and so that's really powerful yeah and so you know i just i mean that's
i guess
you know i became wayne gretzky and so just had a love for it that's all is it
like did it trust me
there was a lot of guys with more talent than i had right there's a lot of guys
who were better than
i was really and then there's some guys that i just wanted it more than yeah
but but by no means was
i the best player ever there were so many great players i'm fine i'm happy what
i accomplished i'm
happy i'm i did it i'm happy i'm done but that's all kind of behind me now i
don't worry about it
it's like uh i get parents who come up to me you know mothers are hardest right
and my mom was worse
too she chased down bobby hall to get an autograph for me and and so when mom's
grabbed me i go i get
it i get it my mom did it for me too but the moms always say to me will you
tell my son how many hours
a day used to practice and i go that's not it and she go what do you mean i go
that's not it i said
i just did it because i loved it if you have to say you got to be out there two
hours or three hours
you're in the wrong thing i just was there all day long because i loved it
Thank you.