I’m not sure what inspired me to go looking for this the other day. Old issues of The Brantford Expositor have been available online for quite some time now. But whatever the reason, I came across this famous photo of Wayne Gretzky and his childhood hero Gordie Howe in what must be the first time it ever appeared. It’s on the front page of The Expositor from May 4, 1972.

The occasion was the Kiwanis Great Men of Sports Dinner in Gretzky’s hometown of Brantford, Ontario, which had been held the night before. The principal speaker had been Rudy Pilous, former coach of the Chicago Blackhawks (Black Hawks, in those days) who was currently being wooed by the Chicago Cougars of the WHA and would later become coach and GM of that league’s Winnipeg Jets.

In addition to Pilous and Gordie Howe, other guests that night included Toronto Argonauts quarterback Joe Theismann and Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive lineman Angelo Mosca. There was also Tom Matte of the Baltimore Colts, former Major League pitcher Sal Maglie, Toronto Metros coach Graham Leggat, harness horseman John Hayes, and coach Morley Kells of the Brantford Warriors lacrosse team.

The Expositor notes that 506 people attended the $25-a-plate dinner, which was the largest attendance in the nine-year history of the event, with all proceeds going to the Kiwanis Club of Brantford’s girls’ camp. “One of the biggest ovations,” the paper says, “was reserved for Wayne Gretzky, Brantford’s 11-year-old hockey star.” Gretzky was coming of a 1971-72 season that had seen him score 378 goals and 139 assists in an 85-game Atom season. (The paper notes that the “four foot, nine inch, 80 pound” Gretzky had scored a mere 372 goals.)

Interestingly, young Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe shared the same page in the Brantford newspaper again barely a month later, on June 8, 1972, the day after Howe, Jean Béliveau, and Bernie Geoffrion were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Gretzky had hit a home run and a double to help his Brantford tyke baseball team win its fifth straight game the night before.

Wayne Gretzky’s boyhood accomplishments were well noted in his local newspaper while growing up in Brantford. There are many, many, stories about his hockey, lacrosse, and baseball exploits in the late 1960s and through the 1970s. (And, to be honest, many more times when his name and Howe’s appeared in the paper on the same day.) Gretzky’s first mention in The Expositor would seem to be this one from December 28, 1967:

This was the first winter that Gretzky played hockey after being turned away as a five-year-old the year before. Now a six-year-old playing on a team of 10-year-olds, Gretzky is known to have scored only once that season, so this must be it! (The picture is from the Gretzky family collection and was used by us at Dan Diamond and Associates in our 1999 publication with Gretzky, 99: My Life in Pictures.)

Interestingly, it would seem that Wayne Gretzky’s father, Walter, also made his first appearance in The Brantford Expositor for his own sporting achievements when he was just six years old. Under a headline reading CHILDREN ENJOYED CLOWNS AND RACES AT PENMANS PICNIC Walter Gretzky’s name appears as the winner of a boys 25-yard race:

Though the race is said to be for “boys under six” Walter’s birth date of October 8, 1938, means that he was already six years old by then!

Hmmm……