Stamp appearance is latest honor for Wayne Gretzky (04/09/00)

Stamp appearance is latest honor for Wayne Gretzky

by Ingert Kuzych

SPRINGFIELD, Va. - Of the five major team sports in North America - baseball, basketball, football, ice hockey, and soccer - it is in hockey that Ukrainians have had the greatest impact. This should not be that surprising since this sport is still dominated by Canadians (some 60 percent of National Hockey League (NHL) players hail from the Dominion) and there are well over one million Canadians of Ukrainian background (some 4-5 percent of the population of Canada). Virtually every NHL team has at least one player with some Ukrainian blood and this prominence accounts for The Ukrainian Weekly's Ihor Stelmach always having plenty to write about in his "Ukrainian Pro Hockey Update" column. One player about whom Mr. Stelmach was frequently able to wax poetic was Wayne Gretzky, the soft-spoken superstar who rewrote the NHL's record book and who is Ukrainian on his father's side.

Hockey remains firmly entrenched as Canada's national game and stamps featuring the sport have appeared on a number of occasions in the past. This year the NHL celebrated its 50th All Star Game in Toronto (the site of the first such contest). To honor the event, on February 5, the day before the game, Canada Post issued a special souvenir sheet that depicted six of the sport's greatest players, living and past. The men honored were: Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard, Doug Harvey, Bobby Orr, and Jacques Plante.

Artists Dan Fell and Vincent Mclndoe created this issue by combining canvas illustration with computer design. Round-action vignettes of each of the players appear on square stamps (each denominated 46 cents) in the center of the souvenir sheet. Each stamp is flanked by a portrait of the player (Figure 1).

A set of three first-day covers was also prepared for the occasion. Wayne Gretzky's stamp appears with that of Gordie Howe, Mr. Gretzky's boyhood idol. The two men also appear on the cachet portion of the cover (Figure 2). It was Mr. Howe's many records that Wayne Gretzky spent his career chasing; in most cases he was able to break the established benchmarks. In all, Mr. Gretzky retired holding or sharing 61 records: 40 for the regular season, 15 for the Stanley Cup championship playoffs, and six for the All Star Game. (It takes a page and a half in the NHL Record Book 2000 just to list them all.) The most impressive records are those for most goals, assists, and points in not only the regular season, but also in the playoffs and All Star Games.

Mr. Gretzky is regarded by experts as one of the greatest hockey players ever; if not the best, then certainly in the top handful. Reams of newspaper and magazine articles have been written about him, his career, and his family. I'm not about to try and match any of the superlatives found in those publications, but I will refer readers to Mr. Stelmach's valedictory article that appeared in The Ukrainian Weekly on April 25, 1999.

On November 22, 1999, Wayne Gretzky was officially inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, the highest honor possible for a hockey player. The customary three-year waiting period for was waived, only the 10th time this has happened.

The previous month, on October 1, 1999, Mr. Gretzky's number 99 was officially retired. This action, signaling that the number would never again be worn by another player, was carried out not only by the Edmonton Oilers, the club he played with the longest (10 years), but by every team in the NHL. Such a league-wide number retirement was unprecedented in hockey, but quite appropriate for the player dubbed "The Great One."

The souvenir sheet and the set of three first-day covers may be obtained from Canada Post by calling 1-800-565-4362. The Canadian prices are $2.76 and $3.66 respectively.

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