From Dan Wetzel’s article on Yahoo! Sports today.
My question is this: Who was the last American athlete to receive the level of reverence that Gretzky has in Canada?
Do any other countries have an athlete in their recent history that is comparable?
I would say you’d probably have to go all the way back to someone like Babe Ruth to find an athlete on that same “godlike” level in the United States, if you’re going to discount Jordan as being that guy.
Only Babe Ruth comes close. Even then, maybe not.
Michael Jordan is/was revered, but not nearly to the extent The Great One is here. Basketball is not as universally important in the USA as hockey is to us, which really is the key difference. There is no American equivalent to Canada’s love of hockey; you don’t have any one sport that represents what hockey does to us. If you asked 1000 Canadians what the most important single momet in Canadian history is, your plurality winning response will probably be September 28, 1972, Paul Henderson’s winning goal. We have kids playing hockey on our money. Without an equivalent to hockey, you cannot have an equivalent to Gretzky.
Muhammad Ali was revered, as well, but again, boxing in USA =/= hockey in Canada.
Babe Ruth was similar, though; at that time baseball was really the only important professional team sport in the United States, more culturally important than it is today; football and basketball weren’t any big deal then. Ruth was, like Gretzky, extremely dominant, broke a huge number of records, was almost preposterously talented, and was a media star to the point that he elevated the entire sport.
While I can’t speak to all of Canadian media, I can tell you that from what I see the story seems to be a much bigger issue in the US than it is in Canada. For several days, the media in the US was ready to feed Gretz to the wolves and put him in the same place as Pete Rose. Then it comes out that he wasn’t lying and he didn’t know about the gambling until the Feds had served Tocchet with his warrent. Of course that won’t stop the media from trying to keep the story going.
In Canada, from what I can tell, it is pretty much a non-issue.
Babe Ruth is a good choice (again if Michael Jordan is discounted, but I’m not sure he should be) but how about someone like Jackie Robinson? Granted he didn’t dominate his sport the same way Babe Ruth or Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordon did (which is not to say he wasn’t a great player) but the level of reverence is certainly there.
I’d say it has to be a baseball player from a time before there was the intense media scrutiny there is now but a few football players came to mind such as Walter Payton, Jim Brown, or Joe Montana.
I don’t think any of them are close. If you ask Canadians who the greatest Canadian is who ever lived, a fair number will say Gretzky. How many Americans would say that of any sports star?
Gretzky is revered in Canada not just because hockey is our dominant sport, but also because we don’t have a lot of other Canadian heros. We really don’t have the equivalent of a Washington or an FDR or even a Reagan. Maybe Trudeau comes close for some Canadians. But most Canadians could barely tell you who our first Prime Minister was, let alone really care about him as a major Canadian figure. So for a lot of Canadians Gretzky IS Canada. Not only is he the greatest hockey player who ever lived, but he embodies Canadian values - he’s polite, soft spoken, kind, charitable, a good sport, etc. A lot of Canadians see Gretzky as being symbolic of everything good about Canada.
That said, the ‘scandal’ hasn’t made an impact here. No one’s talking about it at work. It’s a story in the middle of the sports pages, not the front pages. No one really cares. Maybe it’s because we have more faith in the guy and don’t believe he’s done anything wrong, or maybe it’s because we have so much invested in him that we don’t want to believe it. Or maybe we just don’t care, because nothing can take away what Gretzky has accomplished.
Much of the bite of Betzkygate was taken out by the way the story has been reported; it first came out that Gretzky was on a wiretap discussing the affair, and the media speculated this meant he was lying about not knowing about it. Then, AFTER that, it comes out that the conversation was after the story’d broken anyway. The effect was to make Canadians become suspicious of the accusations against Gretzky.
Nonsense! It was September 15, 1987. And Gretz was in on that goal. 
In all seriousness, though, I think you’re overstating the case a bit, though. Wayne only finished 10th on that CBC Greatest Canadian poll. If asked about single moments in Canadian history I think you’d get more mentions of Vimy Ridge, the passing of the Canada Health Act, or the completion of the Canadian Pacific railroad. Henderson’s goal is a prominent moment to be sure, but I don’t think anyone sees it as being particularly critical in a historical sense. Plus it was a crappy goal, not nearly as pretty as Mario’s in 87. 
I don’t know how the author quoted in the OP can discount Jordan. He was literally the greatest player in basketball ever. That said, I do agree that hockey is way more revered in Canada then just about any sport in the US (well, maybe baseball up until the 1950’s?)
Ruth is the only one that really was bigger. Ruth was and is monumental in USA sports history. Gretsky is the same to Canada. It is nearly 70 years since Ruth played and he is still the benchmark that all other sports stars in the US are compared to.
Odd. I was thinking the same thing, but with Jordan in Ruth’s place.
Here in the US, the following phrase is fairly common, when trying to imply elite, almost singluar status:
“He’s like the Jordan of _______”
To the point where (again, in the US) Gretzky is referred to as the “Jordan of Hockey”.
Having said that, I have NO clue what the whole “Henderson” thing refers to.
-Cem
I think Ruth and Jackson are the closest to Gretzky for Americans in general. Jackie Robinson had the same sort of massive appeal, but it originally was primarily in the Black community: there were plenty of white southerners who hated him at the time.
Red Grange was up with Ruth in popularity: they created an entire sports league to showcase him.
There are quite a few baseball players who has the same massive popularity in a particular segment of population: Tony Lazzeri, the Dimaggios (but especially Joe), Hank Greenberg, Al Simmons, and Stan Coveleski come to mind.
And in particular cities, certain athletes were as beloved as Gretzky: names like Joe Namath, Tom Seaver, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Duke Snyder, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, and Y. A. Tittle were at that level within New York, for instance.
IMO one of the reasons you could discount Jordan is because he isn’t almost unanimously considered the greatest player of his sport ever. People commonly cite other basketball players, such as Oscar Roberston (if memory serves). Very very few people consider any player other then Gretzky as the greatest.
For the amount of reverence the Great One has here, I would guess that the a goodly number of Canadians can tell you what his Dads’ name is and what town he was born in. How many Americans could say that about Jordan?
Australian cricketer Don Bradman remains a cultural icon even after his death. During his career he had songs written about him, crowds at matches were larger when he was batting and he received unprecedented media coverage. After his retirement he remained an important public figure for many years and then retired to a quiet home life. Even then he was sought after by cricketers from all over the world. When he finally agreed to an interview it was spun out into a series of TV shows. The South Australian museum has a Bradman Collection, there is a Bradman Museum at Bradman Oval in Bowral. He has been the subject of dozens of books and TV shows, has featured on national stamps and tons of memorabilia. It is hard to comprehend the influence of his reputation unless you are Australian although he is similarly revered in India although he never played there.
The eight game “summit series” between most of the best Canadian players (Bobby Orr was injured and Bobby Hull was shunned for leaving the NHL for the WHA) and the best Soviet players. Four games were played in Canada and four games were played in Moscow. Pretty much every TV in Canada was tuned in and if you were alive, you remember where you were when Henderson scored. I was five and I still remember when I saw the goal.
The entire series is available on DVD. All eight games in their entirty and some interesting extras. When you do watch it you are immediatly struck at the differences in the game (hockey) between 1972 and today.
His Dad’s name is Walter. He’s from Brantford.
I certainly think Jordan is much revered, but no, he’s not quite to Americans what Gretzky is to Canadians. Again, Americans do not have any sport as important to them as hockey is to us. Basketball isn’t even the most popular sport in America now, and it never has been.
To understand what Gretzky means to Canada, it’s important to understand what hockey means to Canada. Hockey is more than just the statistically most popular sport here; it’s a central part of Canada’s identity. Canada has, since its inception, had to define itself by how it is different from the United States, or from Britain, or, more destructively, how Canadians are different from each other, meaning English and French.
Hockey, however, unites Canada with a positive, proactive identifier. Hockey is the one thing Canadians are absolutely, unquestionably better at than anyone else in the world. Oh, we try to hang our hats on stuff that seems more, well, mature - ooh, the wonderful health care system (which is no better than any number of European systems) oooh, the wonderful, uh, multiculturalism (like there aren’t other multicultural countries) oooh, the quality of life (like Norway or Germany are poor) our wonderful tradition of peacekeeping (which we’ve long since fallen behind in) our alleged love of the environment (utter bullshit, we pollute like crazy.)
Not only are those alterntives either boring or bullshit, Canada has, no matter how Canadians deny it, a massive, massive inferiority complex, because the American are our neighbours, and they’re bigger, tougher, more glamorous. Americans are the best at all KINDS of things; Americans have the biggest economy, the nastiest military, the most Nobel Prize winners. Americans put men on the frickin’ moon. Americans are the best at several sports. American movies fill our theatres, and let’s be honest, they’re better than the boring, artsy junk we tend to make. Canadians alternately babble about how they’re better than Americans, and then worry that Americans don’t love us enough. When the Simpsons put on an episode featuring Homer and clan going to Toronto it was the most pathetic thing you’ve ever seen; the Canadian media made it a major story. Oooh, the Americans are looking at us! Ooooh! Oooooh! Will Ferguson put it best; we’re like a teenaged boy with a crush on an older girl.
But in hockey, there’s simply no doubt; we’re the best. It’s objective fact. Oh, we don’t win every tournament, but we sure win more than anyone else. We’re simply loaded with scads of great players, and always have been. And we’re not quiet about it; our players are, by reputation and design, notoriously arrogant, mean, violent, and obsessed with winning; Europeans will freely and openly admit that Canadian players just seem to have an extra drive to score, fight, check, win. On the international scene our teams are despised with the hatred that the big, bad bully in any sport gets. We’re the Yankees cubed. We invented the sport, we developed the sport, and after more than a century we can still kick your ass from here to Halifax.
And this is not something limited to a particular geography or ethnic group. In the USA, basketball is mostly a black sport now. Football is widely popular but heavily Southern; baseball is increasingly Hispanic, though it’s still an obsession in New England and New York; hockey is northern, NASCAR southern. But in Canada, hockey is universal. English Canadians love hockey, and French Canadians love hockey. British Columbians love hockey, Newfoundlanders love hockey. They love hockey in every little small town, and they love hockey in the giant cities like Montreal and Toronto. When Canadians say “Community centre,” they often mean “A facility primarily designed around an ice rink, but there might be some other stuff there too, I don’t really check it out.” And this is in a country racked, I mean RACKED, with regional and linguistic barriers. Hockey draws us together.
Now, this was always the reality here, and then along comes Wayne Gretzky. In terms of his dominance and impact on his sport, Wayne Gretzky is not the equal of Michael Jordan; he is way, way, way past Jordan. Gretzky’s level of dominance in the 1980s was simply unprecedented in any major sport on this continent, save, as I’ve pointed out, for Babe Ruth (and only at Ruth’s time; his accomplishments were mostly equalled by others.) Gretzky was so statistically beyond anything ever seen before, he crashed the NHL’s statistics computer. No, seriously, he did. He holds all major records by margins that are almost absurd.
He did this without any really obviously unusual physical gifts; he was a decent athlete but nothing special, not a super skater, not really strong. He just… knew. I don’t know how else to put it; he was born knowing more about how to exploit a sport than anyone else. His nickname, “The Great One,” was applied to him when he was ten years old, when he scored 378 goals in 80 games; it was routine for him to score four or five goals in the first period and then just pass the puck to his teammates because he didn’t want to show off.
To watch him was to watch the sport being played in a way other humans could not. Jordan was great, super-great, but he was better than Kobe Bryant, better than Magic Johnson, better than Tracy McGrady. Gretzky was DIFFERENT, not just better. He played the game in a way other players did not; he did not try to overpower his opponents, or even outrace them. He out thought them. The puck would break free, and magically, Gretzky would be waiting for it. A pass bounces errantly, but Gretzky would somehow be there. Men who were faster and quicker than Gretzky would try to hit him, but somehow they could not.
On top of that, he was, personality-wise, perfect. He was humble, gentle, kind. Despite his amazing talent, he was by all accounts the perfectly coachable player, never being a bad seed. Despite his incredible competitiveness, he was a gentleman in a sport of goons. The perfect spokesman for his sport. For his country.
To give you an idea what the American equivalent to Gretzky would be today, try to imagine an America where basketball was at least twice, and probably three times, more popular than it is now. Basketball is the most popular sport almost everywhere in America, FAR more than baseball, football, motor racing - those sports aren’t even close. Basketball is to Americans what soccer is to Brazilians.
Now, imagine a basketball player comes along. In a league where stars score 25 points a game, and superstars are in the low 30s, and the record is something like 50 (set in a day when the rules were a lot differents) this player scores sixty points a game. Remember Kobe’s 81-point night? This player does that 15 times a year. Routinely. Oh, and somehow, he also leads the league in assists and steals. For the first ten years of his career he does this. He breaks every single record there is. He never gets seriously hurt. He’s also the unquestioned leader of his team, and he takes an expansion franchise in a small town - let’s say the Bobcats - and turns them into arguably the greatest team in the history of the sport. On top of that, this player is a perfect gentleman; no scandals, no fights, no whores, no drugs. He’s humble and sweet and lovable and spends his spare time with sick children. His father becomes the symbol of perfect fatherhood.
You STILL don’t quite have Gretzky, because you still don’t quite have Canada’s place in the world as the right context, but you’re getting there.
RickJay, I know that you and I have a difference in opinion on hockey, but your post is excellent. Eloquent, descriptive and hopefully it gives our American friends the proper persective of the importance of hockey and Gretzky to Canada.
Aw Rickjay, you made me cry.
RickJay is pretty much spot on.
Are there American athletes as far above and beyond their contemporaries as Gretzky was above his? A few. Babe Ruth and Tiger Woods come to mind.
Are there American athletes who’ve become icons, powerful symbols even to people not particularly interested in sports? Sure- Joe Dimaggio and Muhammad Ali are among them.
But there’s no American athlete I can think of who meets BOTH criteria, as Gretzky does. Babe Ruth comes closest, but it’s not quite the same thing.
Moreoer, there’s no one sport and no one team that practically EVERYONE in the United States lives and dies with. Hence, there’s no one athlete who’s universally accepted in the U.S. as THE symbol of excellence, and there’s no one athlete who’s universally adulated here as Gretzky is in Canada.
Oh, in every city or region, there’s sure to be somebody who inspires the same feelings… but there’s no single unifying figure. In a country of 300 million people, you couldn’t reasonably expect there to be.