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to main content  Gretzky turns 50  'The Kid Next Door' Add to
...  I am feeling a great deal older this week and there is an
excellent explanation for it, one of my very favourite teenagers
reaches another major milestone.  At our first meeting, 32 years
ago, Wayne Gretzky was 17 and I'll always remember him as the
first athlete to call me "mister" making me feel older - even
then.  More related to this story  Not one member of the media
horde awaiting the arrival of Gretzky's special flight from
Indianapolis that night had any idea of just who we were about
to welcome to Alberta, how lucky we all were, or what was ahead
for professional sport.  When the whiz-kid stepped from the
private jet, it was impossible to see how a skinny teenager with
scraggily curls could live-up to the hype of his hockey genius.
It didn't take long for the personable teenager to make
Albertans believe he was the greatest discovery since the famous
Leduc oil-field gushe