My day with Wayne Gretzky - 20 years ago today!

In my bio or when I get introduced at conferences, I often reference the fact that I got to be Wayne Gretzky’s PR handler for a day in 1998. It was a really cool and memorable experience. The Great One was (obviously) one of my childhood heroes and, growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, we were lucky to have him play for the Greyhounds for a year. Anyway, I’ve never really talked publicly about that day or what took place. It was a charity event that he was in town for. I was there as media relations support. I got to hang out with and observe Mr. Gretzky (that’s what I called him all day) for most of the day. I learned some valuable lessons about handling yourself in public and media relations on that day. People say don’t meet your heroes because you will be disappointed. This was not the case on December 8, 2018. He was gracious, friendly, professional and cool. He actually also offered to sign something for me so I ran down to the Hockey Hall of Fame and bought a book about him. I got him to autograph it to my dad and that was my dad’s big Christmas gift that year. I also made a bit of a rookie mistake on that day. Near the end of the event, as he was leaving, I stopped doing my job for a few seconds. I let my mind wander. And it led to a bit of an awkward situation that I describe in the video. Thanks for watching!