Gretzky, Messier Raced To Indianapolis

This is a hockey card of a very young Wayne Gretzky. If he looks a lot happier than he does nowadays behind the bench of the lowly Phoenix Coyotes, that's probably because in this picture he's 17 and has just signed a million dollar contract with the WHA Indianapolis Racers.

What? Wayne Gretzky played for the Indianapolis Racers? Who were they? And why is Gretz wearing number 20?

Rest assured, the photo is no fake. That is Wayne Gretzky and really did play for the Indianapolis Racers. What is fake is that hockey card. According to the new collectibles site PuckJunk.com, this card surfaced in the 1990s and is a complete counterfeit. Gretzky never had a card from his WHA days, be it with Indianapolis or Edmonton.

The Indianapolis/Gretzky combination has never really been well told. Gretzky tends to outright ignore this very brief part of his hockey history. And perhaps he should. As it turns out he was being used by an unscrupulous owner.

Timothy Gassen tells the story in his new and self published book Red, White & Blues: A Personal History Of Indianapolis Racers Hockey 1974-1979. The always scheming Nelson Skalbania signed the teenage phenom but never had much intention of keeping Gretzky in Indy. No, instead the signing was made more to use hockey's greatest prospect as a pawn in WHA-NHL merger negotiations. NHL teams threatened to eliminate any WHA team from possible merger if they signed underage junior players, so Skalbania and WHA owners conspired to park Gretzky in Indianapolis, fully knowing the Racers would soon die anyways. Gretzky would be move to Edmonton at some point. Surprise, surprise, Skalbania may have still had a significant portion of ownership of the Oilers.

At least that's one of the theories that make this a fascinating book. I'm not a WHA fan or an Indianapolis Racers fan, but I really appreciated Gassen's labour of love. Oh, and he also explains Mark Messier's brief professional debut, also with the Racers. This book is as wonderful and wacky as the WHA was, and I have a full review at Hockey Book Reviews.com

Also in book news: NHL Digest.com has an interesting interview with ESPN's John Buccigross. In addition to being a ESPN Hockey personality, Buccigross authored the book Jonesy: Put Your Head Down and Skate: The Improbable Career of Keith Jones. Thanks to the marketing machine that is ESPN, the book has gotten quite a lot of notice this season. Also in the interview is a hint that Buccigross may have a new hockey book as early as next season. It will again be based on a ESPN hockey personality, only this time it will be about the mulleted Barry Melrose. Stay tuned!