4 Number Ninety-Nine

Chapter 4 Number Ninety-Nine Junior A hockey is rough. Players want to make the pros. They skate fast and check hard. Young and small, Wayne knew this was a true test. Would players laugh at his size? Well, so what if they did? They might as well laugh at his uniform number, too, he figured. Wayne had always wanted to wear number nine. That was hockey great Gordie Howe's number, and Gordie was Wayne's idol. But here—at "the Soo," as Sault Ste. Marie was called—nine was already taken. Wayne's coach suggested he wear "double nines." Ninety-nine. It was unusual then. Players' numbers didn't often go above thirty-one. But if anyone laughed at

Wayne's number, they stopped when they saw him play. Wayne had a crazy schedule. The team flew to away games in small run-down planes. Once in the fog, their plane brushed the treetops. No wonder Wayne wound up with a fear of flying! Wayne was staying with another family. And sometimes, he wouldn't arrive home until 3:00 a.m. He slept for a few hours. Then he went to class at the local high school. For all that, he was paid only twenty-five dollars a week. Wayne

didn't care about the money. For him, it was all about the game. Yes, he studied at school. "Great in math, terrible in English," he revealed in his autobiography. And he went for pie and ice cream every day after school. But other than that, he practiced, practiced, practiced. He never had a girlfriend. He didn't go to the prom. Was it worth it? At the end of the season, he was the top junior player in Canada. He won the Rookie of

the Year and Most Sportsmanlike awards. He broke the single-season scoring record. He was featured in Sports Illustrated and the New York Times. Fans marveled at his skill. He seemed to know where the puck was going. He could pass without even looking. It was like he had hockey ESP. Wayne knew better. Sure, he had natural talent. But mostly it was all those drills in his backyard. Plain hard work. Again, some people wrote off Wayne's season as luck. He was so scrawny! So small! He couldn't even skate that fast. He'd never make it on a professional team, critics said. All that made Wayne even more determined. He wanted to go pro. The NHL wouldn't consider him. They had rules; players had to be twenty years old. Wayne was only seventeen. But in 1978 there was another league: the World Hockey Association. Started in 1971, the league had older pros like Gordie Howe and fresh new players. Wayne signed with the Indianapolis Racers,

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which was part of the WHA. He'd be living in the United States now. He was set to earn more than three quarters of a million dollars. And he was still in high school! Over the years, Wayne would try to buy his parents cars and homes, expensive things they couldn't afford. But they never let him. They wouldn't move out of Wayne's childhood home. They still drove their old station wagon. And his dad kept working for the phone company. Wayne thought he'd settle in Indiana for a good long time. But he only played eight games. And then he was traded to another team in the