I received an email from the Phoenix Coyotes back during the 2006-2007 season about an upcoming charity lunch with the team. All proceeds from the event were to go to charity so I looked at the options that were available.
You could buy an entire table for 10 at $1000 and a player or coach from the team would be at the table. You could pay $100 for just a seat at a random table or you could pay $1000 for the ability to sit with then head coach, Wayne Gretzky.
I was earning quite a bit of money back then so I decided to go for it and sit at Wayne's table. It seemed like a once in a lifetime experience and I did not want to pass it up.
Since he was the coach of the Coyotes at the time, I did not realize what a privilege it is to have this opportunity. Someone told me once that there is a prize in the Canadian Lottery that is a meal with the Great One. I was really young when he was playing so I was not educated on how amazing a player he was.
So I get there as soon as the doors open to the arena and head down to the covered ice. The Gretzky table stood out among the others as it was beautifully decorated and all but one chair has a Gretzky Coyotes jersey on it. I hurried over to the table and grabbed one of the seats next to the one without a jersey hoping he was going to sit there. The other people that paid to sit with Wayne started to sit down and I was surprised to hear a few of them actually flew in just for this opportunity. They were floored that they could pay $1000 to charity and were able to have a lunch with Wayne.
The entire team was introduced and then came to sit down. When Wayne sat he introduced himself and asked us all of our names. We all had a jersey, puck, hockey card, and hat at our places and he broke the ice and asked if he could sign our stuff. He was very good at talking to each of us on a personal level and it was great to see how down to earth he is.
Darren Pang was talking at the podium about the team and as soon as he was finished at least half of everyone else that was there got up from their table and came over to our table so Wayne could sign items for them. This is the part that made the experience amazing. Wayne obviously knew what we all paid to be at his table so when the other 200 people were coming up to him, he was polite and said hi, but he continued to focus all of his attention on us at his table. It really is cool to see how fast he can sign his name without looking. He was very nice and seemed genuinely interested in every single one of us.
One sad part is when every single person sitting at Georges Laraque's table got up at the same time to go wait in line and he was stuck there sitting by himself.
Looking back I think I took for granted that the greatest hockey player of all time was the coach and the fans had access to him. Even though I thought he was a terrible coach, he was a great player.
I had the jersey framed and it is still hanging in my living room.
No comments:
Post a Comment