Wayne Gretzky holds so many National Hockey League (NHL) records that it is impossible to list them all. Nine times he has won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) and in ten seasons he was the league's leading scorer. Gretzky had more assists (1,963), goals (894), and points (2,857) than any player in NHL history. He also scored more goals (92), assists (163), and points (215) in a single season than any other player. (No other player has ever earned over 200 points in one season.) A natural leader, Gretzky was the captain of four Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup winners. No player has ever dominated a sport for as long as Gretzky, who retired in 1999 after three years of patroling center ice for the New York Rangers.

Wayne Gretzky was born January 26, 1961, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Of Russian and Polish descent, he is the oldest of Walter and Phyllis Gretzky's...