A Decade Ago Kings Told L.A., Have a Great One

Ten years ago today, “the Great One” taught the Kings to play.

The date that changed hockey in Los Angeles, not to mention Anaheim, was

Aug. 9, 1988--the day Wayne Gretzky was traded by the Edmonton Oilers to the Kings in one of the biggest deals in the history of sports.

“Hooray for Hockeywood,” wrote Times columnist Mike Downey.

Jim Murray’s column was headlined, “He’ll Bring L.A. Hockey Out of the Ice Age,” and Gretzky did, eventually turning paltry Forum attendance into an automatic 16,005 and taking the Kings on that scintillating 1993 run to the Stanley Cup finals.

Never mind that the Oilers won the 1990 Stanley Cup without him.

With the Kings, Gretzky broke Gordie Howe’s NHL scoring record in a game at Edmonton on Oct. 15, 1989, then, more incredibly for a player known for his passing, broke Howe’s goal-scoring record on March 23, 1994, against Vancouver.

By the time Gretzky was traded to St. Louis on Feb. 27, 1996, he had scored 246 goals and 918 points in a King uniform.

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Trivia time: What were the details of the trade that brought Gretzky to L.A.?

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So long ago: When Gretzky arrived, King owner Bruce McNall was considered a sharp entrepreneur--he got the team for a bargain $20 million in 1988--still had a valuable coin collection and was the toast of the town. Now he is inmate No. 04302-112 at the Lompoc federal prison camp.

The Mighty Ducks? They weren’t even a screenwriter’s fantasy, and Paul Kariya was a Vancouver schoolboy who refused to believe his mother when she told him his idol had been traded.

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99 tears: In Edmonton, owner Peter Pocklington was hung in effigy and Gretzky’s new bride, actress Janet Jones, was compared to Yoko Ono. The headline in the next day’s Edmonton Journal was the paper’s largest since the end of World War II.

“It was the biggest type I’d ever seen,” said Jim Matheson, the veteran hockey writer for the Edmonton Journal who had covered Gretzky’s entire NHL career.

At the farewell news conference, after which some questioned the sincerity of Gretzky’s tears, a Pocklington PR man told the crowd of perhaps 500 reporters there would be time for only 10 questions.

“A photographer got a question in, and it wasn’t even a question,” Matheson said. “He thanked Gretzky for all the good times. We all looked at him like, ‘You [jerk]! You ate one of the questions for that?’ ”

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Trivia answer: The Kings acquired Gretzky, Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, $15 million in cash and three first-round draft picks, who eventually played only four games combined for the Oilers.

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And finally: L.A.’s other stars threw out the welcome mat.

“It’s unbelievable!” the Lakers’ Magic Johnson said. “I’m definitely going to get season tickets. . . . He’s amazing. Even if they never win a game, it will still be exciting to go now.”

Angel pitcher Kirk McCaskill, a former hockey player, also approved.

“Gretzky in L.A.!” McCaskill said. “That’s unbelievable! . . . I’ll be lining up to get my season tickets. Actually I won’t, because I already get free tickets.”