Made possible through a chain of historical events.
June 12, 1978
The NHL did not allow signing players under age 20. The WHA did not have this rule and on this date, Indianapolis Racers owner Nelson Skalbania signed 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky.
November 2, 1978
The Racers ran into financial trouble and eight games into the season, team owner Nelson Skalbania sold the contracts of Gretzky, Mio and Driscoll to the WHA Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington. On the back of the card you will see the notation: ACQ: Purchased From Ind. 11-2-78.
November 3, 1978
Wayne's first game with the WHA Edmonton Oilers was against the Winnipeg Jets.
March 22, 1979
NHL Board of Governors meet in Chicago and voted in favour to "expand" the league by four teams from the financially struggling WHA. Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques, New England (Hartford) Whalers would become NHL franchises the next season.
June 22, 1979
The Edmonton Oilers officially become an NHL franchise.
January 1980
At age 13, I would make regular trips to the local convenience store to buy more packs of 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards to add to my collection. The smell of the gum stick included in the pack, its brittleness and taste still resonates to this day.
The packs were opened and after a quick shuffle, the cards ended up in the shoe box shared with the 1976, '77 & '78 collection of hockey cards. They were later transferred to a binder with plastic sheets organized by team for each season. Amongst the mix sat a Gretzky rookie card.
April 8, 2021
42 years since this card was produced, it has managed life through five moves between Markham, Aurora, Toronto and Newmarket to finally getting graded at KSA in Elmira, ON.
On this sunny and warm spring day, I knew it was the right journey for this card when I rolled into the town and saw an elderly man jogging on the main street in a Chicago Black Hawks jersey.
Coincidently, the WHA Edmonton Oilers played the Birmingham Bulls in the regular season on this date in 1979.
April 18, 2021
On this date, Sprunger Originals mints it's first blockchain Sprunger NFT and possibly the first NFT for a graded Gretzky rookie card in the world. Wayne played his last WHA regular season game with the Edmonton Oilers on this date 42 years ago.
- Dean Sprung
