Orr and Gretzky Teammates?

2004

On the day that Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky played on the same team for the only time in their respective careers, goaltender Ron Low was at home in Foxwarren, Man., seeding his canola crop. It was the spring of 1980 and Orr was one season removed from his Hall Of Fame playing career, while Gretzky had just completed a splashy National Hockey League debut, tying the legendary Marcel Dionne for the league's scoring title.

The two came together at the Winnipeg Arena to play a charity game for Billy Heindl, Orr's former teammate on the Oshawa Generals' 1967 Memorial Cup-winning team. Heindl had fallen on hard times after his playing career and a failed suicide attempt had left him a paraplegic. So Heindl's friends in Winnipeg scheduled a charity game to raise money on his behalf. Orr was one of the first to opt in.

Orr put the arm on Gretzky, who was playing for an Edmonton Oilers team that had missed the NHL playoffs in 1979-80, and Gretzky cut short a Hawaiian vacation to participate. It ended up as a once-in-a-lifetime moment, but when you're involved in history, you never get that sense at the time.

"You know what? I can hardly remember the game," answered Low, who drove in from Foxwarren and played goal. "All I can remember is seeing the two of them on the ice together and thinking, 'Wow!' I had had the opportunity of playing with Wayne earlier that year, so I pretty much knew about him. And, of course, I had played against Orr for too many nights before that."

Today, the Winnipeg Arena closes after 50 years, making way for the new MTS Centre, which will open on Nov. 17. While it may not be as well known as the Montreal Forum or Maple Leaf Gardens, the Winnipeg Arena saw more than its share of hockey history.

In 1972, the third game of the historic Summit Series, the one that ended in a 4-4 tie, was played there. Soon after, the World Hockey Association made its biggest splash by signing Bobby Hull to an unprecedented $1-million contract. Hull and two Swedish players, Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, redefined the way hockey would be played in North America for the next decade.

The Arena played host to the Memorial Cup, the Allen Cup, to Canada's national team in the mid-1960s, and the 1999 world junior championship. Gretzky scored his 2,000th point there. It was also where former Winnipeg Jet Teemu Selanne obliterated Mike Bossy's single-season rookie goal-scoring record of 53, finishing the 1992-93 season with 76 goals, a record that may stand forever.

Of all the things that made the Winnipeg Arena special, perhaps nothing compares with that Apr. 25, 1980, night when the past met the future in the Heindl charity game.

"There's a photo of the two of us sitting on the bench together and people have no idea what it's from," Orr said. "It was the only time I'd ever been on the ice with Wayne and I've never been on the ice since with him, so obviously it was a thrill. But the game itself? Remember, it was for charity. It wasn't all-out, magnificent plays or anything like that. But to be on the ice, with a player like Wayne and a person like Wayne, was special, it really was."

And although the game made front-page news in Winnipeg, the event ? pitting members and former members of the Canadian national team against a collection of ex-NHLers ? received little notoriety elsewhere. A total of 15,052 fans showed up at a cost of only $5 per ticket.

Prominent player agent Don Baizley, a member of the game's organizing committee, recalled that Orr was in his office, helping to recruit players, when Gretzky's name came up. Together, they put in a call to Gretzky's boss, Oilers' general manager Glen Sather. As it happened, Gretzky was in Sather's office, conducting an informal exit interview, so Sather put him on the line. Orr took the phone from Baizley and minutes later had Gretzky's commitment.

The event raised $85,000 for Heindl. Gretzky spent much of his time in the company of fellow WHA alumnus Jets' defenceman Lars-Erik Sjoberg, and according to Baizley, "Shoe said to Wayne, 'You should watch [Orr], because this is what's ahead for you.' "Orr just handled himself so well among the people. We had an event afterwards at Viscount Gort [hotel] and I drove over with Bobby. As we were driving over, Orr said: 'When we get to this event tonight, I'd like you to stay with me, because I want to make sure I meet everybody in the room who actually did the work.' "And was Bobby ever good. He talked to everybody and he was very charming. I've been a huge Orr fan ever since."