The reason is unclear why, in 1999, the Hockey Hall of Fame’s board of directors voted to abolish the selection committee’s ability to waive the three-year post-retirement waiting period for induction while contemporaneously awarding the honor to Wayne Gretzky.
But then this is a body — the HHOF, not No. 99 — that operates as the sport’s secret society, explaining nothing to no one while hiding in plain sight and passing behind-closed-doors judgments historically so sage as its continued failure to elect and induct fabled pioneer Willie O’Ree under the builder’s category.
But because the regulations are fungible, surely they can be reversed under exceptional circumstances.