Walter Gretzky calls Northridge “the family golf course.”

But the world’s most famous hockey dad says he never imagined having his name connected to the 18-hole municipal course.

“I’m shocked,” said Gretzky about city councillors’ decision to rename the 63-year-old Balmoral Drive facility the Walter Gretzky Municipal Golf Course, Banquet and Learning Academy.

The name change will become official at a ceremony in the spring that will be part of the grand opening of a new $4-million clubhouse.

“He is the best citizen in our community,” said Coun. John Utley, who received unanimous support at Tuesday’s community development committee meeting for his resolution calling for the name change. “We need to do something significant for this great man.”

Utley said they considered dedicating a room in the new clubhouse to Gretzky but decided “naming a whole golf course after him is appropriate.” A portrait of Gretzky will be commissioned and placed in the new clubhouse reception area and city staff will work with a designer to create a new golf course logo.

Gretzky, known to the world as the father and first coach of hockey legend Wayne, is well known in his own right for his contributions to minor hockey and dedication to helping many local, national and provincial charities.

Coun. John Sless said the city has no better ambassador than Gretzky, who is famous for showing up at community events whenever he’s asked, staying for hours to chat and sign autographs.

He coined the phrase, “Brantford — the centre of the universe.”

Walter Gretzky Elementary School was opened by the Grand Erie District School Board in 2012. The 81-year-old also has the roadway leading to the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre named in his honour, along with a park in Ward 1. He has also been named lord mayor of the city, a rare honour in Canada, because “he represents all that is finest about the community,” said Mayor Kevin Davis.

Gretzky’s son, Glen, said he and his four siblings all had summer memberships at Northridge when they were kids.

“Our parents would drop us off there in the morning,” he said. “We all grew up there. We still play there.”

Glen said, for years, his father walked the golf course property in the evenings, getting exercise while he picked up stray balls.

“He has picked up thousands and thousands of balls,” he said. “He has an eye for it.”

Sless said Gretzky “has found more golf balls than anyone in history.”

“He’s got bushels of them in his garage.”

Coun. Richard Carpenter said Gretzky is noted for opening up his Varadi Avenue home to visitors — the same home where he and wife Phyllis raised their children and where the now famous backyard rink was built every winter. Gretzky proudly led tours of the basement stuffed with mementos from Wayne’s amateur career.

“He spends his day chatting up Brantford,” said Carpenter.

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012, Gretzky says he’s on a new medication that helps ease his tremors and he still tries to get out to as many community events as he can.

“We have everything here,” he said of Brantford. “Anything you want to do.”

Glen said brother Wayne has been recognized by the city through naming of the sports centre and the Wayne Gretzky Parkway, but this latest family honour is “kind of different.”

“This one is for my dad.”