Hockey's "Moonlight" Graham?

There's a phrase that people use that reads "Life imitates art" when real-life events either resemble or are inspired by fictional writing or art. In the Hollywood film Field of Dreams, Burt Lancaster played the older role of Archibald "Moonlight" Graham who, which may be a surprise, was an actual baseball player. His story is told in the movie fairly accurately, and it occurred to me that hockey has its own version of "Moonlight Graham" in former Edmonton Oilers defenceman and current Randy Gregg! What may surprise you is that Gregg, while being a solid hockey player, was also a baseball player!

I was actually looking for some other information online when I stumbled across Steven Sandor's article about Dr. Randy Gregg on edifyedmonton.com. In that article, Sandor highlights the exceptional baseball talents that Gregg while attending university at the University of Alberta as he purused his medical degree. He writes,

"It was 1978, and the Edmonton Tigers were in the national championships. Gregg went on a home-run hitting tear (seven in three games), and the Tigers won the Canadian title.

"'I got kinda lucky,' he recalls.

"He was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, but wasn't picked for the national team. The reason? Because he wasn't attending an American university on a baseball scholarship — he was at the University of Alberta, pursuing his dream of becoming a doctor, and was also the captain of the Golden Bears' hockey team, playing under legendary coach Clare Drake."

It should come as no surprise that Gregg likely was a good all-around athlete, but it seems he had real talent on the diamond. Hitting seven homeruns at a national baseball championship in three games would make baseball scouts sit up and notice that player nowadays, but, as Sandor wrote, Gregg was very serious about getting his education which, on September 13, 1986, he used to its full extent.

I'll admit that Gregg's professional baseball career was much shorter than Archibald Graham's career, but I'd argue that a Canadian National Baseball Championship is still a pretty big deal. And, if we're putting our cards on the table, 1978 to 1986 means that Gregg did other things in between playing baseball and retiring from sports to be a doctor. That included playing hockey for the Alberta Golden Bears, playing in Japan, winning Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers, and playing for Canada at the Winter Olympics all while taking classes and working in hospitals to get his medical degree.

Take nothing away from his hockey career because it's all sorts of impressive, but it seems like Randy Gregg could have been a pretty good baseball player as well. It seems he never forgot his baseball roots, though, as Gregg currently serves as the managing director of the Edmonton Riverhawks, a member of the West Coast League where a lot of collegiate student-athletes play baseball in the summer. That sounds familiar, and it seems that it's something of which Gregg, a former student-athlete, is proud to promote.

"We're really proud of all the players we have on our team, whether they are American or Canadian," Gregg told Sandor in the interview. "But we love the opportunity of the Canadian kid to come out and play in front of his friends and family in this facility. And, ultimately, if we could have 35 Canadians play for us, we would try to do that."

Gregg is also still practicing medicine as a family physician, and he and his wife, former Olympic speed skater Kathy Vogt, are living life comfortably in Edmonton. They have four children and twelve grandchildren including their son, Ryan Gregg, who played baseball for the Uniersity of Calgary. Their other son, Jamie Gregg, became a former Olympic speed skater, and he married Danielle Wotherspoon, an Olympic speed skater. Add in sisters Jessica and Sarah who were also Olympic speed skaters, and it seems like Randy Gregg was skating on the wrong ice with all the speed skaters in his family!

Joking aside, Randy Gregg had an outstanding hockey career. After turning down tryouts with the Atlanta Flames and New York Rangers following his time at the University of Alberta where was a two-time CIAU champion and the 1979 CIAU Player of the Year, Gregg joined the Canadian National Team program as they looked to the Lake Placid Olympics. That 1980 Olympiad wasn't good for Canada as they finished in sixth-place, but Randy Gregg did meet his wife, Kathy, at those Olympics! I'd say Gregg had himself a successful Olympiad!

You might be wondering how Gregg landed in Japan after playing at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics with Canada, but acquaintences on the Japanese National Team convinced him to join a company team as a player-coach. And if you're wondering how he was interning at Edmonton hospitals to fulfill his medical degree requirements while living in Japan, it seems that the Royal Alexandra Hospital was willing to accommodate his hockey career.

According to Andy Ogle's article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal linked above, Gregg was willing to give the NHL experience two years before focussing exclusively on medicine. Two years, however, became four years with the Oilers before Gregg finally retired on September 13, 1986 as shown in the Brandon Sun image.

Except he didn't.

Gregg returned to the Oilers after Sather begged him to come back for the 1986-87 season, and three Stanley Cups and four more seasons with the Oilers were his new reality. Six weeks into the season, he joined the team and helped them win a third Stanley Cup in 1986-87. He'd retire again in the summer of 1987 to pursue a residency program in orthopedic surgery at the University of Alberta, but would return for another Stanley Cup run with the Oilers following a fourth-place finish at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics with Team Canada.

The Oilers would place Randy Gregg on waivers at the start of the 1990 season, and the Vancouver Canucks claimed him from the Oilers on October 1, 1990. He'd retire once again to pursue medicine, but came back to play 21 games in 1991-92 with one goal and four assists in Vancouver colours. Randy Gregg officially retired from the NHL after the playoffs that season, having played in 474 regular season games while scoring 41 goals and 152 points. He also played in 137 playoff games where he had 13 goals and 40 assists. That's not too bad for a guy who was playing community league hockey in Edmonton while starting university!

For a guy who looked like he might have a long and prosperous career as a baseball star, Dr. Randy Gregg became a star in two professions: on the hockey rink and in the doctor's office. Obviously, the comparison between Archibald Graham and Randy Gregg are nowhere close when one starts looking at the details of both men's lives, but two kids who loved baseball became successful medical doctors after pursuing their dreams including long medical careers.

There are no right or wrong paths when one is pursuing a dream. For Archibald Graham, his baseball dream lasted just a couple of innings. For Randy Gregg, he earned five Stanley Cup rings over ten seasons in the NHL. Ray Kinsella was almost angry at "Moonlight" Graham for giving up on his baseball dream, and Graham might have spoken for both he and Gregg when he told Ray, "Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy."

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!