A Coffee with Dr. Randy Gregg, Former Edmonton Oilers Defenseman!

Join us for a coffee and chat with the legendary Dr. Randy Gregg! Randy shares his incredible, fast-paced story of balancing an elite hockey career with medical school, all while staying true to his Edmonton roots. From his active childhood as the youngest of six to his early academic success (graduating high school at 16!), Randy’s path was always extraordinary.

He recounts the demanding years at the University of Alberta, where he successfully tried out for the Golden Bears under the guidance of the legendary coach Clare Drake. Randy shares the insider story of Drake's famous 50-minute high-intensity practice and what it was truly like to be an athlete under his disciplined leadership, a regimen that prepared them for two championship victories.

We dive into his experiences representing Canada at the 1980 Olympics (where he met his future wife, a speed skater!) and the romantic, unforgettable moment he proposed after an NHL victory. Then came the call from Glen Sather and the unforgettable move to the Edmonton Oilers, where he became one of the key defensemen for the team's dynasty, ultimately winning five Stanley Cups. Today, Dr. Gregg continues to serve the community as a practicing physician, specializing in sports medicine. It’s a compelling look at a life defined by dedication and success in two high-stakes fields—a truly inspiring Edmonton story.

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Transcript

0:01

Hi, I'm Dr. Randy Gregg, and you're listening to Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. Jennifer, what did you do last night? Well, Cam, I was at the curling rink, and don't look at me like that. It wasn't for myself, it was for my son. I thought you took up curling, but your son took up. I used to curl, I love curling. Like, because you're from Saskatchewan, Thank you. and you're from the farm, Correct. and curling's the thing to do. Curling is huge. Were you like a good curler? Were you like a... No, but I was an average curler, but you did it for the social aspect. Okay, no, here's my question. Did you use those long brooms? Yeah, yeah, those brooms. That's a good noise. Thank you. I did. You did? I did the corn brooms, kind of like, but now they don't use those anymore. No, see, I watch curling now, but it was more fun with the corn brooms, I think. And they made the slappy sound, and it was like... I love that. That was awesome. I've never curled. I've always wanted to. Bondspiels were the best. Bondspiels. Better tell everybody what a bondspiel is. Well, it's like a little tournament. A tournament, yeah. So you had bondspiel tournaments. Right, you did. Wow. I know. You're a curler. Well, I used to be. That's incredible. I think if I went down in the hack to throw the rock now, I might not get back up, which is why my son is curling and I'm not. Well, but hey, curling, a lot of people, they watch it, they see it, but it was a big thing. It is a big thing. And what I told my son is there was a significant female to male ratio at the curling rink last night, in his group. So, yeah, now curling took on a whole new meaning. Well, maybe. Yeah, maybe. Cool. OK, good. Hey, good day today. It was a great day today. Yeah, we recorded some very special... Episodes? Well, they're not really episodes. Not really episodes. No. Commercials, kind of. Segments. Yeah, segments. I like that word. That's right, because we have a new segment coming up. We do called Flavor of the Month. That's right, because everybody knows that we're brought to you, Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam is brought to you by Wing Snob. Wing Snob, some of the best wings you're ever going to have. 16 sauces, 4 rubs, Wing Snob Canada right here in Edmonton. Fresh, never frozen. Your favorite is, we always ask you this. Snobby Q and Dill Pickle. And I love the Parmesan, but we got to try some new wings today. We did. Amazing. So folks, if you've never been to a Wing Snob, you've got to check it out, www.wingsnob.ca, right here in Edmonton. If you don't know what you're having for supper tonight, I'd say head over to Wing Snob. Well, why wouldn't you? Are the Oilers playing tonight? No, they played last night. So whenever the Oilers are playing, you can get the Oiler Family Pack. I know. It's a deal. It is. So listen, I'm telling you right now, some of the best wings you're ever going to have, www.wingsnob.ca. Thanks for sponsoring us, Wing Snob. We appreciate it. And we're going to bring you every month a brand new segment from Mike Chadi, the owner of Wing Snob. That's right. Flavor of the month. Yes. But Cam, tell our listeners where we're coming from today. We are coming to you live from the Wall Coffee Roasters in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson. That's right. So if you hear some coffee noises in the background, some whirring, machines operating, people talking. It's a little busy in here today. It is busy. So that's why we're here. And yeah, really exciting. We also want to tell you that we are brought to you by our friends over at Mprint Sign and Print Solutions here in Acheson. Mprint that's right. Some of the best printers you will ever see, whether you need business cards, right up to they wrap vehicles and they once wrapped a helicopter. And everything in between, brochures and whatever you might need, these guys do it. They're absolutely... Best customer service, big supporters of not-for-profits in the city. Cam, they're amazing. They are the official printer of the Coffee In The Park podcast with Jennifer and Cam. That's right. And so I'm telling you, if you need something printed, whatever it is, maybe just wedding invitations or maybe you need like a full-blown directory of some sort printed or something like that. Whatever your needs are, they will come up with unique solutions. Visit them at www.mprint.ca. That's awesome. So hey everybody. And yeah, good to have you listening again. We're really excited that you're here today. Today we have a really great show. We're really excited. Let's kick it off. Jennifer, why don't you introduce our guest today? Well Cam, I am very excited for our guest today. Me too. Me too. So I'm proud to introduce that our guest today is Dr. Randy Gregg. So welcome, Randy. So good to have you. Thank you. Yeah, it's my pleasure. Always fun to share stories. Yeah. And just off your holiday in Madagascar, are you feeling a tad jet lagged? So I got over that quite well. My wife is a traveler. She's a wonderful lady. Okay. And so finally I relented and said, I've got to go on one of the holidays with you. So an 18-day bike trip in Madagascar before the coup came. So I'm glad to be back in Edmonton. We're glad you made it out. We're glad you made it back. That's right. You said, how long did you get back? You said it was about 60 hours from the south of Madagascar back to Edmonton. So if I don't see a plane for another few weeks, I'm okay with that. I don't blame you. I don't blame you. That's a rough one. Well, thanks for doing this. So good to have you. And we appreciate it. And yeah, let's just get her started. Go ahead, Jennifer. So Randy, tell us a little bit about where you were born, where you grew up. Yeah. So my parents were actually born in Winnipeg, and my father was a railroad conductor, and he came to Edmonton a long time ago. And so I was the youngest of six children. I think my mother was 43. So probably she probably didn't plan to have any. But anyway, I came along. I was the youngest of six. And you're okay with that? You reconciled that. That's good. Yeah. Interesting enough. So back then, when I was born, I was 10 pounds, 6 ounces. And they kept my mother in the hospital for 7 days. Wow. Not because she was sick or anything. She had 5 kids at home to take care of. That's right. She needed the rest. Yes. Stay here, have a rest for 7 days. They don't do that anymore. I know. I was going to say, isn't it the next day they send you home? Yes. Sometimes you're out the same day. So your mom was kind of lucky. It was a little bit of respite there for a while. Yeah. So we had a 730 square foot house in Inglewood. 730. I always tell people the first time I slept alone was after I got married. So it was a busy household. I have three older sisters, so to actually get in the washroom without them doing their hair was a challenge. You were way down on the list there. That's incredible. But three older sisters, did they take care of their baby brother? Were you their favorite? No, not at all. Not at all? No, I was just an afterthought. But I stayed out of the way and I did have two older brothers. One, my older brother Ron was anesthetist, so a doctor, and my other brother took over my father's company, Gregg Distributors. So both were great gentlemen. But Gary was the one that said, you know what, why don't we teach you how to skate? So we had a hockey rink in the back. Why don't we teach you how to play baseball? So he coached me baseball and all the way through, he really was the role model to be able to make sure I got to every hockey game, and every baseball game. So it was really fun to be able to do that. So when did you move to Edmonton? I grew up in Edmonton. Oh, you grew up in Edmonton. I was born at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Oh, okay, okay. And then, yeah, Inglewood, when my father built the house, it was right on the edge of Edmonton. Now it's inner city, of course. I was gonna say, yeah. What high school did you go to? So my elementary school was Inglewood. So I could walk to Inglewood, then Westmount was my junior high, and then Ross Shepherd was my high school. Okay, so Westglen was my elementary school. So they changed it to an elementary school, and my high school was Ross Shepherd. I lived in Westmount, just kind of over a little bit, from Inglewood. Yeah, wow, so you're a Thunderbird. Okay, a T-bird, yeah. Go birds. I was also, I think I was 15 in grade 12, and so I was five foot five. So everybody said, oh, you're gonna play basketball? No, I'm just a little shrimp. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At 16, I was six foot four, so I grew a little bit during that time. But during the high school time, I think I made the Ross Shepherd ping pong team. Okay. And that's about all I could do. But then things progressed. Yeah, things progressed after that. So then growing up, because you have such a sports background, were you playing hockey at the time? Were you playing baseball growing up? Or was that something that became a passion to you later on in life? So all the time. My parents probably figured if we lose six, the sixth, we still have five kids at home. So after supper, my mother would make sure we'd have supper at five. At about 5.30, I was going to the hockey rink, the Inglewood outdoor rink to skate and have some fun with people. Or playing baseball. So yeah, baseball was a passion and so was hockey, but it was always recreational. I think in Bantam hockey, I played Bantam B, we played outdoors. So unlike these days where if you don't play Bantam AAA with some amazing team that travels all over the world, you're not going to make it. Back then, we didn't think we're going to make it. We just wanted to have fun. It was just fun. Yeah, I'm not sure. So the outdoor rinks are a bit of the past. Now, I think there's still a few around and they're playing them. But in those days, it was the outdoor rink and into the shack to warm up and then back out onto the rink a little bit. So yeah, I think a hockey player has to freeze their fingers every now and then. That's right, minus 20 and you're out playing and yeah. Those were good days though. I played when I was little and they were fun days, yeah, for sure. So high school and then from high school to? University. University? Yeah. So at 16, I was in first year university at the U of A. 16? Yeah. Okay. And so, interestingly enough though, at that point, it was 1972 and there was this kind of interesting hockey tournament called the Canada Russia Series. Yes. And my older brother, Gary, really wanted to go there. So we talked to all his friends. It was two weeks in Russia, in Moscow. Yes. In a five-star hotel, all the tickets to the games and it costs so much money, $700 back then. Unbelievable. So he went to all his friends and said, guys, I'm going to go to Russia and watch this. I think it's going to be a pretty good hockey tournament. But of course, nobody had $700. That's right, yeah. So my mother said, well, why don't you take your little brother? I'll pay for it. So at 16, I got to go to Luzhniki Stadium and watch Paul Henderson score his goal. I was 16 at the time and started to realize that there's no way I could ever play at this level. But boy, this was a fabulous experience. About eight years later, I was playing with the national team in the same stadium. So it's kind of fun. That's amazing. My uncle went to that series in Russia. I remember the stories when he came back. But yeah, you probably never dreamed in a million years that you'd be playing at that level one day. Well, no, not at all. And that's a good thing because when you grow up in the outdoor rink, what you want to do is you want to have fun. You don't care about skills. Skills will come. What you have to have is independent recreational learning. And that's why I think a lot of kids these days, the three-on-two drills and the one-on-one drills are great. But if you don't have the passion, and the passion comes with recreational involvement with your friends and family, so it was a good opportunity. That's really, what a great story from the outdoor rink. I mean, what a great story. That's fantastic. Good. Kids need to hear that. That's a great story. Well, unfortunately, you go to Calgary, they don't have outdoor rinks. Well, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. We do have the chance. In fact, it's interesting, we have 12 grandchildren right now. Oh, my goodness. And they like to speed skate. Of course, the speed skating oval is down in Victoria Park outdoor. My wife coaches them. And one of our little guys, it was about 25 below, and he's out there and of course the practice is finished. They have to go inside. And he looked up and said to my wife, he said, Oma, can I just do one more lap? And I thought, I like it. You knew it, you got it right there. That's good. I love it. He had passion. One more lap. Okay, so. From 16, you're in university. What did you want to do when you were in university? What was your ultimate career goal? Yeah, so, you know, I don't think I could brush my hair properly at 16. Here I was in university and my older brother was a doctor and thought well that would be a good academic challenge and I knew I would never be good enough to play with the Golden Bears because, I mean, they were the U of A Golden Bears, but so I played, you know, juvenile and hockey and then all of a sudden I grew up a little bit and it was interesting because my third year of science I thought well I want to go in medical school so I went to practice to try out for the U of A Golden Bears and anyway I wasn't that good but I went in and I talked to Clare Drake. Yes, Clare Drake, amazing, amazing guy. And Clare Drake looked me in the eye and said, what position do you play? And I said, well I play left defense. He said, pardon me? I said, well I play left defense. He said, hold on now, you play defense because if you're going to be a defenseman you have to learn how to play both sides. My whole career I was right defenseman. Yes. I was slapped kind of in the face verbally by Clare Drake but at the time I said, you know, I'm in science, I've got lots of time, labs and things like that, quite difficult. It might be difficult to play with the Golden Bears. And he said, okay. So I just left. So I didn't even make the Golden Bears at that time. Well, the next year I got into medical school and of course, there were no labs. You went from eight to five at night, but practice was at 5.15. So I tried out for the team and luckily they had a very, very strong team but a couple of their defensemen had graduated so the coach then said, well, we'll try. And that was the start. I thought, my God, my life is filled. I was playing with the U of A Golden Bears. But it was interesting because I had a really good friend in medical school who was a bit of a partier and he'd come in about nine in the morning. So I take the notes from eight to nine and then I sneak out the back at 4.30 to be able to get to practice at times. So I got his notes from 4.30 to five. What a great system. That's awesome. We got through medical school. The problem was back then the hockey jerseys were wool. That's right. And so what do you do when you wash wool over and over, it gets small? So all these little guys in the Golden Bears will get the biggest jerseys. By the time I got there five minutes before practice, the only jersey was about size extra small. So I told myself I will never ever do that to somebody because I could hardly move my arms. I hope you got some good pictures there. Oh, it was awful. I can breathe, but I can't skate very fast. Anyway, Clare Drake was such a fabulous guy and the program was so good. They took a tall, slow defenseman and made a tall, slow defenseman who knew how to play defense. Man. So that was a good experience for me. That's incredible. For those who are listening, maybe around the world or wherever you're listening, here in Alberta, in Edmonton, Clare Drake without a doubt was considered, I think, one of the best collegiate hockey coaches that's ever lived. I've heard that said that he was amazing. He was absolutely amazing and took a lot of young players like yourself and developed them into great hockey players. There's a couple of things. I mean, he was a great, great man, a great leader, but a couple of things that come to mind. First of all, is coaches should not be fans. They should be coaches. Yes. So the fans get excited when you win and they get depressed when you lose. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Clare Drake, you could never tell whether we won or lost because he was so strategic. He was not a fan. He was a coach. Right. And so, you know, the coaches get all excited about winning. Well, that means that winning is good. No, not winning is good. The only time you need to win is called the NHL, because you're paid to win. So the Golden Bears, he was looking at player development, personal skills, things like that, and the teamwork that's created. The other thing that he did is we had the Clare Drake Arena right now. We could practice for hours at a time. And invariably, we'd have 50-minute practices. Well, of course, as a first-year player, you can hardly look him in the eye, because this is Clare Drake. Finally, I was the captain of the team in the fourth year, and I said, Coach Drake said, we've got all the time in the world to practice. Why do we only have 50-minute practices? And he looked me in the eye and said, it's all I need. Wow, that's great. Now, when you look at those practices, they were high-intensity. And so we have a two-hour practice. What do you do to survive? You go half speed. Well, why would you practice a sport you want to go high-intensity, half speed? So he was way ahead of his game. We had four or five drills that we did every day, all one-on-one drills, all drills that formed the focus of the skills that we should have to be a good hockey player. But I thought, yeah, you know, when I spent some time with some two-hour practice, skating, skating, what do you do? You hold back, you play at 70%. Well, anyway, it's interesting because the Oilers of the day were really good. We had one-hour practices. And in fact, there was a fella named Doug Hallward who got traded from Detroit to our team right before one of the Stanley Cups. And he sat beside me and after the first practice, I said, Doug, how was practice? And he looked at me and I said, you guys practice harder than we play. And I thought, I wonder why we've won four Stanley Cups. Yeah, exactly, right? All right, so let's not jump too far ahead yet. So you're in university, you're in medical school. How many years did you play for the Golden Bears? The four years of medical school. Four years, all four years. So you played while you were in medical school. Yeah, I seem to get it going. But although the one interesting time, so of course in surgery, you're often on call every third night. Right, yeah. So we played Friday and Saturday. So what I try to arrange is I try to arrange being on call Thursday. So you go into the OR at 7 in the morning, and you go through until 5 o'clock. Surgery was really busy, so you'd be up all night throughout the whole night, and then 7 o'clock on a Friday, you go back to the OR and go till 5. I remember at 5 o'clock, I'd go home, 7 o'clock game. My mom would have a pregame meal ready for me. After I finished, I said, mom, I want to have a pregame sleep, wake me up in three minutes. Wow. Three minutes. You know, I would die if I did that now. But you know, when you're young and you don't know any better, three minutes was enough. You go and play, have some fun. Wow. But you had great success with the Golden Bears. So how many championships did you win during your time there? Our team won two championships, which is great. We did have some good teams, but the U of A Golden Bears was a really nice environment, not only to teach us the skills, but to realize that if all you have is hockey, then your life isn't fulfilled. If all you have is academics, your life isn't fulfilled. So it allowed us to create a balance between academics and athletics. And I think that held quite true for the future. You know, I had many friends who got cut from the NHL. Well, their life was over. No, their hockey life was over. Did you think while you were playing for the Bears, you'd go on to play in the NHL? Never, never. You were going to be a doctor and that was... Yeah, until the fourth year in 1979, we were playing in the National Championship and there was this fellow named Father David Bauer who came around. This was Moncton, Alberta. We all went to a seafood restaurant and the lobster was like $18 and the shrimp were $17. The Alberta steak sandwich was $8 so we all had an Alberta steak sandwich on it. We can't afford this. That's great. Yeah. But at the same time, there was this fellow who came. I didn't know who he was but he introduced himself and of course at that point, Father David Bauer was trying to recruit for the 1980 Olympic. Yeah. So fortunately, I thought, oh my God, are you kidding me to be in the Olympics? I mean, my life is fulfilled. So luckily, I was able to be a team member in the captain of the 1980 Olympics and that was magical. Wow, I bet. That was the best experience of my life. The 1980 Olympics, where was that? That was in... Lake Placid. Lake Placid. That's right. Sixth place finish. Okay. Highlight of my life, sixth place finish. So why would that be when you've got all these Stanley Cup championships? And it's because the focus that Father Bauer had on personal development, team spirit, not just winning. He said, everybody wants to win, but we want more out of hockey than that. And so it was an amazing experience to say. Now, the other thing is in the 1980 Olympics, during, right before the Olympics, Canada, the Canadian Olympic program had what's called Canada House. So all the teams came for this reception before the Olympics started. And of course, the hockey players are sitting there saying, reception, we don't want to be in reception. And in walked the bobsledders and in walked the downhill skiers. In walked the speed skiers, this beautiful little female speed skier walked out. Oh my gosh. Okay, I know where we're heading with this one. Okay. So of course, I was too shy to say hello, but I thought, my God, she's amazing. And about two days later in the Olympic Village, she came up and said, Oh, my name is Cathy. We've got friends that live in your house. And I thought, yes, my life is fulfilled. I love it. Okay, so who asked who out first? So we decided to go to a concert in the Olympic Village. Harry Chapin was playing. Come on. Yeah. Yeah, I knew. You knew right away. And did she know? No. No. So you had to work out a little bit. Yeah. Where did she live? In Canada. She was from Winnipeg. Okay. And she was all over the world. So a bit of a long distance at first? Yeah. But anyway, she was in Germany training. And I went to Japan to play in Tokyo. And she denies this. But of course, back then, you don't have e-mails. No, no texting, no e-mails. Yeah. She would write me a letter. And of course, you're busy playing hockey. So I'd write her a letter. And she finally wrote me a dear John letter. Like I was a month late. Oh, she said, well, you didn't write me a letter. Yeah. Is this over? I said, well, no. So anyway, so long story short, she's the most wonderful person. Yeah. We've been around for 40 years together. Congratulations. So where did you get married? In Winnipeg. I got married in Winnipeg. And how long after you first met, did you get married? Like. So about two years. She was still on the national team. I was playing with the Oilers. But here's the romantic part of me, which is not really romantic. She came to visit me and we were playing the Boston Bruins on a Friday night. And so we played and she went to the game. And I think we won five to two. We came up to my place and we were just about ready to go to sleep. And I said, Oh, I've got something for you in the garage. And she said, Well, can't wait till the morning. I said, Well, why don't we go into the garage and see? Yeah. Anyway, she had an old beater car. Right. I was in the NHL, so I had a little bit of money. So I bought her a little baby blue RX-7 in the glove compartment was a ring. So I proposed in the garage. You're a tough act to follow. I've got all you guys listening out there. All it takes is an RX-7 and a ring in the glove box. Well, I didn't know whether she'd say yes with the ring, but the RX-7 was something. You knew she'd take that. Oh, yeah. That's a great story right there. But she said yes. She, of course, she said yes, and she was a wonderful person. But here's the other story. So she was a speed skater, about 5'5, 130 lbs, I was 6'4, 220. We used to train at the U of A. And we'd go for a run. I'd say, how long do you want to run for? As long as you want. She could run for hours. I could run for like 20 minutes. Yeah. There was a machine at the U of A, it's a leg press machine that had a valve and a cylinder that showed how much power you had. Yeah. So this was 1984, I would just help to win the Stanley Cup. So I was probably as strong as I could. So I got in this machine, I pushed as hard as I can. The gauge went up to 500. I thought, no, pretty strong. Anyway, this little thing gets on, she pushes, she gets 500. Same amount of power as I had. I thought, shoot, I must have slipped or something. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, she had the same amount of power in her legs that I did. I was 100 pounds heavier and she told me the Gaetan Boucher, who is one of the best speed skaters in the world. Yeah, he could push it to 1500. 1500. Speed skaters are amazing. Man. I had one third the power than a 5'8, 170-pound speed skater. So I realized that although hockey is a great sport, they were amazing athletes. Right. Amazing. They really are. I mean, Catriona Le May Doan and all the fantastic. Okay. So you went from the Olympic team. How did the Oilers came knocking or you went knocking or how did that happen? Yeah. So, you know, I really love the Olympics, A, because I got paid $4,000 and not $400,000. And I loved representing Canada. I loved, you know, when I go to Europe, you had to carry your bags. You know, concierge to carry your bags. And I really thought that the program could develop in 1984. So I made arrangements to go to Tokyo and play as a, as a defenseman for the Kokoro Bunnies. You know, it was a Kokoro Bunnies. Yeah, with a purple yellow jersey, with a big bunny with two big ears on it, with a big smiling face. We weren't the most intimidating jersey in the world. I already did that for the first year. And I leave Tokyo on a Friday. By Monday, I was at the Royal Alex Hospital doing my internship. So I did that. And luckily we had some fabulous doctors that allowed me to have some flexibility. But the second year I was in Japan, I was sitting in my hotel room in Sapporo, waiting for a game. And I got this phone call. And this fellow said, Hi, my name is Glen Sather. A guy named Peter Pockner over here. We want to talk to you. I said, Well, I'm in Sapporo. You're in Tokyo. It's a two hour flight. He said, Well, give me a call when you get back from Tokyo. So I played the season and I thought that'd be great. I got back and so I went to see Glen and he, Glen Sather was an interesting fellow, a real strategist with the guys who are putting that team together. He had Gretzky, Messier and all the great players. So he came and said, I want to sign you to a three-year one-way contract. Two-way contracts means if you go to the minors, you hang out with the money. That's right. So one-way contract. I'd played in Japan for two years. Who knew whether I could ever play. But they had the Gretzky's and Messier's, the Kevin Lowe's, they had the Paul Coffeys, but they didn't need a defensive defenseman. So he kind of figured this might be a position for me. So he offered me this fantastic three-year one-way contract. And I thought, Oh my gosh. And I said, Thanks, Glen. But I really think I should go back to medicine. And so I got up, I started walking out the door. He said, Randy, sit down. And so we offered a little 50,000 or something like that. And I said, Glen, I really appreciate it. I love that. And I've been an Oilers fan forever. But I think really medicine is my calling. So I got up, I started walking out again. He said, Ray, sit down. And so we gained another 50,000. I wasn't negotiating, but what I was doing is saying, this has to work for both of us. If you don't think I can do it, I'm out of here. And I'll rip up that contract. You don't send me the minors. And for all my career, not that I was a particular great player, but we had a respect in that if I did my job, you send me the minors, I'm just going to go back to medicine. So again, we talked about that combination between athletics and academics. And so not that anybody had control over the Edmonton Oilers. It's just... Yeah, no, but you wanted to know they were serious about you. Because you were giving up something to go play for them. Not just giving up nothing, but something to go play for them. Well, and fortunately my family were all from the stands. They were all Oilers fans. And when you looked at the team and saw the Gretzky's and Messier's and Lowe's and Fuhrs, you thought, man, this team might do some things over the years. Just a few. Well, I'm just going to tell you, so I grew up in Edmonton. I was here for all but one cup for sure. And I remember watching you play. I remember watching Gretzky and Messier and Lowe and Linsman and all those guys. And it was something else. It was something else. I don't think it's ever been like that in hockey again. It was really, really something watching you guys. And what you did for this city, unbelievable, unbelievable. You put Edmonton on the map. It was incredible. And you were a great team. Well, so that's from a fan's perspective. My mom was a fan. Yeah, yeah. And my dad was a fan, all my friends. And so, you know, that's the real, that's the positive byproduct of that. But when you actually have to put on the equipment, go on the ice, it's a little bit different. We had an owner that eventually got thrown in jail. Yeah, yeah. Many times we said, let's win it for the fans, not for our owner. But interestingly enough, before a team wins, they have to lose. Yes. And you did. In 1983, we got beat by the New York Highlanders. And we realized that 93 goals, Wayne is great and Wallace is great. But if you want to win, you've got to look and learn from those teams. And we learned from the New York Highlanders that we love what you can do when you're the best player in the world. Yes, for sure. But we have to have a five-man unit. We have to play defense. We have to be able to have transition through the mid-ice. And so when I look at this team these days, they've got wonderful, wonderful athletes. And they're going through the same thing. They have to learn to lose. They have to learn to lose. Yeah, for sure. Which we're hoping this year in Edmonton, they've learned to lose twice now. Let's hope this year. Cam, you're a good fan. And fans, you know, Rod Phillips years ago was the radio personality. The golden voice of Rod Phillips, yes. Rod Phillips was the radio personality. And he had a saying about fans. He said, they're with you win or tie. Just don't tie too many. Yeah, that's right. So it's a little bit different than the rest of them. Because the other team wants to win too. Of course they do. They do. So it's not as easy as just one. No, no. So the challenges that that team has will be the same challenges that we had many years ago that Gretzky had to come back and back check. Yeah. And we had to force, you know, the opposition offensively. And we had to look at mid-zone play. And we had to have a fantastic goalie like Grant Fuhr, you know. So let's hope it happens. Sure. And you're right. I mean, for the fan, it's quite easy to sit back and watch because they see it for three hours or three and a half hours in an evening. You guys lived it, played it 24-7. It was there. What goes on behind the scenes only... So I got to tell you a quick story about a fan. So my mother, wonderful lady, grade eight education, I think smarter than I'll ever be. But she was a big fan. But she said during the heyday, she said, Randy, you know, I don't really like those 7-1 games, but the 2-1 games are kind of tight. Can you make it like 5-2? I said, no, I can't make it 5-2. Sorry, mom. Mom, can you fix that for us? Yeah, it's good. You know, she was so wonderful because she wanted this to win. She wanted a good game. She didn't want to blow out, but she really didn't realize that it's not easy. It's not easy. That's right. Yeah, I had a very good friend, Lori Boschman, who played for the Oilers. And Lori and I were good friends, actually arranged, Lori, myself and a good friend of mine, Cal Wall, we got to have dinner with Wayne Gretzky one night over at Grinders on 124th. And Lori would look at me and go, Cam, he goes, this ain't easy. This is really tough. This is tough. We did a hockey school, Lori Boschman and I, and another player. And we went up to Peace River. The organizer of the hockey school was the senior goaltender. And every day he said, let's do a shootout. Let's do a shootout. Let's do a shootout. And we said, we don't want to do a shootout. And Lori was a good third line center, but he was not a goal scorer. I was a defensive defenseman, not a goal scorer. So we said, okay, final day, we'll do 10 shots. Lori went 10 for 10, and I went 9 for 10, and hit the post in the other one. And the goaltender shook his head and skated off. Now I know that the NHL is up at this level. I might be a senior goalie. And that's the beauty of it. A fan can look at it and they can appreciate the skills of the player, but not everybody gets a chance to play at the highest level of sport. In fact, it's a very select few that do get to play at that level. For sure. Well, isn't that why I got 12 little kids, and if they play in the NHL, that's great. If they don't, that's great. What I want is I want to develop the passion. Like, grandpa, can I just do another lap? Yeah, that's fabulous. We do that whether they make a career in the NHL or not, but now we've got situations where we have lots of charter schools that are charging $15,000 or $20,000. And not only is there a financial investment, but there's now an inherent stress on these young 14 or 15 year olds. Huge, huge. Exactly. And some of them will make the NHL, and maybe they'll have a nice life, they'll make lots of money. I don't care about them. I care about the ones that don't make it. I love it. That's great. And so we can learn from them. I love it. That's good. All right. Well, we want to keep going, because I think this is going to actually segues good into my next question, because you were a baseball player, you were a hockey player. And these days, there's a lot of sports specializations. You know, you touched on that a little bit. Just talk a little bit, because I know you're part of the Edmonton Riverhawks. So we want to get into that for sure. Tell us a little bit about your thoughts on sports specialization at such a young age. I mean, you obviously were a multi-sport player. So two of our kids went to two Olympics and speed skated. One of my sons and one of my daughters. And my daughter at 15 was practicing twice a week, two hours a week. At 19, it was four hours a day. Same girl, but the difference between 15, physically, emotionally, psychologically not as mature to 19 when she's on the Olympic team. So there's a time to commit. But the nervousness for me as an 11-year-old who has to practice four times a week, can't play volleyball. In fact, it's interesting. My son was trying out for a Midget AAA team. He ended up going to two Olympics in speed skating, played in a local community, a local elite program. And the coach said, you can't play Midget AAA hockey and play volleyball at Ross Shep. So I said, what are you going to do? He said, well, I'll play Midget AA. And he played volleyball, a great skill. Wayne Gretzky was arguably the most fantastic player and a great role model we've ever seen. And in Pittsburgh, there was a fellow that knew somebody I knew, and he came up to all of us and he introduced his sons, 14 to 13, and said, Joe scored 87 goals and 65 assists, and Jimmy scored 57 goals and 35 assists, and looked us in the eye and said, what's the best thing we can do in the summer to make him a better hockey player? And Wayne looked him in the eye and said, play golf, play soccer, just let them be athletes. Now when they're 19, then play the sport. So the thought that more is better when we're younger, I think it's a fallacy, and we have lots of young 13 year olds that retire. Well, I retired at 36. Yeah. But when you see a young person, girl or boy, retire at the sport they love at 13, our system is wrong. Yeah. Yeah. And we as role models maybe should not identify that this system works. Now it works for the elite, but I don't care about the elite. Yeah. I don't care about the great player. I care about the player who isn't great. That's right. Who's going to be your neighbor someday. That's right. Yeah. And it's going to have, in fact, interestingly, there was a young fellow named John Devaney who played with Golden Bears when I played, played in the Olympics. And the Oilers offered him a two-way contract, and John was a smart man, and he was a good player, but not a great player. And John said, you know, I could go to the minors, make $30,000. I think I'll just become an accountant. Was a very successful accountant, had a family, a wonderful life. He made a great decision, and he had a chance to play in the NHL. But he realized that this was better for him. So I look at people like John Devaney, and I think, you know, you really have a vision for what you want in your life. Yeah, great. What a great story. And that is so true. It's taken a turn that, yeah, isn't healthy in so many ways for kids, and that's unfortunate. You... So my wife is a teacher. Okay. And she's now retired. But you know, when you have a group of 30 kids, do you just teach the smartest kids? No, yeah. Of course you don't. No. In fact, you often... Teach the whole class. You often give extra time to the kids that are struggling. Yeah. Why? Because every child is important. That's right. What do we do when we play hockey? Well, we get the best players to get more ice time, get dry land training, we'll give them nutrition ideas, but if you're not very good, we don't really care about that. So what's the difference between education and learning to build sports? Yeah. So it's kind of interesting, isn't it? So you finished with five Stanley Cups. Well, you didn't finish, but you got five Stanley Cups with the Oilers. Then when you were done with the Oilers, did you go back into practice or was the transition into baseball right away or what was that time period there? So I did. So the Glen Sather had to cover people on their restricted list or something like that. And so he put somebody on there and he left me off the list because who's going to take this 34-year-old who's a doctor? And then he emailed all the teams that don't pick Randy, because he's not going to go. Well, the Vancouver Canucks said, well, even if he doesn't go, at least we're going to get him off the team. So the Vancouver Canucks picked me up. Yeah, and we had a young family at the time. And I just started an organization called Fun Team Alberta, which is, again, kind of what we're talking about. Sport for all, learning skills, not winning or losing, but participating. It's now got about 1,800 members in Alberta. So I kind of committed to that. So I took a year off. And then the Vancouver Canucks were quite interested. And there was a sports medicine clinic at UBC. And so I thought, well, maybe I can go there and play. And maybe spend some time at the sports medicine clinic. Because my interest was, of course, muscular and skeletal medicine. So I went to Vancouver. The coach there was Pat Quinn, a wonderful gentleman, a great leader, and somebody I really respect. And while I was there, there was this young fellow that were going to sign. And there was an interview with this young fellow. And somebody said, well, do you think you'll score 50 goals in the NHL? And he said, probably. Well, up on the chalkboard in the dressing room, like, who the heck thinks he's going to come in and score? The guy's name was Bure. Yeah, that's right. He joined the team, did score 50 goals, was a wonderful athlete, great addition. So that was a good experience. But being away from my family was hard. I think about my wife and the challenges she had and the sacrifices never to say anything. She realized that was part of closing off an NHL career and leaving on her terms. Yeah, on your terms. Yeah, cool. Again, we want to respect your time. Tell us about the Riverhawks. Yes. Yeah, I think in 1978, I was playing on a senior team, and the best senior team in Canada went to the National Championships and before we went there, the president of Baseball Canada said, whoever plays the best will represent Canada, go to Italy for the World Championships. I thought, my God, can you imagine playing for your country? That was before I was able to do hockey. So I got pretty lucky. I threw a one-hitter against PEI, hit seven home runs in the last three games. I was given the MVP award, and after the award, the same president came up and said, Randy, great job out there, but we're not going to take you because you're Canadian and you don't play in the United States. So I thought, okay, that's fine. I'll go play hockey instead. But what it showed me is that you don't have to go to the United States to be a great athlete. You just have to be a great athlete. And so although I learned that, and luckily I transferred to hockey and that worked out fairly well, I really like baseball. I think it's a great sport. You know, in hockey, the kids go to the game, they play, they go home. In baseball, you go to the game, you play, you sit around for two hours, you hang out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Baseball is amazing. We're doing some stuff. Yeah, that's right. And so we realized that the Edmonton Trappers were a big part of our sporting community. Yeah, they were. But after 9-11, it was really hard to get a lot of the Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans across the border. So they went to Rolling Rock, Arkansas. So for a period of time, we had the Cracker Cats and the Capitals and that didn't work out well. And in fact, the city was hoping to demolish Re-Max Field. That's right. They wanted to tear it down. And so we got a group together to say, you know, we do need the Elks and we do need the Oilers and we do need a soccer team. We do need a baseball team. So anyway, we struggled a little bit getting a team with the West Canadian Baseball League. The fellow that had the rights was a little bit interesting to deal with. So one of the fellows said, have you ever heard of the West Coast League? And I said, yeah, but we're not in the West Coast. We're in the Prairies. Anyway, the West Coast League had an interest in expanding and it usually takes three years to get the franchise, took us three months. Wow. Well, in the last three years, we've eclipsed all our tens records. Yes. When we first went to these owner meetings, they said, where is Edmonton anyways locked in Canada? They don't say that anymore. No. 150,000 fans last year and they're all saying, I don't know what you're doing. It's really phenomenal. You have done an amazing job. You really have. You revived baseball back down at the Remax. So there's two thoughts on that. First of all is after the first year, people said, you're charging $20 a ticket. You could charge more. I said, I know we can, but we're not going to. Because I don't care about you and me. I care about that family where $20 is a lot of money. They can't go to a football game. They can't go to hockey games. That's right. So we have a $35 ticket for the guy who wants to sit around a fire pit and watch the game, but we will stay fast that we want an affordable thing. The other thing we said is I want a $3 hot dog. Yes. Now we got a $9 hamburger for you and I, but I never want a family to come and say "Son I can't buy anything." Now it's a junior hot dog, but still $3. Well, and anybody who goes to professional sports, to arenas, whatever, I mean, it's a $8 bottle of water. You're right. It becomes unaffordable. It's hard for families. And I remember, my wife and I, we lived in the River Valley in one of the high rises that overlooked the park there. And that was just a great, cheap evening to go watch ball. So in this community, if all you do is take, then you've got to be either a team that everybody wants. The Oilers can do whatever they want because they're the Oilers. But if you start giving back to the people in the community, they realize this. Edmonton is a great community. I've lived in Calgary, I've lived in Vancouver, and I will live nowhere else in Edmonton because we have people who really understand what, I think maybe it's the 30 below, 40 below it brings us together. Yeah, yeah, no, you're right. I think they realize, in fact, it was one time after a game. It was during, sort of after the pandemic, and I have a friend who owns a McDonald's franchise, and he said, Randy, we'd love to sponsor you, but just pandemics kicked the heck out of us. But we'll give you free cheeseburger coupons. Of course, when you get a free cheeseburger, you buy chips and so on. Anyway, at the end of one game, I was outside picking some weeds or something like that, bending over and these two guys were coming and drinking their beer and they said, Jesus, that was a good game. And then they're looking and they gave us a goddamn cheeseburger. And it was a great story. I love it, that's great. When you give people something that they don't pay for, are those people gonna come back? And I think that's a reflection on Edmonton, the community, also the excitement of baseball and I think we've struck a chord with people. We're not trying to nickel and dime people, we want them to experience it, so it's kind of fun. And I think it's a reflection on you, because you're doing a great job, an amazing job, and you can read the community like that, and I think that's fantastic, and I think we need more people like that in professional sports. I get it, at certain levels, it is what it is, but this is high level baseball, this is high level entertainment. It's amazing entertainment. It's amazing entertainment, and it's worth every penny of it, and you've made it accessible to so many. We learn from our experiences, and not only growing up in Inglewood and living with five other siblings in a 700-square-foot house, but there was a time when we would go to the West Edmonton Mall as Oilers, and they would give us a bunch of cards, and we would sign it, and there would be lineups around the whole mall. At the end of the time, the PR person would come and take the existing cards that we didn't have because they could sell them. Some of us would have to hide the cards because we wanted to sign them and give them away to kids in the community. So when you see that, you think, really, did we really have to squeeze them? So those are all experiences. Some aren't pleasant experiences, but they're experiences that mold us into knowing what's right in our community. Good on you guys. Well, man, we've kept you a little longer. We have one final question. We ask this to every guest. Randy, what is the best piece of advice you've been given either throughout your career, professionally or personally, that you carry with you to this day? I'm going to answer it two ways, and not because it's me. My wife went to her first Olympic at 16, 16 years old, are you kidding me? Her father was one of the most amazing men I knew. He was a Mennonite minister, but he was also a university professor in economics. Just before she went to the Olympics in Austria, he looked at her and said, if you don't win a medal, don't come back. Then he winked and said, go have some fun. Yeah. So he understood, and so we do the same thing with our kids. When they went to the Olympics, I think we said the same thing. But the other thing was I coached my sons in baseball, and they were eight, nine years old. My daughter was six, and we needed a player. So I asked my little six-year-old daughter, she was a great ball player. I said, can you come and play? So she was playing shortstop. It was coach pitch, and I was coaching. Anyway, a man on second base, and so the ball came to her shortstop. She picked it up, and of course, the player ran to third base. She touched her, and I called her out, the runner out. And my daughter came up and said, but dad, I didn't touch him. Wow. Wow. Isn't that a statement? Yeah. Yeah. A six-year-old understands what sports you can't host. Right. I learned from them. Wow. That's fantastic. It doesn't get any better than that. That's amazing. This has been just an amazing podcast. We can't thank you enough. I mean, my goodness. I can't believe I'm sitting here with you because I watched you all through my teen years play, and it was amazing, and here you are sitting in front of me. Absolutely amazing, and to listen to you is, we could do this for another two hours. I know you got to go, so we're not going to do that. But before he does go, tell us where people can find out about the Edmonton Riverhawks. Yeah. You're all over social media. Yeah, gohawks.ca is a website, and we do a really good job on the website. And, you know, we talk about learning, and here's the Wayne Gretzky. We go into Pittsburgh, and there'd be a thousand people waiting for Mario Lemieux to sign autographs. He is a Pittsburgh penguin. He would get into his limousine and drive through the crowd. Wayne Gretzky, on the other hand, the other team would walk through the crowd, sign autographs. So, you know, like everybody, we learn from people to have humility, to be proud of what we've done. But anyway, to finish off, yeah, gohawks.ca with the Riverhawks, but I want to leave you with one quote, because I think it reflects on the fact that we have to know what we've done and what we haven't done. I was a 50 goal scorer in the NHL. Problem is, took nine years to get them all. So I'll leave you with that. Well, thank you so much, Randy. We appreciate it. This has been a great podcast. Listen, folks, we need you to tell everybody about our podcast. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your coworkers, tell your enemies. If you don't have any friends, make one, just so you can tell them all about the podcast, www.coffeeinthepark.com, wherever you get your podcast. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Thank you, Randy, for being here today, and we'll catch you next time.