Ex-oiler’s tourney scores for spinal-cord research
Simpson and friends raise $250,000
Craig Simpson managed to bury his demons on his backswing last week while raising nearly $250,000 during his 25th annual Never Say Never golf tournament.
There were loud laughs at dinner on the eve of the tournament when Simpson, who helped the Edmonton Oilers win two Stanley Cups (1988 and 1990), was presented with a certificate for chipping lessons.
“Everyone knows Craig can drive a ball a mile but is horrible when he has to play an approach shot,” said accountant Brian Koshman, a longtime friend and president of their Simmer Fine Wines and Spirits company.
“I play with him twice a week and he recently pounded the ball to within 80 yards of the hole, but then took three strokes to get on the green. If he’s not on the green in two, I know I will win the hole. He’s a terrible putter.”
Said Simpson: “Too many bad thoughts get into my mind on the backswing of chip shots. When I was younger, I just stepped up and hit the ball.
Now I think, ‘Don’t do this. Be careful of that.’”
The former hockey player, who retired at age 28 with a back injury and is now part of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast team, sped around the course at the Belvedere Golf and Country Club, trying to play a hole with every team in the scramble.
He showed no jitters when he made an eagle for our team on a par 5 hole. He drove the ball 300 yards, then popped it onto the green 260 yards away before sinking a 10-foot putt.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Many sports legends play in Simpson’s annual tournament every year.
Warmly welcomed were such greats as Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne and Peter Mahovlich, who played for the Canadiens on four Stanley Cup winning teams and later became a scout for the Edmonton Oilers in 19951997. But it was a girl tipped as a future great athlete because of her inherited genes who drew lots of admiration during the tournament.
Samantha Rae Simpson, born to Simpson his and wife Jamie Sale on July 7, was a very contented child while dad bottle fed her at dinner after the golf tournament.
“She’s a good sleeper,” Simpson. “Rest time is paramount in sport. She’s doing a heck of a job at it.”
Sale, who won an Olympic gold skating medal with former husband David Pelletier, who also played in the tournament, said her skating days are over.
“I last skated in May,” said the skater, who won the Battle of the Blades with now husband Simpson last year.
“I can only see myself skating again in perhaps a farewell tour.”
A $ 1 5 , 000 T- SHIRT
Simpson began his golf tournament at the age of 22 after assistant coach Ted Green, who had suffered a brain injury and was almost paralyzed in a hockey game, asked him if he would help publicize the work of the Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Centre. The tournament has raised more than $2 million for the centre and the Craig Simpson & Friends Charity Fund has helped endow a chair in spinal cord injury at the University of Alberta, as well as helping many other charities.
Boosting funds this year at the pre-game tournament at the River Cree Resort, and again at the post-game dinner, was Terry O’Flynn, president of Prism Flow Products Inc. and an Edmonton Eskimo Football Club board member.
O’Flynn paid $15,000 for the framed T-shirt of his friend Danny Kepley, a key player in six of the Edmonton Eskimos Grey Cups wins, and $3,300 for an autographed jersey of NFL Hall of Famer Warren Moon who also played for the Eskimos.
A telephone bid of $3,300 helped Aaron Moser, left a quadriplegic in a junior hockey accident in 1998, win an autographed Mario Lemieux hockey jersey.
QUARTERBACK RUSH
A magical thing happened at the Maier Centre of Autism’s celebrity golf tournament at Spruce Grove’s Links Golf Course last week, at which more than $60,000 was raised.
A dinner for six at the Homefire Grill was on the block when auctioneer Sine Chadi asked for one of the many sports celebrities present to join guests at the dinner.
Former Edmonton Eskimo Damon Allen, named one of the greatest CFL quarterbacks of all time after winning four Grey Cups with three franchises, volunteered to come from Toronto. Chadi offered his air miles to bring him here.
Then CFL Hall of Famer Tracy Hamm agreed to come as well. Both offered to bring signed jerseys and to play a round of golf with the dinner winner. They also threw in the opportunity to watch a game from the team’s Alumni Room at Commonwealth Stadium.
Todd Grundy of Arpi’s North well known in the mechanical construction industry, won the item with a bid $6,000. Grundy also paid $3,000 for a football signed by five generations of Eskimo Schenley winning players, five of whom were present.
As well as Allen and Ham, also playing in the tournament were Willie Pless, Gizmo Williams and Emilio Fraietta.