If there is one thing Greg Millen has studied, watched and got curious about in his long professional hockey and broadcasting career it’s leadership. He has always watched great leaders on his teams and saw what made them that way.
It is a subject he is so interested in last year he got his masters degree in leadership.
When hockey analyst and broadcaster Millen was a teenager he was the goalie for the Peterborough Petes, but didn’t know what the future held for him.
He told a reporter during a bus trip, which asked what he was going to do if hockey didn’t work out; he said he’d like to try journalism or broadcasting. I was that reporter more than three decades ago and was impressed with the maturity of the young man who kept asking questions about the media business.
It turned out he didn’t need journalism because he went on to have a successful 14 year National Hockey League career, but the thought was kept in his mind.
After retiring from playing goal with Pittsburgh, Hartford, Chicago, St. Louis, Quebec and Detroit he tried working as a goaltending coach for the Dallas Stars, but broadcasting appealed more to him.
He took the leap into the business doing interviews, anchor work and becoming a colour commentator for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada where he still works today. Although not as high profile as he once was on that network he also does colour commentary during Leafs games for Leaf Network and SportsNet, a Rogers affiliate that takes over all NHL broadcasts next season in a block buster multi billion dollar deal completed last year. He has been in broadcasting for 21 years after retiring as a player in 1992.
Millen, 56, has a wandering mind though and is always looking for other outlets. Even when he was a boy he wanted to do other things besides sports. He took drumming lessons and during high school was in school concert bands. He also learned, without lessons, how to play the piano.
He was never a quitter. When he was playing youth hockey some scouts and coaches didn’t think he was big enough to be a professional, or even a junior level, goalie. At 5’9” some people thought he was too small. They forgot to examine his heart and perseverance. Their words made him try harder and prove those people wrong. He’s a stubborn sort, as most pro athletes need to be.
The Petes took him to training camp in 1974 and he never looked back. Petes’ coach Roger Neilson loved his style and gave him the big opportunity to star in the OHL where he ended his career with the Soo Greyhounds, even being able to say he once coached Wayne Gretzky. It’s a long story, but when Greg arrived at the Soo the team had fired their coach and in the first practice there was nobody in control so Greg was asked to conduct some of the practices.
Taking a leadership role was not uncommon in the family of the Toronto-born Millen whose father was a vice president of Philco Ford and his mother an executive with Sears. Their only child led them into the world of sports, a world they were unfamiliar with but willing to enter. After all most of the kids in his neighbourhood were also involved playing hockey on the nearby outdoor rinks or the small one his father made in their yard. His parents got him to early morning practices and weekend tournaments. They struggled at first to even figure out how to put on the forward equipment and then when only seven they found it even more difficult when their son fell in love with being a goalie. In those days, Greg remembers, he played outside all day long. In the summer he was outside water skiing, boating, swimming, but not playing too many other organized sports. He went to a summer camp in Haliburton run by hockey players where there were hockey instructors such as his goaltending heroes Johnny Bower and Bernie Parent, but there was also camping, and outdoor activities there.
When Peterborough Petes drafted him he not only fell in love with the city but a Peterborough woman, Ann Kelly, who while not sharing his love for hockey did love music and also played in the high school band. They married and he dragged her and later their children (now three daughters and a son) to various cities that his profession took him. Traveling has been a part of his life since he was 16 by bus, train, plane and automobile.
When his playing days were over the family moved to nearby Bridgenorth where they live today in a beautiful old farmhouse, although all their children have entered careers and universities.
Greg’s traveling didn’t stop though as his broadcasting career has taken him across North America and Europe doing not only NHL, but also Olympics games for the last two decades. Ann’s love for classical music and playing never stopped either. In fact she is enrolled in the University of Toronto’s music program getting her degree this year. It was something she had always wanted to do and in the Millen family you follow your dreams. Greg encouraged it after following his dreams for most of their marriage.
Her time in Toronto has made for a busy couple but Greg still had some dreams to follow and enrolled in Guelph University’s masters leadership program where he earned his degree at the end of 2013.
During the last few years he also started the Millen Group, a family hockey advisor program for minor hockey parents and players who need advice on their futures in hockey. It’s not a company of agents but rather one that that will help families make decisions like whether to go the university or OHL route. His group evaluates hockey potential, academic records, gives them strategies, marketing prospects and advises player and family on development.
Millen is used to entering various ventures. He had operated hockey schools and clinics in the past. He also studied for his insurance license. Commenting on hockey game is not his only radio or TV expertise; he also produces shows and has become involved in the social network. He is also a recognized speaker at corporate events.
In the spare time he has, usually in the summer months, he is an expert fly fisherman, happy cottager/boater and gets involved with various charities. He and fellow former NHLers such as Steve Larmer began Peterborough’s Pro Hockey Alumni which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help children in and around the community. He was the honourary chair for the new YMCA on Aylmer Street when fundraising for that building took place. On January 31 of 2014 he will be the guest speaker at a Leadership Lunch at The Venue in Peterborough at noon with all proceeds going toward the local Down Syndrome Association of which he’s a board member. Last season he even offered to buy the Peterborough Petes with other investors. He believes they need a leadership direction to get them back on the road to success.
Greg and Ann children either have graduated or are attending university and their life directions have also been diverse from nursing to acting and son Charlie, who also took the goalie route playing on various Ontario junior teams now attends an Ontario university where he continues to be a goaltender.
Greg, a fun loving guy when he’s relaxing, realizes how lucky his life has been but also knows it has been hard work that got him where he is today. It was not easy to convince coaches he was their goalie, he had to work harder than the other guys. When he was drafted, then was cut at his first tryout by the Pittsburgh Penguins at 19, he almost gave up, but gave it one more chance. He has always had to work harder than some of the others.
Today, an excellent time manager, with his busy family, a leadership degree, speaking engagements, management company, and very busy broadcasting career that he still loves, he still thinks of tinkering with his future. He’s wondering what he can add to his plate or maybe take off it, to give him more time to relax, spend with family or even get back into music. But those thoughts of relaxing don’t last too long, his mind is too busy from him to sit still.
“Maybe I’ll write a book.”
Maybe he will; just don’t be like those people in his past that doubted him.
Ed Arnold is a Peterborough writer, his latest book will be released this fall by Harper Collins.
