Sports of Grey

I'm not sure if you heard, but the movie version of "Fifty Shades of Grey" came out this weekend.  They barely did any promotion for it.  I sure hope it doesn't hurt them at the box office.

Anyway, in honor of the movie's release, I wanted to do a little parody and make a list of the best athletes with the last name Gray/Grey.  I even had the perfect title, "15 Athletes of Gray."  I didn't think that would be too difficult of a task.  Gray/Grey seems like a common enough last name.  But you know what?  The number of great athletes with that last name is really kind of limited.  There's the random guy who played a season or two in the Majors or the NBA here or there, but not really anyone notable.  So I decided to change the angle slightly.  Because while the name's not as common as I thought, the color gray has been pretty significant throughout the history of sports.

First and foremost, gray was, for years, the exclusive color of baseball road uniforms.  That changed in the '70s, when the introduction of polyester led to all kinds of wacky color combinations, but from the game's beginnings and continuing on for more than 60 years, teams had two uniforms--a white and a gray.  Today, of course, every team has at least one jersey that's another color (some have multiple "alternate" jerseys), but they all still have their white primary home uniform and their gray primary road uniform.  Even when they wear a different colored top on the road, you're still going to see gray pants.

Baseball also gave us the Homestead Grays, one of the most dominant teams of the Negro Leagues.  They split their home games between Pittsburgh and Washington and featured some of the greatest players in Negro League history, including Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Cool Papa Bell.  All three are in the Hall of Fame, along with nine other Grays.  Homestead won 11 pennants and three Negro World Series titles during its 38 years of operation.

In Canada, the name "Grey" is revered.  The champion of the Canadian Football League receives the Grey Cup.  Only the Stanley Cup holds more prestige in Canadian sports.  The Grey Cup, which was commissioned by the Earl Gray in 1909, has been awarded 102 times.  It's one of the oldest trophies in professional sports and, like the Stanley Cup, has the names of all the winning teams and players engraved on it.

Now on to the actual athletes with the last name Gray/Grey, because there are still a few notable ones.  The first guy I thought of, which is why I thought this would be an easier task than it turned out, was Pete Gray, the one-armed outfielder for the St. Louis Browns in 1945.  His remarkable story is what makes Pete Gray so memorable, but the fact that he's perhaps the most noteworthy athlete with that last name speaks to how hard a challenge that actually was.

Then there's Jerry Gray, the longtime Rams cornerback turned successful NFL assistant coach.  He had 28 interceptions and made four Pro Bowls during his playing career, and he was actually named Pro Bowl MVP in 1989.  As a coach, he was the Bills' defensive coordinator when they had that awesome defense in the early 2000s, was defensive coordinator for the Titans and is currently secondary coach for the Vikings.  He used to be mentioned a lot when teams had head coach openings.

Mel Gray was a wide receiver for the Cardinals in the '70s.  His NFL career wasn't spectacular, but he did make four straight Pro Bowls and was a First Team All-Pro in 1974 and 1975.  He also had a streak of 121 straight games with a catch from 1973-82.  I have no idea if that was a record at the time, or still is, or is even close to being any sort of a record, but Wikipedia found it cool enough to include in his bio, so it clearly has at least some relevance.

There's another Mel Gray, too, and this is actually the one I was thinking of when I found out about the other Mel Gray.  This one was a kick returner for several teams, most notably the Lions, for 12 years and was named to the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 1990s.  He was a seven-time All-Pro (including five straight years from 1990-94) and four-time Pro Bowler.  NFL Network ranked him No. 5 on its list of the greatest return men in history.  He actually started his career with the Los Angeles Express of the USFL and was the kick returner on the USFL All-Time Team.

My choice for the best athlete with the last name "Gray," though, is Johnny Gray, the American record-holder in the 800 meters.  He made four Olympic teams, making the final each time, and won the bronze in Barcelona in 1992, as well as two Pan Am Games golds 12 years apart (1987, 1999).  His American record in the 800, which has stood since 1985, is 1:42.60, and he also holds the indoor record (1:45.00 in 1992).  Gray is now a coach, and one of his athletes, Duane Solomon, is currently one of the best 800-meter runners in the United States.

So with Pete, Jerry, Mel, Mel and Johnny, that's five shades of Gray.  But if you throw in the Homestead and Canadian football's biggest prize, you'll see that the color has had a much bigger impact on the sports world than the lack of athletes would suggest.