Treva McGregor played 47 games with the Club from 1966-1971.
What are you doing with yourself these days?
I was a high school principal for a long time, before retiring back in 2002.
I continued to keep myself busy by doing some work with an education research group, then at the age of 60 something, I went back to teaching at Presentation College in Windsor.
I retired from that only last year, but I still drop back every now and then.
I also have two daughters - one has three kids and the other has two boys. They’re still only young, but I think there could be a couple of potential footballers in there!
The oldest of my five grandkids turned 8 earlier this month.
Do you still catch up with any of your former team-mates?
Not a lot, although I still see John Benison. He’s just had his knee replaced.
I also manage to catch-up with a few of the boys at some of the past player turns - guys like Jim Kemp, Ian McRae and Norm Brown.
What are your fondest memories from your playing days with Fitzroy?
Beating Collingwood! Haha.
But seriously, we seemed to have the wood on them back in my day - and they were a top side
Personally, my best year was probably 1968 when I finished third in Fitzroy’s Best & Fairest Award behind John Murphy and Norm Brown.
You’re also a previous winner of the Stawell Gift - was that while you were still playing at Fitzroy?
Yes. I won the Stawell Gift in 1971 and finished second in 1970. To be honest, that probably signalled the end of my footy career.
The Club always encouraged you to keep up your fitness by running throughout the summer months, because they didn’t have long pre-seasons as they do now.
Towards the end of my playing career, pre-seasons started to become more regular, so the Club wasn’t all that happy when I kept running at Stawell. I was Australian Sprint Champion for three years and won just about everything that was around.
By the time I came back to play football, I hadn’t played any practice matches so I was played in the seconds and found it tricky to get back into the senior side.
Life was becoming even more complicated at that stage as we started having kids and I was kept busy with a full-time job.
Do you still get along to the football occasionally?
I certainly do. Only last month I took my grandson to his first game of football to see the Lions beat the Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.
It was a fantastic day. If they play like that every week I’ll travel all over the country to see them play! The confidence in which they moved the ball was just terrific.
We even managed to get into the team’s changerooms afterwards, which the young fella just loved. He was really excited, got some photos with the players, and took them to school for ‘Show and Tell’. He got one with Ash McGrath - who wears the same number as him - and Browny, of course, who is just a big hero among all the kids.
You will have noticed that the Club recent held its inaugural Hall of Fame event in Melbourne back in June. Other than Garry Wilson, Kevin Murray and John Murphy - who were among the inaugural inductees - which of your other former team-mates might get considered in the future?
In my era, you would be struggling a bit because it was dominated by John Murphy more than anybody.
Norm Brown’s the other one who will probably be considered for the Hall of Fame. Then there’s John Newnham and Gary Lazarus who were also bloody good players.
Garry Wilson actually started with Fitzroy as I was finishing and I remember him faily well. He’d come up from the thirds and we roomed together in Sorrento during one of our pre-season trips.
I remember saying to myself, “I wonder how this young fella will go”. It turned out he went alright! Maybe I might have been some kind of influence. Haha.
CLICK HERE to check out some of the previous Blast from the Past articles that have appeared exclusively on lions.com.au
