Since the Seattle Seahawks’ first season as an NFL expansion franchise in 1976, the organization has seen more than 900 players suit up, ownership changes and many employees come and go. One Seahawks employee has been there for it all — Sandy Gregory. Gregory retired this summer after 42 years with the franchise and was the last original employee to do so after director of video Thom Fermstad left in 2011. During her time with the Seahawks, Gregory served as an administrative assistant, community service director and, finally, senior director of legends, team history and special projects. She looks back on her years and fond memories with the Seahawks.
When the Seahawks first started, there weren’t as many people. I was in the PR department and out of PR we did marketing, we did all the entertainment, we did appearances for the players. I was booking anthems, halftimes and Color Guards back then from the PR department. Now, there’s people to do all those things. Now you have an HR department, you have an accounting department, a ticket department, a marketing department, an IT department — it has just changed a lot. I started on a typewriter, for heaven’s sake.
One of Gregory’s happiest moments during her 42 years with the Seahawks was Super Bowl XLVIII.courtesy of sandy gregory
The role of women in sports business has absolutely changed. Back then I was a secretary — people can advance now. You know our CFO is a woman. The head of our HR department is a woman. There’s so many opportunities out there now for women to get involved in sports and advance their careers.
Obviously, my favorite moment has to be the Super Bowl. I remember being in the stands — which normally for home games I’m in the press box somewhere — and I was sitting amongst other employees and we were ahead at halftime. I still didn’t feel confident that we had the game yet until the second-half kickoff when Percy Harvin returned the kickoff for a touchdown. I just started bawling because I knew we had the game, we still had momentum and that this is it. There was no doubt in my mind. People in the stands were high-fiving me and hugging me because they knew. I think it was 38 years at that point and never a Super Bowl, so it was really, really emotional.
And then I’m down on the field after the game and I’m stuffing confetti into my pockets. It was just an amazing experience. I had worked 22 Super Bowls for the NFL at its media center. To be on the other end of it and to see what it’s like to win a game and feel it — oh man, it was the best.
One of the hardest things just for the team in general is we had an ownership change. The Nordstrom family sold the team to Ken Behring and Ken Hofmann. They [Behring and Hofmann] couldn’t get a new stadium built, so they were moving the team to California and it was a challenging time because we didn’t want the team to move. We actually started to move — they had the moving vans, they were taking over an old [Los Angeles] Rams facility down in Southern California, and part of the office actually moved down there. We vacated our offices and set up secret offices at hotels so we could continue working. Eventually, the league told us that we couldn’t move and the people in California came back. Paul Allen stepped forward, thank goodness, and said that he would buy the team as long as the fans here, the people of Washington, voted for a new stadium. The referendum passed 51 to 49 percent, so Paul Allen bought the team and here we are.
Gregory started with the franchise as an administrative assistant in the public relations department.courtesy of sandy gregory
The history part really is something I left kind of unfinished that I was hoping to get done. Years and years ago, 12 to 15 years ago, I started saving Seahawks memorabilia in hopes that someday we would have a museum to display all the history and the Lombardi Trophy. All this is sitting in a warehouse and it needs to be catalogued, photographed and organized. I’m hoping someday Paul Allen will build a museum. He’s got four other museums and I’m hoping he’ll see the value in having a sports museum and, you know, preserving our history. I have so many great ideas for a museum that I had a whole file that I left there. I didn’t even clean it, I had just thrown ideas in there.
I will still do some charity work. My last day at the office was really June 30, which was a Saturday. The next day was Sunday and Seattle was hosting the Special Olympics USA Games, and so I volunteered to work that whole week. It was amazing actually to be a part of something like that — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I worked the Special Olympics Games and then this next week I have Jacob Green’s charity golf tournament and then later in the week I’ve got Kenny Easley’s golf tournament and then the following Monday Bryce Fisher’s golf tournament, so I’m going to be staying involved. I want to stay involved. And that’s what it’s all about — that’s what my life has been about at the Seahawks.
