Playing professional hockey is the dream of many Canadian kids. But, according to the NHL, for male players, only approximately 0.02% of those in the minor leagues will ever play in the league.
So, when a player makes the big leagues and walks away from the game by choice, it always comes as a shock.
Such was the case with Leasider Tom Edur.
Edur began his hockey journey with the Leaside Hockey Association and after graduating from Leaside High School in 1973, helped the Toronto Marlies capture the Memorial Cup.
Too young to be drafted by the NHL after his career with the Marlies, the 17-year-old was signed by the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association for a three-year, $250,000 contract.
While the Boston Bruins drafted him the next year, Edur stuck out his contract with the Crusaders for the full three years before joining the Colorado Rockies in 1976.
The 6′ 1″ defenceman nicknamed “Bomber” soon began racking up points and led the team in the plus/minus category. After being named the Rockies’ best defenceman, he was traded early the following season to the Pittsburgh Penguins where he became the team’s highest scoring defenceman.
Just months after the season with the Penns ended, Edur shockingly announced that he was hanging up his skates and walking away from hockey and from a contract worth approximately $92,000 per year.
Maclean’s magazine, reporting on Edur’s departure from the game, commented that “Tom Edur, at 23 years of age, had it all, the all-Canadian dream – women, money and a spot in the NHL.”
Why would a 23-year-old player in the prime of his career step away from the game?
Finding a new path
From the very get-go in the professional leagues, Edur was troubled by so-called hockey culture.
He watched as players cheated on their wives during away series and was uncomfortable with both the adultery and the amount of drinking occurring after each practice and game.
Admitting that during “the last month of the (second) season I was drunk every night for 30 days,” he came to realize and regret the effects of his drinking on his body, his game and his moral standards.
Back in Toronto in 1977 after his first season with the Rockies, Edur reconnected with Liz, a former school friend. The two chatted about God, behavioural standards and the fact that she had begun biblical studies with the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW).
He began his own studies and reached out to JW societies when he returned to Colorado and then in Pittsburgh, cementing his decision that, as he noted, “Bible principles and professional hockey just don’t mix.”
By the end of the 1977-78 season, Edur had come to the decision to leave the NHL to dedicate himself to the JW. He was baptized in July 1978, proposed to, and married Liz, and in September informed the Penguins that he was not returning to play.
While the Penguins attempted to lure Edur back with offers of weekends off and more money, he remained committed to his vows.
Edur and Liz worked as JW pioneers in Colorado and moved on to JW offices in Canada, Finland and Estonia to work as translators of JW materials.
The hockey phenom is a remarkable example of someone who chose morals over “having it all.”
