Wahlmeier made an impact both on and off the gridiron

Only once did I have the pleasure of speaking with Galen Wahlmeier, a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ first Grey Cup championship team.

A 40th-anniversary reunion of the 1966 Roughriders was looming, and this scribbler was working on a series of Regina Leader-post retrospectives that ultimately morphed into a book, West Riders Best.

So I called Wahlmeier at his home in White Bear and spoke with him about one of the unique careers in Roughriders history — and a life that mirrored his time in green and white.

Wahlmeier, who died July 26 at age 84, was a centre, linebacker and long-snapper with the Roughriders for the better part of a decade.

He was equally versatile away from the playing field.

While playing for the Roughriders, he began teaching in Regina. Post-football, he moved to Estevan and made myriad contributions to that fine community and its people.

Wahlmeier became an alderman in 1971 and later served as the mayor of Estevan from 1976 to 1982.

He returned to city council for another stint that lasted from 1985 to 1988.

“It was very interesting and very challenging,” Wahlmeier said of his political life. “I enjoyed it from the standpoint that I could get into projects and plan things.

“I always told council that if you make the right decisions and you’re smart about it, you don’t have to worry about being elected.”

While in Estevan, Wahlmeier also served as president of the Bruins junior A hockey team and was a member of the SJHL’S rules committee.

For 17 years, he was a member of the Estevan Recreation Board. He is also a former president of the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association.

And he wasn’t even born in Canada — or anywhere near Saskatchewan, for that matter.

Wahlmeier grew up on a farm near Jennings, Kansas, and eventually played football at the University of Kansas.

In 1957, Wahlmeier debuted with the Roughriders, only to miss the following season while serving in the U.S. army.

He rejoined the Roughriders in 1959 and became a mainstay, playing his final CFL game in 1967. He was classified as a nonimport for the final three seasons after becoming a Canadian citizen.

Alas, he was not able to play in the 1966 Grey Cup game — the Roughriders’ landmark 29-14 victory over the Ottawa Rough Riders. Leaning on crutches, he was on the sideline at Vancouver’s Empire Stadium, having suffered stretched ligaments in his left knee in the Roughriders’ regular-season finale.

“It was a mixed bag, but also very exciting from the standpoint that we won,” Wahlmeier recalled. “I never did get to play in the game, so my name didn’t appear on the Grey Cup. Only those on the roster got their names on the Cup.”

Or so he discovered while occupying the mayor’s chair.

“The Grey Cup was brought to Estevan and I started looking for my name,” he said. “That’s when I discovered that it wasn’t on it.

“There was not too much happiness, I tell you.”

He was much happier, however, to discuss the upcoming reunion of the 1966 champions — a wonderful event at which the Grey Cup was present.

When the trophy was mentioned, the good-natured Wahlmeier began to laugh and signed off with this gem: “I’ll have to bring my own engraver.”