Remembering an afternoon spent with Regina royalty

Gord Staseson was a 5-foot-6 giant in our community.

He did so many remarkable things, for the betterment of an incalculable number of people and organizations, that you wondered how he managed to pack it all into 93 years.

Gord began watching the Roughriders when they played at Park de Young, and lived long enough to see them play in new Mosaic Stadium.

He helped to sustain a franchise that once cherished every nickel before its evolution into a financial powerhouse.

At the age of nine, he was an eyewitness to the infamous Regina Riot on July 1, 1935.

A diminutive but slick-skating forward, he played hockey at a time when Exhibition Stadium was regarded as a state-of-theart palace, and eventually played a key role in the construction of its much-needed replacement, the Agridome (now Brandt Centre).

Late in 2016, when the demolition of the Stadium was imminent, I sat down with Gord to interview him for a reminiscence I was doing on the ol’ barn.

Before the session, he prepared copious and lengthy notes, but it turned out that he barely referenced the background material — such was the clarity and precision of his memories.

The conversation eventually meandered — and it was entirely my fault. He told me of the time when jazz legend Louis Armstrong performed at Exhibition Stadium. So we started talking about music ... and then, of course, football.

Gord was the Roughriders’ president from 1979 to 1981, before serving as chairman of the CFL’S board of governors in 1982.

An expanded Taylor Field opened in Gord’s first season as the highest-ranking member of the team’s management committee. In the third year, the Roughriders rebounded from back-to-back 2-14 seasons by going 9-7.

Following the Roughriders has never been more enjoyable than it was in 1981, when the Green and White played to more than 100-per-cent capacity for the first time.

Joey Walters turned spectacular catches into a routine occurrence, Joe Barnes and

John Hufnagel (a.k.a. J.J. Barnagel) combined to throw 33 touchdown passes, and Lyall Woznesensky punctuated every quarterback sack by performing The Woztusi.

After I babbled on endlessly about Walters, The Woz, Barnagel, et al, Gord began telling me stories about players that I was too young (imagine that) to have seen in person — Dean Griffing, Glenn Dobbs, Martin Ruby, Hugh Campbell ...

We spent most of the afternoon, ostensibly dedicated to an interview regarding Exhibition Stadium, discussing an assortment of unrelated topics.

All the while, I marvelled at his good nature — not for the first time — and at everything he had seen and done.

How often, it occurred to me, do you have the honour of spending several hours with someone who is a Member of the Order of Canada?

It was like an audience with royalty — a relaxed, treasured afternoon that elapsed all too quickly.

Sadly, I never saw him again. Gord passed away on Saturday, only a few days after he had visited with two dear friends, Tom Shepherd and Gord Wicijowski.

“I personally cannot think of anyone who has come close to or accomplished as much for his community than Gordon W. Staseson,” Shepherd said on Sunday.

Gord specialized in getting things done on behalf of his favourite city and its beloved football team. He was seemingly inexhaustible, for 93 years.

But, as busy as he was, he always had time to be a friend.