A new book about the Saskatchewan Roughriders is sure to please both hard core and casual fans alike, along with anyone interested in an important part of the province’s history.
“100 Things Roughriders Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die,” by Regina Leader-Post sports editor Rob Vanstone, hit shelves late last year. In it, Vanstone assembles every essential fact, accomplishment and trivia about the team during its 110 years. He recalls every pivotal figure in team history, such as Neil (Piffles) Taylor and Ron Lancaster, and talks about important events, such as all four Grey Cup wins and The Little Miracle at Taylor Field.
Every page is filled with entertaining tidbits and nuggets from one of the more humorous sports journalists out there.
The book can be purchased from Chapters, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Triumph Books.
Writing the book
Vanstone wrote two other books about the Riders, which focused on the Grey Cup-winning teams of 1966 and 1989. He explained it was the publisher’s decision to create this type of fact book since it had done similar ones for other sports leagues and teams. However, the one void in its catalogue was for the Canadian Football League.
Triumph Books, the Chicago-based publisher, approached Vanstone in early 2018 about writing it. He joked that it took him three minutes to say yes since he had to ask his wife for permission first. He also had to receive permission from the Leader-Post since he knew this would be a time-consuming project.
“It struck me as something that would be a lot of fun,” he said. “I liked the fact I had a blank canvas. Anything I wanted to write that I deemed important in the history of the team — over 100 years — I had the licence to do that.”
Vanstone, 55, approached the project with so much enthusiasm that he generated 150 topics during his initial brainstorm session. Since Triumph Books said he could have 10 to 20 sidebars, he was actually able to tell 120 stories. The manuscript had to be completed by February 2019, so some stories had to be re-written quickly during that season due to changes on the team, such as the departure of head coach Chris Jones.
Vanstone wanted to insert a chapter about Riders’ quarterback Cody Fajardo, but couldn’t due to deadline issues. He might insert such a chapter if the book is re-printed.
Digging up the facts
“I really liked digging into the stuff from the inception of the team and those early years,” he continued, “because it was new to me in the sense I hadn’t written about it before.”
Since his book about the 1966 Grey Cup team spanned from 1951 to 2008, and the book on the 1989 Grey Cup team spanned from 1976 to 1989, he immersed himself in as much team lore as he could from that time. With this book, he went back in history to learn about the team’s beginnings.
Interesting things he discovered were the team was supposed to be a rowing club; the jerseys changed colour regularly; the name changed often, and; the team played on five different fields until settling at Taylor Field.
What Vanstone found most interesting was how the first Regina Rugby Club game was played on Oct. 1, 1910 — 110 years ago — in Moose Jaw against the Tigers at the baseball grounds. In fact, Regina and Moose Jaw were the only two teams in the league that year. They played each other four times and Moose Jaw won all four contests.
Those baseball grounds were located in Crescent Park where the library and art gallery now are.
“I just thought that was really cool that the first game was in Moose Jaw — where I met my wife,” he laughed.
The breadth of history
While Vanstone’s previous two books had a precise focus, this book was non-linear and had no overarching chronology, he said. With “100 Things …” he wrote chapter 81 — on Ray Elgaard — before he wrote chapter 6 (on the new Mosaic Stadium). Furthermore, many of the chapters were linked to players who wore that particular jersey number.
“I had to consider everything that had ever happened in Rider history,” he said.
Vanstone prioritized the first 10 chapters so they would draw in readers. He struggled with what chapter 1 — the 2013 Grey Cup win — should be, followed by the next nine chapters. Deciding in which order to put the stories was as big of a challenge as deciding what should go in.
The evolution of the game
Conducting research allowed Vanstone to see how football evolved. Changes began happening in the late 1920s and into the 1930s, with the forward pass beginning to appear.
Vanstone couldn’t say in what year rugby turned into football. However, more aspects of football began happening after the Second World War. It was in 1951 when Glenn Dobbs arrived that the “real awakening of football” occurred in Saskatchewan.
Favourite topic
While Vanstone had many favourite topics in the book, he singled out the chapter on legendary quarterback Ron Lancaster. Specifically, Lancaster’s final game played in 1978 in Edmonton.
After being booed at Taylor Field — his last home game ever — the week before, Lancaster came into the Edmonton game in the fourth quarter and engineered one of his famous comebacks. Since it was his last game ever, fans at Commonwealth Stadium cheered him enthusiastically and wanted to see him play.
Vanstone was in Edmonton with his mother to see that game, so it has a special place in his heart. His mom died this past December, but not before proofreading chapters and reading a final copy.
A cast of characters
Many people with whom Vanstone spoke for the book were all co-operative, he said. While he conducted dozens of new interviews with players and coaches, he also pulled quotes from previous stories, columns and books he wrote about the Riders.
Some of the people he singled out were “class act” Darian Durant; Rob Bagg, who overcame several knee injuries to help the Riders win the 2013 Grey Cup; and Neil (Piffles) Taylor’s grandchildren, who explained how their grandfather received his nickname.
“I am a Rider history nerd,” said Vanstone. “I’ve written so much about Rider history, probably too much. I still think it’s 1965 some days.”
Vanstone was pleased with how the book turned out, especially since it was a different writing challenge. There were no glaring omissions that jumped out at him after reviewing the book.
“It’s a fun little book. It captures the spectrum of Roughriders’ history pretty well. I liked this one because there is so much in it. There is lots about the early years,” he added. “If you’re looking for something to give a good overview of 110 years, it should be in there.”
