The Saskatchewan Roughriders posted an historic Grey Cup victory on labour day — at least from the perspective of the Gottselig family.
Ashley Gottselig was born on Nov. 26, 1989, during halftime of the Roughriders’ championship clash with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“We joke that the doctors and nurses didn’t have to miss any of the game, because it was such a fast birth,” the Balgonie-based Gottselig reflected leading up to today, her 34th birthday.
“The doctor did say thank you,” noted Brenda Gottselig, Ashley’s mother.
The initial plan for the final Sunday of November, 1989, called for Brenda and her husband, Ron, to attend a Grey Cup party — one that ultimately peaked when the Roughriders won 43-40.
The agenda abruptly changed when Ashley forced the issue.
“I was like, ‘I think something’s happening …,’ ” Brenda recalled.
The Gottseligs’ first child, Chad, was dropped off at Brenda’s parents’ residence before an urgent excursion was made to Regina’s Pasqua Hospital.
“Ashley had great timing,” her mother said. “If she had waited an hour or two, she might have been born in a car, because there were so many people out on the streets after the game.
“Ron left the hospital to pick up Chad after Ashley was born and it took him two hours to get from Pasqua Hospital to south Regina. I don’t want to contemplate what would have happened if Ashley had arrived a little later.”
The Roughriders’ offence did not arrive, in a sense, until the second quarter.
Hamilton led 13-1 after 15 minutes, whereupon a delightfully dizzying second stanza unfolded.
Due to the combined efforts of the Roughriders and Tiger-Cats, five consecutive possessions ended with a touchdown.
Three of those majors resulted from passes thrown by Kent Austin, who connected with Ray Elgaard, Jeff Fairholm and Don Narcisse for scores.
The frenetic pace was such that the Tiger-Cats were still celebrating a touchdown reception by Derrick McAdoo when the Roughriders countered with a major of their own.
Saskatchewan began — and emphatically ended — one possession with a 75-yard scoring bomb from Austin to Fairholm.
While Austin and Tiger-Cats quarterback Mike Kerrigan were dissecting defences by firing darts all over the field at Toronto’s SkyDome (now Rogers Centre), Brenda Gottselig was preparing for a memorable delivery of her own.
Ashley Rae Gottselig — seven pounds, five ounces — arrived around 6:30 p.m.
Given the magnitude of the occasion, Ron and Brenda became two of the few people in Saskatchewan who did not see a single play of the 1989 Grey Cup Game while it was in progress.
After the baby stopped kicking, it was Dave Ridgway’s turn to handle the footwork.
His 35-yard field goal with two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter snapped a 40-40 tie. Cue pandemonium.
“When all the doctors and nurses came back to my room, they told us what had happened,” Brenda said.
“I didn’t have a TV in my room, so I didn’t see any highlights.”
Not until three days after the game, when Brenda was discharged from hospital.
Ashley filled the void quite spectacularly, mind you, by creating highlights for her parents on — and ever since — Nov. 26, 1989.
“Don’t do the math,” she said with a chuckle. “I can’t believe that it’s 34 years now.”
Ashley was still an infant when she was able to celebrate the Roughriders’ second Grey Cup victory — which took place 23 years to the day after the first one — in fine style.
The Green and White was playing in a charity hockey game in Balgonie and Ashley, just three months old, was among the attendees.
The family cherishes a photo of little Ashley with three Roughriders football/hockey players — Elgaard, Roger Aldag and John Hoffman.
“We’re a football family and we’re Rider fans,” Ashley said, “so I always have a Rider cake of some form on my birthday.”
But here’s what takes the cake for Ashley: Her son, Leo, was born on Jan. 28, 2017.
In addition to being a devoted mom, Ashley takes considerable pride in her career as an orthodontic assistant and, of course, a birthdate of note.
“Even as a baby, my parents bought me Grey Cup clothes, like an ’89 Grey Cup sweatshirt,” she said.
“I was born to be a Rider fan, pretty much.”
