There was one verifiable instance of John Lynch’s signature phrase — “Where do we go from here?” — not applying to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Several years ago, John and Margie Lynch brought an adorable Scottish terrier, Taffy, into their south Regina home.
For a short time, there was some debate as to whether the Taffy-Lynch association was going to be beneficial for all parties.
Early in Taffy’s tenure, Chryssoula and I visited the Lynch residence. John and Margie had invited us over, knowing how attached we had been to our departed Scottish terriers — Oscar and Elway.
We had the nicest evening with the Lynches … all three of them!
As Taffy bounced all over the living room, we delved into the logistics of the Lynches’ life with a new and rather spirited little growler.
How would the John/Margie/Taffy arrangement work out? Where would they go from here?
Taffy, of course, was a keeper. She enjoyed a long life with John and Margie, brightening spirits far and wide as a therapy dog.
In Taffy’s early months, she helped us heal.
This reminiscence doesn’t pertain to football — a sport with which John was synonymous — but instead has everything to do with compassion and humanity.
John and Margie wanted to make us feel a little better and thought that some treasured Taffy time would assist us as we continued to deal with acute Scottie withdrawal.
And, yes, we talked about football …
Memories of that evening, and of so much else, came flooding back near suppertime on Friday, when word began to circulate that John had passed away at age 86.
In his latter years, we would see him around the neighbourhood, often while we walked our dogs.
Even as John approached his mid-80s and his health declined, there was that unmistakeable voice.
It simply boomed, whether you were listening to John in person or during one of his broadcasts.
As my own love of football was cemented in the 1970s, John was always part of the equation.
He was the colour analyst on Roughriders radio broadcasts for 10 seasons, beginning in 1976.
When the broadcast rights shifted from CKCK to CKRM after the 1982 CFL season, John made the move.
Over the years, that voice was also heard on pre-game shows, post-game shows, Monday night call-in shows, talk shows, sportscasts …
Regina Leader-Post legend Bob Hughes coined the nickname John Frenzy, which fit him like a green and white sweater.
Always excitable, John’s emotions were prone to boil over during a Roughriders game and in the immediate aftermath of a three-down battle.
If he was ever lost for words, it was after a Grey Cup victory by his beloved Roughriders.
John was a proud member of the ultra-exclusive Four Grey Cup Club. He is one of the few people who have attended each of Saskatchewan’s championship-game victories — those of 1966, 1989, 2007 and 2013.
More than most of us, John had earned the right to celebrate, because he had experienced the other end of the spectrum.
He was at the microphone during an 11-season span in which the Roughriders were perennially excluded from the playoffs.
He suffered through each season, each game.
Come the following spring, though, he was convinced that this would be the year. Oh, yes it would.
You didn’t require a Training Camp Prospectus if you were in John’s company during a spring workout.
He knew everything about every prospect — his collegiate affiliation, his status, his height, his weight, his 40-yard dash time, his hometown, his siblings’ names …
All of the new recruits, John assured us, were all-stars in the making.
And this was before the Internet, remember. John was our version of Google before anyone could have imagined that an infinite amount of information would one day be at our fingertips.
“John really grew my interest from the CFL to North American football,” Rod Fink, who grew up in Vibank, reflected on Saturday from his home in Edmonton.
“I had no idea about U.S. college football until I heard his reviews of the players the Riders brought in. He must have had a sturdy mail delivery person to deliver all those magazines.”
Resourcefulness was of the essence, considering that Saskatchewanians were not fed a steady diet of U.S. college football telecasts until cable television arrived in our province — finally! — in 1978.
Despite our cable deprivation, John found a way to keep tabs on the entire NCAA football scene. He was, in many ways, our ticket to something that was otherwise largely inaccessible.
He owned a Roughriders ticket for the first time in 1948. At the time, he was 11 years old and a resident of Rouleau, where he grew up.
John moved to Regina to attend high school at Luther College.
Next stop: Saskatoon, where he attended the University of Saskatchewan and earned a degree in commerce.
Then it was back to Regina, where he enjoyed a successful career — working in sales, marketing and management, according to a Leader-Post profile — while continuing to immerse himself in all things green and white.
He was in classic form on the open-line shows. He was either elated or deflated, depending on the outcome of the most-recent game, and there wasn’t any middle ground.
On other occasions, it was John’s turn to make the phone calls.
The Roughriders were in the midst of a challenging season in 1996, when I was appointed the Leader-Post’s sports columnist.
After each defeat, John would call me at my desk and emote. I cannot imagine how many other people he phoned. He simply had to find a way, somehow, to process a turn of events that he found to be unpalatable. Unthinkable, even.
Following a victory — even in the pre-season — you would half expect to see John tap-dancing down the middle of Albert Street.
Irrespective of the outcome, or the year, John was an integral and beloved part of the football scene in our part of the world.
Honestly, I don’t know what it is like to follow the my favourite football franchise without John Lynch contributing to, and even leading, the discussion.
So … where do we go from here?
For me, it is unfamiliar territory.
John has always been there, as far back as I can remember. When I first realized that Ron Lancaster and George Reed were on the field, John Lynch was on the air.
Long before I met him, he felt like an old friend.
Once we were formally introduced, I could verify and fully appreciate that John did indeed bleed green and white — while being blessed with a heart of gold.
