Robservations: Savouring live sports of all sorts … remembering a legend: Frank Flegel … thank you, Derrick Moncrief!

POST-PANDEMIC PERSPECTIVE

This time-ravaged Robservator takes considerable pride in providing you, the football fan, with the finest coverage of, er, junior hockey.

Please bear with me for a few paragraphs. There is a larger message to convey … I think.

The Regina Pats are in the midst of a six-game Western Hockey League home stand that continues Saturday night when the Victoria Royals visit the Brandt Centre.

Attending hockey games, and sporting events of all sorts, has once again become a matter of routine. Even so, I am reminded of how different our lives were only three years ago, when COVID-19 caused a widespread pause of games people play.

Remembering those dark days all too precisely, I will never take a live sporting event for granted. The same can apply to life’s simple pleasures.

It was barely three years ago, for example, when we couldn’t even spend Christmas Eve at the home of dear friends due to COVID-related precautions. Instead of adhering to tradition by visiting Dr. Mark Anderson and family, my wife took her out-of-his-league husband for a walk around Wascana Lake. Presents for family members and friends were dropped off on doorsteps or delivered via Canada Post.

The following spring, the WHL played all its games — none of which had any bearing on the playoffs, because there weren’t any — in hub facilities, such as the Brandt Centre.

Then in the employ of the Regina Leader-Post, I was one of the few people who was able to watch 15-year-old Connor Bedard play his first few games for the Pats.

Now I hear people lamenting some of the crowd counts at games featuring the Pats or Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Here is an attendance figure to bemoan: Six — the maximum number of people (reporters, in this case) who were allowed to attend each game in the WHL’s East Division hub.

At least there were games to watch, albeit in a virtually empty building. The WHL’s streamlined schedule was a tonic after the entire 2020 Canadian Football League season was scrubbed due to COVID.

The following year, each CFL team played a shortened, 14-game regular-season schedule, the norm being 18. The first game was played in August.

Fast forward to the early days of 2024.

The coronavirus is still a factor in many people’s lives, although the vaccines — thank goodness for them — have largely mitigated the consequences of COVID.

Our day-to-day existence has settled back into pre-pandemic mode, for the most part, but we should not become complacent and lose sight of how blessed we are to be past that period.

That notion occurs to me every time I visit a sporting venue, large or small.

So here’s to six-game home stands and all the excitement, across the sporting spectrum, that awaits us in 2024.

REMEMBERING FRANK FLEGEL

Condolences to the family members and many friends of Frank Flegel, who was 89 when he passed away on Dec. 31.

Growing up, I watched Frank on CKCK Television (now CTV Regina) and correctly concluded that he was a broadcasting giant.

When Alan Vanstone told me that he knew Frank, I was very impressed. Well done, Dad!

I was introduced to Frank, personally, on March 29, 1985. That was the date of my entrance interview for the University of Regina’s School of Journalism and Communications.

(It was also the same date that Dale Hawerchuk became the first 50-goal scorer in the history of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets. I was supposed to attend that game — here’s to live sports! — until the J-School interview was scheduled for the afternoon of March 29.)

When it was my turn to be grilled, right after Lisa Wilson aced her interview, I stumbled into a small boardroom and was greeted by Dave White (director of the journalism school), Nick Russell (journalism professor) and Frank Flegel.

Frank, who was then the news director at CKCK-TV, was the media representative on the panel of interviewers.

I was nervous and fidgety and largely nonsensical in my responses, but somehow I made it past the screening process and into journalism school.

Over the years and decades that followed, I had occasional interactions with Frank. All of them were pleasant.

Then came February of 2023, when I changed gears professionally and moved from the Leader-Post to the Roughriders.

Days into my new job, I received a phone message that had been left with our amazing Administrative Assistant, Shiane de Jong.

Frank Flegel had called me.

THE Frank Flegel!

I quickly dialed Frank’s number and discovered that the sole purpose of his message was to congratulate me on Dream Job 2.0.

We had a wonderful chat — the only type of conversation one could have with a wonderful man, Frank Flegel.

THANK YOU, NO. 42

Derrick Moncrief was a class act throughout his time with the Roughriders.

A two-time All-Star, Moncrief was all-world off the field — as evidenced by the fact that he was named the team’s Mosaic Community Player of the Year for 2023.

The highlight, for me, was my first sit-down interview with Moncrief as a fellow employee of the Roughriders.

We met in the players’ lounge and yakked for about 45 minutes. The on-the-record interview, for a feature that appeared on Riderville.com in late April, consumed a fraction of the time we spent together.

For most of the time, we just sat back and talked informally about our lives, our families, our passions and our pets.

Every subsequent interaction with No. 42 was reminiscent of our chat in the players’ lounge.

So, yes, it stung to be reminded of the business of professional football on Friday, when the Roughriders announced the release of Moncrief.

Every player understands that change is part of the deal. But nothing will ever change the good nature that has endeared Derrick Moncrief and his family to everyone they meet.

RANDOM RAMBLINGS

• There are myriad reasons to be endlessly proud of knowing Daniella Ponticelli, who has been a wonderful friend to yours truly and, moreover, to Rider Nation. Daniella was a key member of CKRM’s Roughriders broadcast team and the host of the Club’s Air It Out podcast this past season. Most recently, Daniella called the action during CBC’s telecast of the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s inaugural game — a Jan. 1 matchup between Toronto and New York. The PWHL broke new ground and, once again, so did Daniella. As the league grows, more people than ever will realize what we have known for a while now: Daniella is a great one.
• As the Roughriders’ resident historian, I inveterately immerse myself in matters pertaining to the team’s past. Here’s a gem I found the other day, courtesy of a Leader-Post report about the Regina Rugby Club’s Annual Meeting of Aug. 15, 1919. When the Club prepared to return to the field after the First World War, the bank account consisted of (get this) 30 cents. That is about $5.50 in today’s dollars — or the estimated value of my wardrobe.
• High on my sporting bucket list: To see a goalie score a goal in person.
• Also on my bucket list: Meet Payton Manning. Roughriders return specialist Mario Alford was introduced to Manning a few years back and still raves about the experience. (Fast fact: Mario has also met Beyonce and Jay-Z!)
• Every time I hear a marginal athlete described as someone who is good in the locker room, I think: “Fine, then. Leave him there!”
• Things I will never understand: Why every National Hockey League player does not wear throat protection. Kudos to the WHL for making neck guards mandatory.
• What is it about hockey culture? I also fail to comprehend why a clean hit so often results in a fight … why there is fighting, period? … and why referees often look the other way when there is an obvious cross-checking violation.
• In football, a clean hit is a clean hit. To quote that noted football enthusiast, Taylor Swift: “Shake it off.”

PET PEEVES

• Any reference to the “CFL Hall of Fame.” The shrine is actually known as the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
• Comparably, any mention of the NFL Hall of Fame is erroneous. The correct label: Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• Writers who make excessive use of italics and exclamation points!!! And — almost forgot — long dashes!!!
• The NBA and (ugh) load management.
• Dog owners who leave their poor pets outdoors, 24 hours per day, regardless of the weather.
• The scraping of windows. I can handle everything about winter after the scraping of windows.
• A hockey telecast in which the focus from the live action is interrupted when a camera zooms in on, say, a goaltender being pulled or a player sitting on the bench. Why do directors persist in punishing the viewers in this fashion? Show us the game! Save the alternate shots for stoppages in play.
• Plexiglas-banging front-row spectators at hockey games. It must be so annoying to sit behind or beside these people.
• Supposed football writers who focus on hockey. (Oops!).
• By the way, I wrote a hockey book — Brave Face, about maskless goaltenders. It’s available on Amazon.ca and wherever fine books are sold.

ROLL CREDITS …

• Nice people who deserve a plug: Sandra Flegel and family, Derrick Moncrief, Kasia Moncrief, Minnie Moncrief, Daniella Ponticelli, Mario Alford, Doug Lunney, Doug Moss, Glen Duck, Jim Hamilton, Jakob Brook, Braxton Whitehead, Nick Henry, Parker Berge, Tammy Berge, Borya Valis, Alan Millar, Jason Ripplinger, Todd Ripplinger, Bryce Platt, Ken Schneider, Anna Willey, JG Aegerter, Marjorie Abendschan, Jack Abendschan, Lana Mueller, Larry Mueller, Bev Lancaster, Bob Lancaster, Bob Calder, Daryl Reaugh, Paige Tenbult, Joey Walters, Peter Loubardias, Jack Brodsky, Julia Vaughan, Don Charabin, Ryan Rennebohm and Juris Graney.