Photo Use Courtesy: Mark Rennison/Hamilton Spectator
Sitting down over coffee, Lana and Larry Mueller take a few moments to savour the sweetener.
For nearly a decade, the Muellers have appreciated the fact that their fine son, Marc, is a CFL assistant coach.
But the fact that he is now coming home to Regina to coach in Saskatchewan is icing on the cake for the entire family.
“We’re excited,” Lana says during a visit to a local coffee emporium, “and we think it’s cool that a third generation will work with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.”
The family’s connection to the Green and White began on July 29, 1963, when the Ottawa Rough Riders traded Ron Lancaster to Saskatchewan.
Lancaster spent most of the next 16 seasons as the Roughriders’ starting quarterback before serving as the team’s Head Coach for two years.
On Nov. 26, 1989, Lancaster was in the broadcast booth for CBC when Saskatchewan posted a 43-40 Grey Cup victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
On March 16 of that year, Larry Mueller — Lancaster’s son-in-law — had been named the Roughriders’ Assistant General Manager of Sales and Administration.
Also noteworthy from 1989: The birth of Marc Mueller.
Lancaster’s grandson, now 34, was hired in early December as the Roughriders’ Offensive Co-ordinator. He had spent the previous nine calendar years as an assistant with the Calgary Stampeders.
“When Marc told us that he was joining the Roughriders, we were excited and happy for him,” Lana says. “But, as time has progressed, it has really hit us that he is going to be the Offensive Co-ordinator in the same city where we live.”
And in the same city where the Lancaster name became legendary.
Marc will be working at Mosaic Stadium — a few first downs away from statues that pay tribute to Lancaster and George Reed.
“Just think,” Lana muses. “Marc gets to see Digger every day when he walks into the office.”
Digger is the nickname family members have long applied to Lancaster.
The moniker dates back to a time when Lancaster and his son, Ron Jr., were teasing one another while watching a televised NCAA men’s basketball game featuring the Digger Phelps-coached Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Father and son were kibbitzing back and forth about Phelps and, just like that, The Little General had been tagged with another nickname: Digger.
Forty-five years after Lancaster last played for the Roughriders, images of him in green and white are still everywhere. Giant pictures can be found on the stadium concourse, inside the business office and in the meeting rooms.
In the months ahead, Marc Mueller will routinely conduct strategy sessions near prominent photos of his late grandfather.
How perfect is that?
“The day the press conference was held to announce Marc, he made the comment that walking in there, with all the people he knew, he felt like he had been there forever,” Lana says.
Gordon Gilroy, the Roughriders’ Equipment Manager, is a long-time friend. Marc also caught up with Nick Mazurak — the team’s Director, Partnerships — whose father, Steve, was a teammate of No. 23 for five seasons.
Before joining the Stampeders, Marc worked alongside Nick at Molson Brewery in Regina.
The connections extend north, south, east and west, but all paths ultimately led Marc back to his hometown.
“We just want him to be happy, wherever he goes,” Lana says as Larry nods in agreement. “He loved Calgary and he enjoyed the people there. Here, it will probably be even better because we’ll get to see him more.”
Marc’s parents are also excited about spending more time with his wife, Jenaya, and the couple’s two children. Sawyer celebrated her fifth birthday on Jan. 3. Her brother, Wallace, turned one on Oct. 31.
“Sawyer asked us if the house next-door to us is available, because she wants to live next-door to Larry,” Lana says. “She and Larry are like this.”
“Jenaya wants to live in Moose Jaw!” Larry quips.
Much further away — in Grimsby, Ont. — Bev Lancaster takes stock of the latest development in the family’s football story.
“I think it’s great that Marc is with the Roughriders,” his grandmother says. “I’m really proud of him.
“Being an only child, you never know. He could have been a spoiled brat. But he is never disrespectful. He’s not a jerk to anybody.
“If he has to point something out to a player, he does it in a nice way. He doesn’t yell or scream or anything.”
Marc has been interacting with CFL players as far back as he can recall.
When he was two, his legendary grandfather was hired as the Head Coach in Edmonton by his close friend and former Roughriders teammate, Hugh Campbell.
Following the 1997 season, Lancaster joined the Tiger-Cats, whom he coached to back-to-back Grey Cup berths — including the team’s most-recent championship-game victory, in 1999.
“Marc used to fly into Hamilton after he was finished school and spend the summer with us,” Bev recalls. “He’d be at the stadium for 12 hours a day and he loved it.”
Along the way, he developed a close relationship with then-Tiger Cats quarterback Danny McManus.
McManus wore No. 14, as did Marc when he quarterbacked the Sheldon-Williams Spartans and University of Regina Rams.
Fittingly, Mueller joined the Stampeders in ’14 and became a Roughrider late in ’23.
So it all fits. Perfectly.
“I’m excited for Marc and I’m excited for his excitement — his genuine excitement for the opportunity and the challenge,” Larry Mueller says, “and this is still home.”
