ROBSERVATIONS: Remembering remarkable people … Dohnte Meyers joins star-studded group … and the weekly shout-outs
Don Elsaesser rarely missed a Roughriders game — a joyous exception being when Miss became Mrs.
Sandra Smith’s surname changed to Elsaesser on the afternoon of Oct. 8, 1966, when she and Don exchanged wedding vows at the Church of Christ in Regina.
That evening, Don’s beloved Green and White faced the Calgary Stampeders at Taylor Field.
Sandra believes Don may not have missed another game until July 12, 1971, when their daughter Tracy was born. Elated as he was over the new arrival, Don nonetheless found time to monitor the radio broadcast as the Roughriders collided with the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats in CFL pre-season action.
“I told him ‘it’s a girl’ and he said ‘the score is …,’ ” Sandra recalled with a chuckle while seated at the kitchen table of her northwest Regina residence with her sister (Linda Ashby) and three children (Cory, Brent and Tracy).
The family celebrated Don’s life this past Monday at Glen Elm Church of Christ. He was 86 when he passed away on Christmas Day.
Friends and family members were encouraged to wear Roughriders apparel at the memorial. Accordingly, many attendees sported jerseys, with the numbers 4 (Darian Durant), 9 (Jon Ryan), 25 (Rhett Dawson) and 82 (Jason Clermont) being showcased. Conspicuous in the front row was a jersey with a ELSAESSER nameplate.
“If Don is remembered for anything … it’s for his love of the Saskatchewan Roughriders,” read a portion of the obituary.
“A season-ticket holder for more than 60 years, he was rarely seen wearing anything but clothing with the Rider logo on it. He watched every game, found glimmers of positives even in the losses, scoured the transactions, and annually watched U.S. college bowl games (clipping out the schedule from the Leader-Post every year) so he could get a glimpse of who might one day wear the green and white at Mosaic Stadium.
“His last year of life was highlighted by watching his beloved team win the Grey Cup in November.”
Don sweated through every play — didn’t we all?! — of the Roughriders’ 25-17 victory over the Montreal Alouettes on Nov. 16.
“He was glued to the TV,” Cory said. “He wouldn’t eat until the game was over, because he was so intense and focused.”
Despite failing health, Don was one of the happiest people on Earth when Marcus Sayles knocked down the Alouettes’ final, desperation pass and the Roughriders were crowned champions for the fifth time in franchise history.
The first time, his sister-in-law was in the crowd at Vancouver’s Empire Stadium when the Roughriders downed Ottawa 29-14 on Nov. 26, 1966, just seven weeks after Don and Sandra were married.
When the green team celebrated another landmark — its first home-field Grey Cup win — Don and Cory were in the stands at historic Mosaic Stadium on Nov. 24, 2013.
By then, Don required thrice-weekly dialysis treatments at Regina General Hospital’s Renal Unit, but he resolutely attended Roughriders games for another decade.
He became a regular at Taylor Field in the early 1960s, about the same time he began a 36-year career with the Government of Saskatchewan.
The timing was perfect. As Ron Lancaster, George Reed, Hugh Campbell, Ed McQuarters and associates progressed career-wise, so did Don.
When he and Sandra started a family, it was only natural that the Roughriders’ fan base grew at the same rate.
“When the Riders lost, it wasn’t necessarily that the team didn’t play well,” Brent said. “The other team just played better. That’s the way he looked at it.
“If the team struggled early in the game, he’d say, ‘That’s OK. We’ll get ’em in the second half.’ ”
Even if the desired outcome did not materialize, Don was not one to bail out. He refused to leave the stadium until the final few seconds elapsed.
Ronnie trained many of us to stick around. As long as there was time on the clock, there was hope with The Little General behind centre.
Naturally, Lancaster and George Reed were Don’s favourite players. Imagine the family’s disappointment, then, when they tried to order Don a license plate that read “23 34.” That sequence of numbers was taken, unsurprisingly, so they tried “34 23.”
No such luck. No problem. They settled on “23 14” — his row and seat in Section 25 at old Mosaic Stadium. The 14, Don said, could represent former Roughriders running back Tim McCray.
His genuine fandom was acknowledged on April 11, 2019, when he was presented with a green and white No. 80 jersey to commemorate a milestone birthday.
That image was shown earlier this week, during the gathering held in Don’s honour. Most of the photos in a slide show prepared by the family showed him wearing something related to the Roughriders. Many of the stories pertained to his love of family, football, or both.
Of course, some tears were shed when everyone gathered to salute a loving husband, father, grandfather, uncle and friend. But everything proceeded in his spirit, with plenty of smiles and an assortment of laughs.
It was “fitting,” in the words of Tracy — whose writing skills, nourished when she was a newspaper reporter at the Regina Leader-Post and Kamloops Daily News, were used to honour her father as she prepared his obituary.
“We will miss you Dad, for all of these memories, but mostly because you were the kindest, most gentle, most decent man we knew,” Tracy Watson wrote. “We love you so very much.”
TONY DENNIS: “ONE OF THE NICEST GUYS”
Former Roughriders receiver Tony Dennis was only 63 when he passed away a week ago.
Undeterred by a massive stroke he suffered in 2003, he made the most of life for the next 22 years — demonstrating the good nature that endeared him to teammates and fans during his tenure in green and white.
“He was one of the nicest guys I ever remember having as a teammate,” said Hall of Fame placekicker Dave Ridgway, a Roughrider from 1982 to 1995. “I never, ever saw him in a bad mood and he always seemed to have a smile on his face.
“This is truly sad news.”
A record-setting collegian at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., Dennis caught 61 passes for 1,062 yards and 10 touchdowns while playing against American-based NAIA opponents as a junior in 1983.
He joined the Roughriders after being selected in the fourth round (28th overall) of the 1985 CFL Draft.
The tone was set for a breakout year when Dennis scored the 1986 Roughriders’ first touchdown, catching a 23-yard scoring pass from Joe Paopao in a season-opening, 28-14 victory over the visiting Calgary Stampeders.
In 16 games that season, Dennis caught 53 passes for 806 yards and three scores. He was named the Roughriders’ Most Outstanding Canadian in 1986, when his 85-yard reception was the team’s longest of the year.
After one more season in Saskatchewan, Dennis was traded to Calgary for offensive lineman Rocco Romano.
Dennis retired from football shortly before training camp in 1989, citing a desire to work with a family-owned business in Windsor.
He returned to the gridiron — and to British Columbia — the following year, signing with the Lions as a free agent.
Dennis scored his final CFL touchdown in fine style, collaborating with Doug Flutie on a 55-yarder to help the Lions win 30-8 in Edmonton on Oct. 21, 1990.
He suited up twice more as a professional football player before beginning a career in the investment industry.
Ties to sports were maintained as he coached minor football and baseball while finding time to play recreational hockey on a regular basis.
Only 41 and in tremendous shape, he was an unlikely candidate for a stroke, but nonetheless was stricken while playing pickup hockey in Vancouver on Nov. 7, 2003.
“Using his fierce will and independence, he persisted to defy the odds, learning to walk again and rebuild his life to continue with the activities he loved, just in a different way,” Shelby Harris wrote on a GoFundMe page.
Determined to recover from the stroke, Dennis went on to enjoy “quite the beautiful life,” his daughter continued, adding that her dad enjoyed “walking for hours each day along the river near his home in Windsor, Ontario and taking the bus all over the city, making friends everywhere he went due to his incredibly friendly and outgoing nature.”
HALL OF FAME
Anyone who knows/reads/tolerates me can attest to my obsession with statistics — relevant or otherwise.
A lifetime of immersion in numbers has led me to this conclusion: There is not a more remarkable record in sports than the NHL-best 502 consecutive regular-season games Glenn Hall played while tending goal for Detroit and Chicago.
And get this: He did not wear a mask in any of those games.
There’s more. The still-incomprehensible total of 502 covers less than half of the actual streak.
“I played in 1,026 consecutive games,” Hall said in a 2021 interview for Brave Face, my book on hockey’s maskless-goalie era.
“I played five years in the minors, and I never missed a game in junior hockey or in the minors before I got to the National Hockey League — so it’s 1,026 straight games that I played.”
Load management? What’s that?!
Hall, who was a delight to interview over the course of two conversations, passed away on Wednesday in Stony Plain, Alta. He was 94.
“Mr. Goalie” was born in Humboldt on Oct. 3, 1931. When the Roughriders visited his hometown on June 3, 2018, a walk-through practice was held on the Glenn Hall Park football field.
(The Roughriders equivalent of Hall’s unbreakable record? Well, pick virtually any one of Reed’s career marks. With 16,116 rushing yards, for example, No. 34 is more than 11,000 ahead of anyone else!)
ON TO CINCINNATI
Dohnte Meyers parlayed a 65-catch, 1,056-yard season for the 2025 Grey Cup-champion Roughriders into an NFL opportunity.
Poised to become a free agent in February, Meyers was released from his CFL contract on Thursday so he could sign with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Contributions to the Roughriders’ aerial attack also prompted NFL teams to sign receivers Joey Walters (San Francisco 49ers, 1980), Reggie Jones (San Diego Chargers, 2000), Derick Armstrong (Houston Texans, 2003), Matt Dominguez (New York Jets, 2004), Jamel Richardson (Dallas Cowboys, 2007), Andy Fantuz (Chicago Bears, 2011), Weston Dressler (Kansas City Chiefs, 2014) and Ajou Ajou (Indianapolis Colts, 2025).
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Newly signed receiver Ali Jennings III is, in one context, Jennings the First.
Until this week, a player with the surname of Jennings had never been under contract to the Roughriders.
That is surprising when you consider that: (a) Jennings is hardly an uncommon name; and, (b) He had just become the 4,785th documented player in the history of the Regina Rugby Club, Regina Roughriders and Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The list includes 2,216 individuals who have suited up for at least one regular-season or playoff game.
The calculator tells us that, over time, 46 per cent of the Roughriders hopefuls have made the team.
ROLL CREDITS …
• Nice people who deserve a plug: Andy Cooper, Sheila McKague, Cam Moon, Daryl Shirkey, Bryce Hornung, Gregg Drinnan, Dorothy Drinnan, Todd Drinnan, Micah Johnson, Saqouya Johnson, JaCorian (J.C.) Johnson, Micah Johnson Jr., Jaxson Johnson, Kaleia Johnson, Jeff Stusek, Sheryl Stusek, Bennett Stucek, Carter Stusek, Kevin Dureau, Carol Fleece, Trent Fraser, Dohnte Meyers, Sandra Elsaesser, Cory Elsaesser, Brent Elsaesser, Tracy Watson, Brad Watson, Laura Elsaesser, Jessica Elsaesser, Reed Watson, Ryan Watson, Ronan Elsaesser, Ainsley Elsaesser and Linda Ashby.
