Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 67 - Dr. Raf Sayeed

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

Raf was born & raised in India. He graduated from med school & won a national championship in rowing. He travelled the world and ended up in the growing town of Lloydminster AB/SK. Once here he served on the inaugural board that brought Junior 'A' hockey to Lloydminster.  Raf has been thoroughly engrained in our community since the beginning & hockey is just a part of it. We discuss: - COVID-19 - Growing up in India - Winning a rowing national championship - Med school & curfew - Lancers/Blazers/Bobcats he's been apart of it all

This is Rapheth Saeed, and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Hey, folks, welcome to Monday. Welcome to the starter of your beautiful work week, wherever you're at, most likely sitting at home like the rest of us. Now, you're probably wondering, hey, Sean, it's Monday, what are you doing? Well, I was thinking, man, I got a lot of time on my hands. and why not release a couple more episodes? I've got a list of people I want to talk to.

They're trapped inside. And so I've started doing it all via computer. You probably heard that on the last couple episodes. And so what I'm going to do here for the foreseeable future until this COVID-19 thing decides it wants nothing more to do with our minus 20 weather up in Canada is I'm going to release an episode on every Monday and Wednesday. And so I guess my mindset is, A, I got the time, but B, talking to people is just such a stress relief for me.

And I know everybody's feeling, you know, cooped up and whatever else. And this is one way I get to relieve some of that stress. I enjoy talking of people, enjoy hearing people's stories. So I'm going to be releasing one every Monday and every Wednesday. Now, a couple of shutouts. I haven't been slacking. And Chris King had sent, geez, jeez, Redden's voice is unreal. No kidding. If you don't know who he's talking about, he's talking about Trevor Redden, the voice of the PA Raiders. He was a couple episodes ago, and he isn't lying. He's got a wicked voice. There's a reason he's where he's at.

Timmy Priest sent just finished listening to Chris Weeb's episode and heard, Kurtz yesterday he's talking about Kurt Benzmiller freaking beauty job man unreal stories and hearing those things kind of makes a person feel like he's walking the walk with them fellas just wanted to say nice job and hopefully see you get a raise in the fall of 2020 yeah me and you both now if you are a company out there and want to get some free advertising let me know I said it on last week's episode with Jason Greger that anyone that needs to get a message out, they're open,

home delivery, bumping things. I kind of talk with my hands, folks. If you need, you know, you got shorten hours, your doors, whatever, the policies of all chains, let me know. And I'll get you on for free. No charge right now, okay?

Here's your factory sports tale of the tape. Today's guest is Raf Saeed, born and raised in India. He became the national rowing champ of India at one point, graduated from med school, traveled abroad, finally ended up in the bustling metropolis of Lloyd Minster, where he got on the inaugural board of Junior A. Hockey. Yes, the Lloyd Minster Lancers that brought the Junior A. Hockey to Lloyd. It's almost hard for me to believe even as I say it, that a guy from India who had never seen a sheet of ice,

let alone a hockey game, was now on the board. Pretty cool. Pretty cool story. And then he spent 40 years with the Lancers, which turned in the Blazers, and then the Bobcats. He was a part of the Allen Cup. Like, he's got a very cool story, folks.

I think you're going to enjoy this one. So sit back, relax, and without further ado. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Tonight I'm joined by Mr. Dr. Raft Said. So thank you, sir, for joining me tonight. Thank you for having me. Yeah, we're going to talk a little bit about your life and some local sports

because you've definitely been ingrained in that, maybe some rowing club, maybe some stuff like that. Oh, I love that. But I think maybe the first thing we've got to do is, I mean, COVID-19, coronavirus is, well, how many times have we? wash hands, sanitizer, everything, right? Like, I mean, it's such a, well, it's all anyone's talking about these days. Unfortunately, that's so true.

My only advice is if you don't have to go out and just don't go out, and if you do go out, stay six feet away from anybody. And to those who suspect they have a cold or a cough, please, for God's sake, stay home, don't go anywhere for 14 days because you run the risk of your own. infecting others. If you have to go to a store, make sure you are six feet away from anybody who's in the store. And if the store seems busy, go back later. I thought you had an interesting thing on the phone we were chatting. I was saying social distancing this, social distancing that.

You kind of corrected me with physical distancing. That's so important to remember. We need social integration. We need to be talking to people and sometimes it could be misunderstood social distancing. The important thing is physical distancing and they're starting to talk about that on the television as well because internet, telephone, all is social integration or social inclusion. So but physical is a more definite, you can grasp. spirit, physical, six feet, physical distance. Whereas social doesn't really grab it for me. You know, I understand what it is, but for the average person, what does social mean? Whereas physical means, stay away from me, stay six feet from me.

No shaking hands. No shaking hands, no hugs, none of the above. Has that been tough on you the last couple weeks? Well, it has been because I haven't been able to hug my... daughter-in-law haven't been able to hug some dear friends and came close today and I said stay away from me and it was hard to tell ladies stay away from me don't come to near me but that's important it's very important very important it doesn't matter if you know the person really well or not you know we have a neighbors in our cul-de-sac and one lady she's a hugger and it's

how she said it's so hard I can't do that but but That's the way it is. And that's a new normal. And maybe this will go on for three to six months. Stay away, physical distancing. As you know, as listeners know, I love talking to people. It's different. It's different not being able to converse with everybody on a daily basis

or meet anyone or, you know, go for a coffee or whatever you want to do. Can't give anybody a high-fi. You can't do anybody the pumps. It's not easy, but that's a new normal. We've got to get used to it. That's what it is. What do you say to the people who say it's just another flu wrap? I think they're having nightmares in 3D Technicolor myself,

if they think it's just the flu. It's a nightmare, and it's not a flu. It is nothing like a flu. It may have the distant relative of the influenza, if that. But no, it's not. It's a different brand. And it is more vicious, and if you have the symptoms, and it progresses, it will kill you unless you are able to get some kind of support.

You get nausea. You can't eat anything. You get headache, your sweat, your fever, your chest is tight. You can take a deep breath and you have a cough. It's not like the flow. It's not like the flow. In your career, did you ever deal with anything similar to this? Or is this once in a...

I mean, I know they bring up 1980. 1957 SARS stuff like that but around this area have we ever seen anything we've never seen anything like that we've as far as I know we've never had a case of SARS here in 1957 I wasn't around I was born but not around here no I mean we have I have had pneumonia's and and stuff like that but nothing where And of course we've had some asthma, which are bad, but nothing like what I've heard symptoms of people who've had it. Well, let's start.

Well, you were born back in 1950 in, now am I going to say this right? Madras. Madras? India. India. And the name has now been changed to Chennai, but I prefer to call it Madras still. And I was doing some luck at it.

I don't know what it was when you were born. when you were there as a child. But now it's about 7 million people. Seven to 8 million people, that is correct. And so I'm curious what growing up and that was like? Well, I can tell the difference. Since I've been there a year ago and when I grew up, streets were actually empty and pleasant to drive on.

There were no traffic jams. It took us 10 minutes to go to school by car. Today, that same distance, if I had to go to school in a car or my children or somebody has to go to school with my 45 minutes. It's only a distance of about three kilometers, three to four kilometers. Right now, the place has changed. There was only one skyscraper and it was 13 stories high. and there was an office building belonging to an insurance company. Today it is skyscrapers everywhere, residential skyscrapers everywhere, office buildings everywhere.

If I hadn't been going regularly, it would have been unrecognizable. How often do you go back? Every two years, every year sometimes, every two years. I started going every year sometime in the year 2000. Okay. Just to get away from the winters. for a month. But I've been with the kids, at least every three years with the kids, when they were younger. What's the weather like in our winter? Or what's the weather like there, I guess,

just in general? That's the only time to go is in our winter from November to maybe March. Otherwise, they have three seasons. It's hot, hotter and hottest. Summer is exceptionally hot. can be 104, 105 in the shade, maybe sometimes go up to 108 in the shade. But the winters, November, December, January, February, usually it's in the, from anywhere from 18, 19 at night to say 26 in the day. So it's very pleasant. And that's why after the kids grew up, we went in the winters. Now going back to when you're a kid grown up there, guys of your age around here, we're going to walking to school, we're going to one-room schoolhouse, we're dealing with several different shades of cold, colder, and coldest.

Maybe you could talk a little bit about your school days growing up in India. Well, my elementary school was in a school that was run by the Jesuit order of Catholics. It was called the Church of the Good Shepherd Convent. And the first five years were co-ed. Then after that, I went to an Anglican missionary school. Now we had lots of grades and lots of classrooms in the elementary school. It was not a one-room school grade, one grade-two-grade. It was two grade ones and two grade twos and two kindergartens.

And similarly, when I went to the Anglican middle school and high school that were combined, there was at least five classes in each grade or five rooms in each grade. And following that, I went to college, again, to Loyola College, which is again run by the Jesuit order. And then I went down to med school. You say co-ed for the first five years? Then am I to presume after that it was all boys? After that was, no, that school was all girls, and we had to go to a different school. And that was the school run by Anglican missionaries.

Do you remember why that was? Because they didn't believe in co-ed. And the nuns were very strict, and didn't want boys and girls to mingle. They were quite conservative. And so we were cut off from the girls and we had to go to a total boy school. What was total boy school like? Well, it was fun. It was good.

And we enjoyed ourselves. We entertained ourselves. We didn't miss any girls. We were quite content and happy, you know, playing the things that what young boys used to do. robber and police and you know cowboys and Indians and all those things which are kind of not really politically correct these days but we we played all the games that probably kids played here we played cricket we played soccer which were there we called football we played softball basketball and what's come back we played was we played pickleball and it was not called pickleball

then. It was called padded tennis because the same kind of bat, except the screen. The net. The net was low down, just like pickleball. And so we played everything that people played here. I don't think we played baseball. I like to comment you'd sent along was, youngest in the class to not physically develop for land-based sports. Were you trying to say you were small and that essentially you couldn't compete? No, I was big, but I wasn't developed. And I was sent to kindergarten. I missed kindergarten.

I was in grade one at age four. So you imagine the kids who were in grade one had already been to lower KG, upper KG grade one. And they were all six years old and I was four years old. So why was that? Because my mother did not believe in kindergarten. She thought it was a waste of time and she managed to, get me into grade one at age four. So do you think that helped you?

Well, that's why my handwriting is so poor. I failed handwriting in grade one, because, again, you know, it's important for development to go through those stages, physical and fine motor. I don't know if it helped me or not, but I don't think I was hindered. It certainly didn't help me in sports

because all the kids were two years older than me. Yeah. You know, right through, right through, and until I started swimming, where that was a leveler. But land-based sports, athletics, I couldn't compete with boys who were two years older than me in the class. Even though I was big. I was not small. I was big. So were all sports school sports then, Ralph? Yes, all sports were, all sports were school sports. All of them.

So it always went on grade and not aged then? It went on grade. Swimming was all the other schools, and there it was not grade or age. It was a differential like we have here, you know, from six to nine, you're in one category, and 19 to 12. You're in another category.

And there I did all right. I was a competitor swimmer and I did quite well. actually, I won quite a few swimming championships or races. In your younger years? In my younger years. I was swimming until I went to Mexico. Competitive swimming until I went to med school. My last swim race was a 1,500 meter swim.

I remember that. That's the last time. And I think that was in first year of med school. Why did you quit swimming? My parents said I better work on becoming a good doctor and I have to work hard and enough of competitive swimming. But I went swimming for exercise but not competition because you had to work really hard to stay competitive. And so I did swim but I didn't race in any competitions. So I just swam to stay fit. Do you still swim?

Not much. Not much. Then I took up rowing. Yes, I've heard about this rowing. So how do you stumble into rowing? You used a fantastic word stumble. Literally stumbled into it. A fellow who was one year, my junior in med school, it was in 1970,

wanted me to teach him and correct his style of swed. So we went to this week. pool and after spending an hour and a half he said can you can we swing by the rowing club so I swung by the rowing club with him I was in my car and there I saw all these shiny long boats that I only seen pictures of and I had maybe seen the odd movie with these boats the Oxford Cambridge. And so I was stung by it, but I knew that I was in med school. I knew that my parents would not allow me to join the club. So anyway, this fellow was interviewed by the captain of boats,

and they said to him, how tall are you? He said, five, eight and a half, and how heavy are you, a hundred and fifty. And they wanted to have a competitive team, and they had set an upper limit of a lower limit of 5 foot 9 and it had to be 150 pounds at least. So then they looked at me and I was 5.11 and 3 quarters and about 175, 180 pounds at that time. And they said, would you like to try? And I said, no, my parents won't let me. I don't think I should even try. I said think about it.

And then they said, if you last 30 days, we'll take him. And I have an animal brain sometimes. I don't like people challenging me like that. So I said, I'm in. I'll figure it out how I'll tell my parents later. So I said, I'm in. And 30 days later, I said, I hung on it. And it was very vigorous, hard.

The buggers, sorry I use that word, they tried to break me. And I didn't break. And so then he got him. And that's how I stumbled upon roaring. And I've never regretted it. So how long did you roll for? I wrote for four years. In university?

In, yeah. For the university team? No, for the state. There was club teams. So you rode against other clubs. And you rode against clubs in Asia as far away as Hong Kong. And you rode against them because they were all clubs in those days. India did not have a national team or a rowing federation.

So you just rode against clubs in Colombia, in Sri Lanka, in Pakistan, in Hong Kong, Singapore. Clubs like, they all had clubs. It was started by the British. Rowing was started by the British. So I rode for four years. And then I left for Canada via England. Let's stay with rowing for a second here. Because you've kind of been all over the place with rowing then.

Well, in my mind. Yes, yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. First of all over India, you had to go to different clubs because they had annual races, regattas in different locations. So it could be in Calcutta one time.

It could be in Puna, which is close to Bombay. It could be in Madras. It could be in Sri Lanka. you know, and so you travel all over the place. So, yeah, been to quite a few places. It did help me travel. But I didn't get to tell my parents for three months. I forgot to tell you that.

They didn't know about it. I was sneaking away in their mind to the swimming pool because that I was allowed to do, but not rowing. Till one day I won a major, major event. and they wanted me for the price distribution. And I said, I can't come. They said, you have to. Your team is going to be there.

I said, my parents don't even know. I'm a member of this club. So one of the club members, senior member, said, I know your father, I'll call him. So I went home. And sure enough, he called him. Luckily, my father was into sports, not my mother so much,

because my mother said, you have to study. So my father says, how long has this been going on? I said for three months, four months. I said, I see. He said, all right, you can go for the price distribution. So that's how I became legally in the rowing club. Until then, no.

So it's interesting. How about your parents? You said in the text, you were raised very strict. What does very strict mean? Well, I had curfew. Even when I was in med school, I had curfew. That your parents enforced.

My parents enforced, 9 o'clock. And, of course, when I was rowing, I was double curfew. My rowing coach will call at 9 o'clock. I had to be in bed at 9. So it was double. My parents made sure, and my rowing coach called my parents and said, is he in bed. So 9 o'clock was curfew all the time.

It was only after I was in my residency see that there was no curfew because now I had to go to the hospital and stay in the hospital, so that was fine. Can you imagine in this town, in this country, your kids are in university and you're calling for their curfew? I know. They'll probably tell you to go to hell. Not probably.

I'm sure they will say go to hell. You know, it was quite strict. It was quite strict. And I know what? I don't regret it because other. Otherwise, I don't know if I would have finished medicine. You know, I like to play a lot. I like to have fun.

So I'm glad my parents set some rules down and I'd worked out okay. How many years were you in university? Seven. Seven. Yeah, including med school, yes. Did you always want to be a doctor? Not really. Initially, I wanted to be a lawyer.

And then I wanted to be a politician. I wanted to help people. My parents said becoming a politician is like rolling the dice. You may not be able to help people. But being a doctor, you would definitely be able to help people. And it's a guarantee that you have a chance, a good chance, of making sick people better. But a politician, you can't change the universe because you've got to work with so many other people. So I said, okay, took their advice.

And also they took me to some other people who also gave me a similar advice that being a lawyer, you have to be a lawyer first, and then you have to try to get elected, and then after that, if your end game was going to become a politician, it's unlikely you would become one. And if you do, it's unlikely you'll be able to do anything to help people. What do you think of the politicians that we got running our country

and down south, Trump and Trudeau? I think people have become politicians are not the politicians of the old days where they serve the people. I think today they serve themselves. I'm sorry to say that. Many of them, I shouldn't generalize,

that many of them want to serve themselves. It used to be that a politician being a politician was a noble thing. It was service to your fellow people and your fellow humanity. But now when you see the class of politicians in the world, especially our leaders, many of them are there for themselves and want to stay in power.

It's disappointing, but again, young people don't want to get involved in politics because of that, and it's a catch-22. If young people get involved, and then they choose the kind of person who they want to represent them, then it'll be a different story. It'd be nice if there's some people wanting to run for politicians, is what you're saying.

Yeah, that's right. Some good people need to run. And we have some good people now in Lloydminster. I'm quite pleased with our current representatives. But I don't think that's the same everywhere. I don't think that's a same. Well, you can almost guarantee it, Rapp. That's not everywhere.

That's not everywhere. Guarantee, you're right, you're right, you're right. Like, I know of politicians who don't return phone calls to their constituents. I know of politicians who say, I'm at a hockey game and I don't want to be disturbed. Call me in my office on Monday. Like, being a politician is not a 9-to-5 job. If you want a 9-to-5 job, you should go and choose something else. When you graduate from med school, did you want to leave India?

Was that something that you kind of grown up with thinking, I'm going to leave here? Or did you love it there and you wanted to stay? I left India, so I'll return back in five years. I promised all my friends. I was going to make a stop in England because of England's history with India. I then was going to go to the United States because at that time I thought. at that time. United States was the greatest country in the world.

Since then, I've realized that it is not. And then Australia, because it was exotic, and go back to India. So, you know, go around the globe. Okay, so where did you first go then? I went to England. Whereabouts in England? I was in a place called Leicester.

Well, my first job was up in Northern England. Then I was in Leicester. And for a year? For 20 months. 20 months, okay. And what did you think, England. England was nice, but it was time to go.

You know, it was time to leave because I wanted to go. So I actually... How old are you at this time? At this time, I was 26. 26. I came to Lloyd, no, 25. I hadn't turned 26

when I came to Lloydminster. I was still 25. Were you married at all? No. No. No kids then, no marriage, nothing. So you're just a young guy bounced around the world. being a doctor. Footloose and fancy free.

Never had a thought of staying in Britain? No. Okay, where do you go after Britain? All my friends were in Britain. And they're still there, many of them, my classmates. Really? They wanted me to stay. No, I said, I'm going back to India.

And the reason I ended up in Canada and not in the United States was my sister lived in Edmonton. And she said, if you're going to stay in the North American continent for a year, why not come and stay close to us a family? So she was in Edmonton. I found a job in Lloyd-Mister. Before we get to Lloyd, did you never make it to Australia or the United States? No.

I went to United States just to visit friends, and they wanted me to stay there. Where did you go to? I had my papers, New York. I was in New York. I had my papers. My cousin was chief resident. He said, I can get to a job here like any time. Meanwhile, my sister says, come and be with family.

So family is important, so I came. And after all, it was only going to be one year. Growing up, did you guys travel lots? Yeah, I traveled a bit, not lots. Traveled with my parents. I traveled with the rowing team. But I did want to travel the world. But was Britain eye-opening for you when you landed there and you're like,

oh, this is Britain or where you just stopped the plane and you're like, oh, geez, I thought it'd be different. It was, well, English, I could speak. English. English was a common language. And we grew up with a lot of British traditions, English traditions. So it wasn't that different. That different. How many languages can you speak? Three. Three. English? English, Urdu and Tamil. The language of my native state, the state where I was born in Midrass. Three languages, yeah. That's something that's, did you ever teach your kids that?

I tried. I tried. My oldest son, he can understand. My second son, somewhat. My third son, even less. And my fourth son, not at all. Not at all. He can't. He can't even say water. I don't think he can say water. Sammy can't say water. Sammy can't say water. I'm sure. What did you think when you landed in New York? Because I mean. It was different. It was different. Not like England. No. It was totally different. It was an eye-opener. New York was an eye-opener. See, you read a lot about British history and English history. So you knew much of England already before we got there. But the U.S., we didn't read that much. We knew about the War of Independence. And, well, I, personally took on learning about US and because of the Second World War and Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy and I kept track through the news. And I even memorized John Kennedy's inaugural address when I was 11 years old. So and Abraham Lincoln, I memorized his speeches because my father raised me to be a citizen of the world. So I remember his Gettysburg address of Abraham Lincoln. So, but I.

the city of New York, and the hustle and bustle was different. When you say your father raised you to be a citizen of the world, could you expand on that? My father was a very liberal, broad-minded person, and he taught us that there was more to the world than just madras, our home state, or India. So many a time we would have visitors from other countries, from the Brog spoken by a Scottish chap, to the Englishman, to the fellow from the USA, to somebody from Nigeria. So we used to have lots of visitors.

So, and my father was involved in a lot of social justice activities, so that's how he came across all these people. And so he said, you need to know about the world. So I grew up with a special interest in reading different parts of the world. That's pretty, I think a lot of people should have that, you know, that opportunity, like to learn about outside their bubble can really expand your view. And horizons. That's right. I'm a little disappointed that people in,

In some parts of Canada, don't even know what happens in Newfoundland, for example. You know, Newfoundland is completely different. It's an eye-opener. People should go visit Newfoundland. Take it, go there for a holiday. Amazing place. Amazing place. You know, just like they need to come and see the prairies from Newfoundland or from eastern Canada. I'm not talking of Toronto or I'm talking of the eastern Canada, not central Canada.

Because we have a different way, lifestyle here. Our culture is different. But the commonality between those in eastern Canada and those in the prairies, I feel is that people are warm, affectionate, and welcoming, as opposed to the hustle and bustle of the central Canada, the big cities. You know, it's interesting you bring up Newfoundland. When Dustin, my second oldest brother, came back from traveling the world. he'd left for about a year back in his early 20s.

When we came up with the idea of biking Canada, I remember asking him in the car ride to Emerton, if he could go to one place that he hadn't been yet, where would he go? And he said, you know what's funny? All the places I've ever been around the world, he said, I didn't know enough about Canada because people asked me about it all the time, and I hadn't been across it.

I'd only been out at the time, I think, to, I think I want to say, like, maybe Toronto, maybe. But, like, you know, BC across to there, I'd played hockey in Ontario, so they'd come out a couple times. But never any further than that. You think Canada's a giant chunk of land. And you're absolutely right. When we went out there, all I ever heard growing up was how rude and ignorant and everything else, right, that you get said about Quebec. because, I mean, the Quebec government doesn't help out the West very much. I think that's pretty easy to see, and there's some things going on that, rightfully so,

Alberta in particular, are very upset about. But, you know, in Quebec, they were fantastic people. We never got treated rudely or anything. In Ontario, which I always got told about rudeness and just, just. the demeanor of the people from that province. Once again, the nicest person we ever met and the entire bike trip came in Ottawa, right? And so it's all about going out and experiencing the world.

And so when you talk about that, that makes, it's very interesting that's something that your father wanted you to learn. And it's probably something that more kids should learn. And I find specifically today with social media and technology, The world should be smaller than everywhere. You should learn about everywhere. And instead, you learn about less and less and just your people and everybody else is, you know, screw them. Yeah, if I may add to that, people in Eastern Canada are more content and they have less than we do.

And yet their homes are immaculate. Their lawns are well manicured. and I have a special closeness to Prince Edward Island. And, you know, the top speed limit in Prince Edward Island is 90 kilometers an hour, and that's on TransCanada. Everywhere else, it's between 80 and 70 kilometers. And life is really slow. It's like the 50s and the prairies. And the people are, again, welcoming.

So the Maritimes or the Atlantic Canada is a different culture, maybe because they're on the water, Maybe, you know, P.E.I. and Newfoundlander islands. You know, island people also have a different kind of culture. I love Eastern Canada, especially Prince of Rhode Island. Yeah, and beautiful, beautiful landscape. Yeah, beautiful. 1,800 kilometers of coastline in Prince of Ireland. Just beautiful, lovely beaches everywhere.

turn right or anywhere or sometimes turn left and there you are beautiful beach at nobody there it's just wonderful place well what did you think of landing did you fly into emminton yes no I flew into yes I flew into Edmonton that's right I did actually well let's back that up a second what how how many flights at that time did it take to get to Emmetton what was the what was it the travel like to get here okay it was from madras to Bombay Bombay to Cairo and they had to refuel Cairo to Amsterdam

Amsterdam to London and London to Edmonton Holy Dina So how many days did that take? Well I stopped I took the opportunity to stop in Amsterdam You know I told you I like to travel

So I stopped in Amsterdam Spent three days there I had some three or four days I had a friend there And I stopped in London I had some friends there as well I was there for a week and then I came to Edmonton

You didn't go tour in Cairo? Didn't tour in Cairo No friends there at that time I did go to Cairo eventually in 2001 But no friends in Cairo What did you think of Cairo? Amazing place Again history

Again the people do with less And friendly people crowded, of course, but friendly people. Like you say, people are the same everywhere in the world. We need to get to know them. We need to get to know what makes them tick. And sometimes we generalize too much. Like you say, Quebec, there's great people in Quebec.

There's great people in Ontario. Unfortunately, sometimes the governments don't risk, shall I say, reflect what the people are. like. I mean, look at the USA for right now. If you take the government, governments, both parties, you would think it's not a very good country, but the people make the country and the people are by and large good people. Well, I'm married to one of those people. My wife's from Minnesota. There's some pretty awesome Americans out there, but it's, I tell you, you know, with this COVID-19 going on right now, Raff, you got pretty much every government does a daily update, right? So you got Trudeau does it, you got an Alberta, Saskatch when they're doing it, Kenny and Mo, and then Trump does his thing.

And if you listen to, well, you listen to any Canadian one, it's like ask a question, he gives an answer, and ask a question, gives an answer. And it's like 40 minutes maybe of kind of like, yep, here's what we're trying to do, blah, blah, blah, right? Okay, thanks for everybody coming up. And then if you listen to a Trump one, it is, it is like it's a straight off a reality TV show. Bizarre. Yeah, like it's hard to believe, well, damn, it's almost entertaining to just sit there and like listen to what is going on. Like I can't imagine if, well, let's use Alberta. Let's use Jason Kenney.

If he started just bashing reporters and being like, you should probably get you out of here and this is all fake news. And I'm not saying Trump's all bad. He's done some really good things, but you listened to him during the last, like, month, and some of it will just make you shake your head. I have to agree with you. It is sad the way he treats the reporters, most of them, most of the reporters. Any controversial question, he seems to run the reporter down or run the network down. And I just saw today

It was Giving hell to a CNN person Saying that's why you're not the most trusted Network That's why nobody watches you That's why your ratings are down I mean the guy's doing a job You know and it's sad

I mean that's not the way you treat people And when You raise a good point It's not the way you treat people Because when your leader is treating people like that's going to filter down. Absolutely. Right?

It starts at the top. Absolutely. When your leader is treating people down, people take the cues from their leaders. Yeah. And it's okay to run people down. It's sad. But that's the reality.

That's again. It's unfortunately becoming the new normal in the States. You know, people starting to pick on people, whether it's skin color, or whether it's your social economic status.

I mean, people are being picked on in the States for no reason. So let's get back to what you thought of Lloydminster. You've gone to New York, London, Cairo, and then you land in Eminton. See, Lloydminster was an adventure again. You see, I was out for adventure. So I come to Lloydminster.

There's 8,500. people. Okay. What year is this? 1975. 1975. October of 1975. And Greyhorn bus pulls into the old Alberta Hotel and the parking lot is not paid. You took a Greyhound bus in the town? Yeah. And

it was just like the movies. The Greyhound bus pulls in and dust all over the place and the restaurant and the bar had screened doors and those flimsy screen doors because it was October sometime or or September. September? No, maybe it was August. First time I came here. Then I came back in October. And well, it was like cowboy movies. I'm expecting somebody to come out with a sick shooter and start shooting people. But anyway, then I started working in January. end of January, early February, I think it was.

And I joined the clinic. At that time, it was called the Medical and Dental Clinic. And again, I was only here for one year, so what the hell, you know, do what you can and not in a hurry. I used to see two people a week because that's the way it was. There was no advertising, and it had to be word of mouth. My first week, I think I saw three or four people. And then the next week I saw seven or eight,

and the next week it went on. And that's how I built up my practice. And it was only going to be for a year. So I was not in a hurry to build up a big practice in the beginning. So then what is it about Lloyd that kept you? Okay. A chap called Art Gallert, big man, He worked for one of the newspapers.

I can't remember it was the booster of the Times, the Times. Well, Mr. Times he was working for. And he looked at me and he said, hmm, you would make a good Lions Club member. And I said, I had heard of the Lions Club. My father's friends were members of the Lions Club. I said, yeah, I'll give it a shot. So I joined the Lions Club.

Then came Tom Countryman, who was the trainer for the Blazers, the Junior B Blazers, and he dropped into my office in July. But this time, word had spread that maybe I was interested in sports. And so he said we're looking for a doctor for the hockey team. I said, I don't know anything about hockey.

I've never seen a sheet of ice. I saw snow in Scotland when I was in Scotland, but I've never seen a sheet of ice. I only seen pictures of women with skimpy clothes. on skating rinks. And I said that's the only thing, my closest thing to a skating rink. And he said, all you have to do is come and sit and be present during the games. And I said, okay, I'll do that. So come September, I walk into the dressing room and I meet Larry Leach, who was the coach at that time. And I'm sure many people know him. He played for the

Boston Bruins for about three seasons. And he was tall and skinny with a little wisp of hair. And I told him, I'm here, I'm your doctor here. And he said, oh, good. He said, where are you from? I said, India is a big country. Where from? I said, usually people don't ask that question.

You know, I said, oh, maybe you know something about India. So I went straight to the point and I said, South India. He said, where in South India? He said, Madras. Madras, his eyes lit up. And he told me the story right then and there. His father served in the army, Canadian army, training British troops and American troops,

how to use amphibious tanks on the beaches of my home city, where I used to spend time on the beaches. 1943, far away from German eyes and Japanese eyes, they were planning the invasion, and they were using amphibious tanks in 1943. And we became fast friends. I went to his home, became a member of the family, met all his children, and then, of course, continued with hockey. I went to almost every hockey game away and home.

Well, let's stop here right there. You can't throw a bomb of a story in there like that. How crazy is that? It is absolutely crazy. Absolutely. Such a small world. Did you know about that story before? No, he told me.

Growing up in Madras, you never heard the story? We heard of one German ship that came and shelled Madras in the First World War, and that was it, and never heard anything. Nobody ever told me that they were doing these exercises. right on the beaches that I used to go and swim. Wow. Yeah. Come to little town, Lloydminster to hear that.

Isn't that funny how the world works? Imagine. That's how small the world is. And that's why my father said, world citizen. You never know who you'd meet, where you'd meet. And lasting friendship. And I can tell you, that's why I stayed in Lightminster, the Lions Club, and hockey.

and hockey I realized is not just a sport in smaller cities. It builds community. I'm here. I'm here. I'm a doctor here. I've been a doctor here. I would tell you, I would have gone. Because in December, we were winning.

That team was a winning team. It had 32 consecutive wins on a 40-game schedule. Two ties and four losses. How much does that make it? Yeah, 36, 32, and then there was two more games. But the team was amazing. This is Junior B? Junior B.

32 consecutive wins. Were you playing in Saskatchewan at that time? We were playing, no. We played Vermillion, Wainwright, Barhead, Edson, Jasper. Where else did we play? Then we're in the provincials. We went to Vulcan and won the Alberta Championship. So, no, we played in Alberta.

There was no Saskatchew. It was all Alberta. Wainwright, yeah, Wagerville, Vermilion. What on earth did you think of a game of hockey when you first set eyes on it? Oh, fascinating game. It was a wonderful, fast game. It was fascinating. It was different than any sport I'd ever been involved in.

And I was just totally taken up by the players, by the coach, by the trainer, Larry Bright. I mean, it was just like family. I was a part of their family. What did you think of your first fight when you saw it back then? That was interesting. Because in field hockey, if you fought, you were. kicked out for a long time but in hockey it seemed like it was okay it was part of the game and I asked Larry how come this is allowed and he said he says that is the game it is allowed

and it's a game of intimidation and you have to protect your players you have to protect your weaker player if somebody picks on your player or picks on your goalie the guy deserves a good thrashing so they won't do it again and that's That's the way it is. And Larry was a fighter when he played hockey. He showed me his face, he had 75 stitches on his face, right across his nose, on below his left eye and onto his right eye and over his nose. So it was fascinating.

It is a fantastic, a great game. Well, you're surrounded, you can tell I enjoy the game of hockey as well. Yes. When you Talk to your family And said I think I found the spot Do you remember that conversation?

Yes What was said in that conversation How did your parents react to it? You can't stay there You have to go and specialize You can't be a GP That's what my father said No, no, no

No, no, you have to specialize Your sisters are specialists Your friends are a specialist I said, I like it here I like it here It took three years for my father to come here to Lloydminster and see the city, meet some of my friends, and then say, hmm, okay, money is not everything. Because, you know, specialists earned more money. Money is not everything.

Looks like you're happy here, and I'm happy for you. And that was the end of the pressure. No more pressure. You're wearing a Louis Minister Lancer's jacket. When? Well, actually, I know when. That one year does that happen? 1984.

Eighty-two, that's right. So for six years then? Yep. Six years. 77, 78, 7, 89, 80, 81, 82. Yeah, six years, yeah. Six years, you do the Junior B full-time? No.

We stepped out of Junior B one year because Satell Lake, and some other teams were included in the league. And Saddle Lake, I remember, there was a major fight in the stands. And it was like goon hockey when we played against them. So that year we decided, as a board, to step out of Junior B and take a break. Because the coach was fighting, the trainer was fighting, the players were in the stands, both sides. It was just ridiculous.

It was goon hockey. And they didn't have plexiglass in those days. So you would climb over the stands. Anybody could go over the stands, and the stands could go over onto the ice too. Did you see that a couple of times? Yes. Fans going on the ice?

A couple of times, yes. Leaning right over and hitting a guy as he scaled across. So there was not very often, but, you know. So I never would have thought about it, but I guess it would make sense. When they put glass in the rink, everybody was pretty happy about that. Yes, it was happy. It protected everybody. Because there used to be guys leaning over and deliberately sticking an arm out as a player went by.

I won't mention the town or where, but I've seen it happen. So anyway, where were we? We were talking about the year that we took a break. And that year, Elmer Franks came to me and said, we're looking for a director of the Northeast Alberta Midgett Hockey League. And we want you to be the director. Since you're doing nothing. Because I was...

And so that year I was... director of the Northeast Alberta Major Hockey League. Then the following year, we decided, the board decided to go for a junior A team, and we went to PA, and we talked to spent, Terry, what was Terry's last time? I don't remember now. But anyway, Simpson, Terry Simpson, and we negotiated, and then we went to Humboldt and waited for three hours because that's where the league meeting was, and they didn't want to because we were so far west.

They didn't want us. Battlefield had a team. And I think because Battleford was there, they said, okay, it's only another hour and a half drive. We can make a swing, and that's how we got accepted. We were waiting on pins and needles. There was five of us who went to PA and then went to Humbold. Why did you go to PA first?

Because PA was going into Major Junior, and they were wanting to sell the team. and let the franchise go. Do you remember how much you, did you have to pay for the franchise? I don't think so. I can't remember. I don't remember exact the details.

They wanted us to buy their bus, I know, and there was a piece of crap. So we didn't buy the bus. I can't remember if we had to pay or not. I don't remember that. But we negotiated, but they had to let the franchise go somehow. Maybe we did pay something.

I don't remember. Do you remember who the four guys who were with you were? Yes, very well. Lloyd Tendick, Joe Ballier, he worked for the rapeseed plant. God, I'm having a blackout now. Myself, Glenn Wood, and Norris Hartwell. There it is, the five of us. So, yeah, we went there.

Larry Leach was on the board. he didn't go with us. There was quite a few others on the board, but the five of us were chosen to go and negotiate and bring the team back. It's pretty unbelievable that a guy from India with no background in hockey had only seen his first sheet of ice six years prior

goes from managing a midget hockey league to being on the board that gets Lloyd its first junior team. Amazing, isn't it? Even I find it hard to believe after all these years. Well, I also managed Junior B when Stu Weisard, the regular manager,

could not go on road trips. I used to be the manager on road trips. I used to keep the guy, I had to keep guys like Roger Rubourge and Murray Baddy in line. You know? Many a time I had to walk into their rooms and take bottles away from them

because those guys were 18, 19, 19 year old. They could go and go and and pick up bottles. And it was not that we didn't allow drinking, but game night, of course not. So Stu and I used to go make sure curfew was on and look under the bed and find some lemon gin sometimes, some beer. It was fun. It was all fun.

Was that a shock to you, a guy who'd gone through university, swimming, then rowing, having a strict curfew, at nine to see athletes do that? It was a little bit because, you know, when you rode or when you swam, alcohol and smoking was just in the off-season if you had to do it, because it was well known that alcohol and smoking reduced your fitness. Not just one drink, but I'm talking of, you know, when you're rowing and you tie one on on a weekend, you lose fitness. So those were no-noes. So it was a little different culture here.

But the way it was, that's the way it was. And I mean, some people smoked in dressing rooms. people smoked in my office as a doctor. In those days, we had ashtrays. In the doctor's office. In the doctor's office, ashtrays. In Big Mike Red Iron, some people may remember him, six foot six, indigenous person, Aboriginal person,

used to come on empty ashtrays at 5 o'clock and make damn sure that nobody smoked and wrecked his clean ash trays. He'll sit there till office closed. or 5.30 and I'll sit in the waiting room making sure nobody smoked after five. Because he cleaned the ash trees and it's done. It seems like that is something, you know, I remember going to restaurants. I remember going to the bars as an 18, 19 year old here in town and how smoky it was.

I think that's something we all remember. But I just, I can't remember that. And it's almost a lifetime ago that you could smoke. Well, I mean, I worked for Baker. And Baker Hughes, there's no smoking on our premises anymore. So you can't smoke within the structure. You can't smoke within, right? You got to be out pretty much in the city street in order to have a smoke.

Our manager smoked in our office. There's ashtrays everywhere. They smoke on the bus? No. Larry didn't allow smoking on the bus. No smoking, no drinking on the bus. And a nice little story. We bought some beer.

Well, put it this way. I bought some beer to celebrate after we won the game in Edson because I knew we were going to win. Unfortunately, we lost. On the way back, Larry and I used to sit in the front. And sometimes our spouses came with us, just like God Redden, he took over from Larry and we used to sit in the front and Pat accompanied us on some road trips. But anyway, this particular time, Larry heard the tinkling of glass and he walked to the back and there there they were Roger Robersh and Murray Barry and a few others.

opened the beer and going at it. And it was hell to pay for. Hell to pay for. But it was okay. They took it in their stride. And of all people, Roger accuses me of teaching him how to drink alcohol. When he was alive, now, he's no more now. But anyway, we had a great relationship with all.

those guys, all of them. Those days were really good. We were all together. Like I said earlier, we were a family. I still remember how close we are and today we're so close. With the Jervais brothers, with O'Neubel, you know, lots of people I can mention, but we were close. Scott Kennedy, we have names for all of them, nicknames for all of them, nicknames for all. of them. So it was fun. Did you ever learn to skate? I barely did, but I was terrified. I had skates and I went on, I was on skates for about maybe seven or eight times, attempts. I would say attempts. And did I skate? Yeah, I skated six feet, seven feet, eight feet. Never skated backwards, but that's about it. That's the best I could do. An athlete like yourself, who's

played and done different things competitive you say you're adventurous you didn't look at ice and go you know what I can master this uh you know that's one of my biggest regrets that I didn't learn to skate I don't know what happened I don't know if work came in the way because I was with these guys all the time yeah I was at practices too because I as you know I was single fertile was fancy free I was at practices, I was on road trips I mean, for some reason I don't think they grabbed me because they were so intense on practicing

that they didn't grab me on the essence and said, come on, Doc, let's go for a skate. So I dropped the ball and that was one of my biggest regrets to this day because I'd still be playing hockey right now. Let's talk about the Lancers. Okay, you mentioned going to PA, then going to Humboldt,

and sitting there, what was the first season of having junior A hockey and Lloyd like? Oh, it was, it was accelerating because it was, the crowds were there. Because we had no hockey for, no junior hockey here for a whole year. So they were hungry. And we had 1,600, 1700 people in the early days, Philadelphia. the ring. But compared to the junior B team when we had 2,500 in the playoffs

against Vermillion, you know, the rafters, the police, the fire chief had to come and shut the doors. It wasn't that big, but it was a regular season. We had 15,600 people for games and there was less on television too.

You know, not like today. There's too much on television to keep people home. To keep people home. Absolutely. People home. And too many options, right? pretty much watch any game you want to watch. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So there was less television, there was less cable, less channels in those days. So people came out and celebrated and had fun and enjoyed themselves. But I think actually people are missing out when they don't go to hockey games because I think we still have a good product. Hockey is really a great game. It's unfortunate

that they have other options at home. You mentioned when Lloyd played Vermillion and the, and could you go, the amount of fans in there, could we just dive into that for two seconds? Yeah. Seventh game of the playoffs. Junior B? Junior B.

Okay. Finals? Lloyd won three straight. Okay, in the playoffs. Okay. So it was just a formality going to Vermillion. We lost. We had a home ice advantage.

Vermillion came to Lloyd. 3-1 series, lost. We went to Vermillion. Must have been a packed barn and vermillion. Yes, packed barn. Noisy, noisy, good hockey town. We went to Vermillion, lost three straight. So series tied, three all.

Final game, Lloyd Minster, seventh game. Now is this first round of playoffs? Is this league finals? League finals. League finals. League finals. Up 3-0, lose three straight game seven at the Civic Center. Yes.

You're setting it nicely here. I like this. Okay. And I'm not exaggerating. People were sitting on those rafters at the old Civic Center, standing on somebody's shoulders and sitting there, and you only hear stories like that. Plug to the rafters, people are actually sitting on the rafters, because there was no place to be had. That place was built for 2,250 people.

Then there was over 2,500 people. and I came late but just before the game of course and the fireman won't let me in I had a friend with me and I said look I'm the physician for the team and this is my assistant and snuck in and of course because I was physician I would have got in

anyway and I snuck the friend in was that tight everything was close because it was a fire hazard because people were already in and it was a whale of a game And it was great. And there was the rivalry between Roger and Big Mike McNabb from Vermillion. And, oh, it was fantastic. And that was good.

And then we went to the, that was the Northern Finals. So you went to the Southern Finals. So you win that, obviously. Oh, yeah, we won. And then the building went nuts? Nuts, nuts. Nuts, absolute nuts. It was like Stanley Cop in Leibnister.

Because it was amazing. It was amazing. Well, and back then, Junior Bee would have been the ticket. It was. It was the ticket. It was the only show and only game it on. No, we had the Borough Kings too. But it wasn't that much for the Bory Kings as it was for Junior B.

Did you go on to win then the Mayf? We won the Alberta Championships. Then we went to the Alberta Championships. to Manitoba for the Western Canadian Championships. And I think it was in Winkler, if I'm not mistaken. And we lost there. What a ride. Yeah, what a ride.

I love hearing the old stories of how full an arena can get. Because you just don't see it. I shouldn't say you don't see it anymore. But in Lloyd, you don't see it a whole lot. Yeah. I had Trevor Redden who did the play-by-play for the Bobcats there, the year of the Royal Bank Cup. Now he's in PA, and he showed me pictures of PA versus Saskatoon.

It's a PA Saskatoon? Now I'm forgetting. Or Brandon. Or the finals, too. It might have been the finals against Vancouver, but people standing on the milk crates. Yeah. And he said he was an old wives tale, right? You talk about the rafters and packed to the rafters.

Old Wives tale. Oh, yeah, whatever. Yeah. And then he said he walked into that game and saw P. running to their seats an hour before and people who didn't get there at an hour before couldn't get seats so they're standing on milk crates and there ain't like two milk crates we're talking like as far as the eye can see milk crates just so they can see over the next person the next time I saw our ring packed was the Allen Cup in Lloydminster

when Fleury was here and what's the chap from Montreal who used to play for Montreal. They both oh begins with O anyway he's of indigenous

origin Oltrach no no oh crap I know him because I looked after him when he was stabbed

with a knife when somebody was stealing his car in Montreal Gino Gino Ojic Ojick Thank you yes and that was

the next time. What? What? You were in Montreal? What? Well, Gino Ocheck. There's so many stories with hockey.

See why I love the game. He was in a bar in Montreal and somebody was stealing his car and he went to attack the guy with the guy turn around and put a knife into him. Okay. So then he had to go to hospital and then they explored the wound and then. They stitched him up and he came to Lloyd Minster. Actually, before the, that was not the first time. The first time was when with, oh, Redden.

Wade? Wade. There you go. Wade Redden. I had a hockey school here. Okay. Indigenous hockey school. And Jin Orich was there at the school and that's when I first met him.

And he had to have stitches removed. From this knife wound. From this knife wound. And so he came to see me and I removed the stitches. And that's when we first met. And then we, of course, renewed our acquaintance at the Allen Cup. But anyway, the Allen Cup was crowd. We were talking of crowds in the rink.

That was electrifying. Well, like I was saying about the crowds, I mean, you know, in the NFL, you still get big crowds. But to think back in the day for a junior B team, you put it to the rafters or for senior hockey, right? Allen Cup. Yep. It was good. And Allen Cup, hockey was fantastic.

Good. Great hockey. Great hockey. How many years were you on the board for the junior A team in town? For probably three to four years. Why did you end up stepping away then? Because I had kids and they started playing hockey. And I had to, I couldn't attend meetings.

And I was busy in the hospital. I was doing my rounds. I was delivering babies. I was, you know, I was quite busy, you know, and I ended up with three kids playing hockey. So I, and so hell, my older son, the first year was his home team was Polar Kings. Wayne Wright?

No, in Paradise Valley. They were called Paradise Valley. Polar King, before they moved to Wainwright. Before they moved to him. So that was his home rink. So. Why was he playing? and a PV?

He got cut here. It was the last cut. So the polar kings wanted him. So he was midget, AA. And so rather than playing midget A, he went to PV? PV, they asked for him.

Sam Benzmiller. And, oh, I can't remember the coach's name, his faces so long ago, but it'll come. You know, I got, what do you call it, old-timers? I think you're doing pretty dang good myself. You're spending out names left, right and center.

So anyway, they wanted him. And I asked them, is he just going to warm the bench, or is he actually going to play? And Sam and the coach assured me that no, he will get a regular shift like everybody else, except when the game is tied and we have a minute or two left and then we'll short shift. So I said, fine, then he can come here

and play. And so he did. And the next day he played for Lloyd. They wanted him back here. So I couldn't be on the board of the Lancers and also look after the kids. Did you still do any of the, were you still the team doctor at that? Yes, I was still the team doctor. I was still the team doctor. How long were you the team doctor for? How many years? Or do you know? 41 years unbroken. Oh no. One. year with that break of one year when I was when there was no hockey. So 41 years minus a year? Minus a year.

Holy Dina, that's pretty impressive. Yeah, that was fun. It was fun. Enjoyed it, every minute of it. Any memory stick out to you? You know, because I mean, you've seen a ton of players, a ton of coaches, a ton of just management, you name it, go through. Yeah.

Yeah, somebody who should have made NHL in the when it was Junior A, was Chris Barnes from Bonneville, 6 feet, 2.5 forward, 215 pounds, lean. He skated so slow, looked like it, but he was overtaking everybody. He was overtaking everybody. That was in Junior A. In Junior B, it was Raleigh Jervais. He got called up twice. One year, he lasted one week, the next year into Calgary for Tier 1.

Major Junior, Roland Jervais. Yeah, so Calgary, do you remember the team? Can't remember which team it was. The second year, he was 17 years old now, and the second year he lasted one month. and he wanted to come back to Lloyd. He was homesick. And he had the potential for going all the way in the NHTSO because he was such an all-rounded player. He could change the pace of the game.

He was looking around. I mean, he was a great forward. And he was just the right size. And it was wonderful, great hockey player. And Chris Barnes was another one who should have made it. Then of course Brent Dallon, I thought he would have made it, but he came back and played and he was one of the cores, anchors for our junior eight team, the first person we got and built the team around Brent Allen.

And that was another success story. That first year was fantastic. So there was lots of people who could have gone places and again, they didn't get right opportunity. There was one fellow called Larry Clark, who again, a great hockey player. He played with Tiger Williams in Weyburn. And I've never seen anybody throw a hip check like him. He would send people flying right over the plexiglass. No, no plexiglass over the boards with the hip check. He'll just wait for them. Hang on to the puck. He'll tell them to come to him and he'll just just with a swing of his hip, gone. Literally is flying over into the stands.

played hockey with Larry Clark's son. I played hockey with Larry Clark's son. Yeah. Yeah. Larry Clark's a great hockey player. But he was small then. But two years later, he was big. He grew. By the time he was 19, he was a big man.

But again, the opportunity slipped by. He was great. Why the Lancers? Why not the Blazers? Because the Junior B team was the Blazers, correct? Yeah. After that fight,

the stands, there was a lot of public opinion against the Blazers. And for some reason, we thought we'll start afresh. Because everybody was called the Blazers in Lloydminster, junior, everybody.

So we put out a competition to pick a new name. And so that's how we became the Lancers. Then after a few years, we went back to Blazers. And then eventually we became the Bobcats. Correct. So where did the name Lancers come from?

I think the high school had a Lancers team. And one person, they put a number of names, and the board decided to choose Lancers. It was a catchy name, and that's how they chose the Lancers. Well, you're wearing a jacket that I suspect there are only a few left. Very few left. Correct. I couldn't find my blazer jacket with the old leather sleeves and the black leather and the red. I couldn't find it.

I was going to wear that one. But anyway, this was the next best thing. This is the first year of the 1982, so it still fits me. Being in Lloyd for now, what is that, 30, 40, 45 years? Yeah, 43 years. 43 years? 44 years. 44 years.

What has been one of the big changes to come to Lloyd that you got to witness? One of the biggest changes, of course, to have so many paved streets that we didn't have when I first came. No. So the multiplex is a nice facility. I regret that it didn't become the main arena and they did some retrofitting to the old Centennial Civic Center to make it functional for the younger people.

There was a move, but somehow the people at that time decided this is the way it's going to be. That's a fantastic facility. and all the stores that have come up, the box stores all, like there's no need for anyone to go to Edmonton to shop anymore. We have everything in Lightminster. We have everything in Lightminster, whatever we need. And, you know, the Synergy Credit Union building is a really classy building. It really does Lloydminster Proud, I think, to build that building. And it's in a good location.

Yeah, I would agree with that. That is a beautiful building. Yeah. I was going to say, speaking of the Civic Center, it sounds like it's days are numbered now. Well, I don't know what can happen. The Archie Miller's was numbered. The days were numbered. When we were on the board of the Blazers,

We raised $25,000 that first year to retrofit the Archie Miller, and they told us it's going to be torn down. So we're not going to waste money on it. $25,000 in 1977. And it's still going, so I don't know. It does need a major refitting. But I don't know if it will cost us, I think, $30 million. or at least $20 million to build another arena. And times are tough.

I don't think we're going to see one myself in the next five years, five to ten years. Raise a good point with Archie Miller, because the Archie Miller now is a, well, you talk to rec hockey players, because, I mean, it doesn't have the stands for a junior team or anything. but the ice, the dressing rooms now, the glass, everything is bar none. Like it is, it's beautiful. If the Archie Miller can be retrofitted, and I remember playing, I'm not playing, going with Sohail and the kids, the Archie Miller, I carried my own heater, space heater, and everybody came around us.

I was the most popular parent on the ice because I had. I had the space heater on a little propane tank. And so if that can be retrofitted and still being used, now we're talking 45 years later when it was condemned and supposed to be torn down, the civic center is like new. No, it's, yeah, there's lots of things. That was one thing that I was surprised

that the Archimilar is still going strong. Oh, well, and better than ever, right? But you talk about how cold that rink was. You raise a good point because there was only one other rink that held a candle to how cold that rink was in my mind. Because as a kid, you went skating in the archie and everything froze. Like your hands, you couldn't feel them. Your feet, you couldn't feel them. And as a hockey guy, it's almost unhurted because you're moving your body all the time.

Usually your feet can get cold, but the rest of your body doesn't get that cold. I remember losing feeling in my hands in the Archie Miller. But the home-on rink growing up as a kid, when it was a little bit, minus 40 outside it was minus 50 inside I don't know what the tin did but it like magnified it yes yeah the archie you could see there nails frost on the nails because there was no insulation outside or inside you could see the frost on every nail yeah so going back to Civic Center I think it's got some life left but it could definitely use another if we

If we get some winning hockey here, we will need more seats, without a doubt. At least another 200, 300 more seats. Were you on the board who brought, or were you a part of the movement that brought the rowing club to Lloyd? I started the rowing club in Lloyd. Yes, you started. Okay. I started the rowing club in Lloyd, and we did very well for, about 10 years, we produced a national champion in the singles, juniors, and a silver medal. We also had a young lady who went on to become the captain of the Queen's University rowing team, the eight.

and then I again I was I was working hard to keep it going but I had some friends who helped Barry Harbsted Bart King some of the names who helped along Herb Swift and then Herb left town Barry Harpstead went on to become a chiropractor and he currently practices in Sherbrook and I was left by myself so I had to take a break then Morgan Mann up one fine day and said, Doc, we should do something about the rowing club because Morgan had built his house right next to the rowing club. And I said, Morgan, if you will help me,

let's get it going again. So when was the first stint? The club was, I bought the boats in 1978. So pretty much right as you get here. Once I decided I'm not leaving Lloydminster, I decided and bought boats from the Regina rowing club. And the first three years, we were, or two years, we were in Sandy Beach. And then I found this stretch.

It used to be called Baby's Lake. The real name, I think, is Killarney Lake. And I found a nice straight stretch of water with no boats and no power boats. And so I said that's where we'll go. And that's where we moved. our boats at Ralph DeRoisier's farm. We hung them up with pulleys in his barn, his hay barn, and we used to take him down.

And Mark McCall brought his jaundier tractor and cut a path from the barn to the water, and we were on the west side of the lake. Then a few years later, we built a dock and went to the east side of the lake. And then after that, we moved and built up. After that, we moved and built our own building further north where Morgan Man lives right now. And that's where we are.

So when you started the club, you mentioned winning and winning high competitions. Yes. How many people were in the rowing club? Oh, we had maybe many of the RCMP members were members of the rowing club. There must have been at least 15. 15 to 20 people. We had to, we only had one boat, so we had to take shifts. So people had to book a boat and take the first shift and the second shift.

So the first shift was at five and the second shift was at seven. How many in a boat? There was the four and then there was a two man and a single. So seven people could row at one time if they went out on the water. At the same time, yes. about as much about rowing as I know about cricket. So when it comes to rowing in your mind, is it easy to row in a one, a four? What's the? The single, the one man, single, is a very hard boat to row in? Because at its widest is where your hip sits, it's about 12 inches wide.

Okay. And it narrows to a point on both ends. And it's like walking a tightrope. And the two oars you have are the ones that you use to balance the boat along with your body and your legs. But mostly the oars. So you have to, you have to, it's very tricky. So the best boat to start off is a four. And this is where there's some debate whether the four-man boat, whether it's with two oars each when you call it a quad or straight four when each person has one oar

that's that's easy but similarly a double where each person has two oars each also is easier but when you have four people it's a heavier boat and and it's it's less less tippy and so my preference difference would be if I want to teach somebody to go in the quad or in the straight four. When you were, I didn't ask this back, when you were in India and competing, what did you compete in? Were you in a four? I was in a straight four and a single. I competed in a single. And what were you winning at? I won both top championships in the four and in the single. What do you mean top championship? It was the top championship. The one within all the clubs, which is called the amateur rowing association of the east.

That was the name of the regatta, amateur rowing association of the east. And you won that in the singles? I won the singles and the four. Two years in a row, I won in the four. In the first year, I was a rookie, more or less, and I lost in the semifinals. The next year, I won.

So is that for all of India then? All of India, correct. So you're the national champion of India and Rowan? Yes, I was. How the hell did we miss that, Doc, going an hour ago? You're just not going to bring that up? Well, it wasn't that important. It wasn't so long ago.

I was 23 years old. It's a long time ago. So you had never rode before. You swam. Yes. Walk in, stumble in. They say, hey. At age 20.

Hey, maybe you should try roaming. You go sure I don't know if I can. My parents don't know if they're going to let me. And how many years later you're a national champ? In the four, two years later and in the single three years later. Seventy-seven-two and 73. Holy dinah. That's pretty cool. It is cool, but I took up rowing quite seriously. I used to spend six days a week in the rowing club.

And I, the one year in 1971, I could not compete because of my exams. And my coach tried to change the regatta, the national regatta. He tried to change it by one week after I finished my exams, I could row. And they said no. And so that year we had a fantastic team. And we would have won it that year, like a country. like 70, I wrote 70 and 71. This is 71 I'm talking about.

So actually, three years going back, I won the third year and the fourth year, because 70, 71, 72, 73. So anyway, make a long story short, you had to change the team, and they lost in the finals. Who knows? They may not, I still lost if I was there, but my coach said really missed me. So it was good times, yeah.

We broke all records that crew when we were together. You broke all records. So are you still in the record? Probably not. Probably not in the record books. I'm not sure if anybody has done it at the club level then. Since then, of course, politics has got involved in Rohing in India. They became part of a bigger movement.

Rowing Federation, became part of the Olympic movement, and now they're all fighting with each other. So you're telling me you could still hold a record over there for rowing? The four, yes, in the four. With three others, and a coxswain, one who steers the bull. Well, isn't that just dandy? I can't believe we almost missed that. I'm glad we somehow stumbled our way back onto that.

That's pretty cool. It's something. I was lucky. That's all. I was lucky. And I think I worked hard also. It sounds like a little bit of luck, sure, but I would say there had to have been hard work. I was into that.

I think I did work hard. I actually did. With the Rowing Club here in Lloyd, is there no school kids? I don't remember, and the reason I ask this is growing up in school, I don't remember, hey, you can go be a part of the Rowing Club, ever being an option. This year and last year we've got some school kids. Thanks to Michelle Lopez, the president of the rowing club, Morgan Man also we have some school kids.

And this summer, hopefully physical distancing would be relaxed because we sit quite close to each other in the boat. I think we will have a good school boy and school girl season. How many people are in the club right now? We're back to active people maybe 10 to 12, but membership maybe 15 to 20. And what does it cost to get in the rolling club? For adults, it's $200 a year. And for students, I can't remember what the membership is for students, but it's much less.

And does that get you access to the boats whenever you want to go use them? Or is it once a week? No. If you are an accomplished oarsman, you can go use it any time. But we don't recommend going alone because in case you drown, not drown, tip the boat, let's say. We are required to have a safety boat. And life jackets are cumbersome, but there are the new life jackets which you could row with. So they might relax the rules.

But according to the provincial and national rowing associations, you have to have a rescue boat. So when I rode, I went alone sometimes, nobody on the water. But I was confident in a single. It was okay. and I knew how to swim, so it wasn't bad. But even if you know how to swim, you could get hit on the head when the boat tips over accidentally,

so it's not safe, I think. Rowing, that's interesting. Is there like a stereotypical person you look for? I know you were saying in India, they were looking for tall over a certain weight. Is that still? It's nice to be tall. because you have a longer reach but not necessarily you can be strong but now

they also have different classes they have light weights and heavy weights they never had that before so the heavy weights are all those big guys who are sick foot plus and the light weight weight weights are you know anywhere from five nine to six so they've split it so there's lightweights and heavyweights. Heavyweight guys are, some of them are 6'4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4 7. They need special boats and special rigging, as you call it, to rig the outriggers, so it suits their style and their size.

I had you written down, well, and then I written down, that the second year you were in Lloyd, you started to connect with people with disabilities. Did I write that down? That is correct. What, uh... I again was asked to sit on the board as a physician for what is now called the B. Fisher Center. So I was on the board of the B. Fisher Center for 13 years. And working with people with disabilities gave me an anchor, a value that all people are

equal and needed to be treated fairly and included in everyday life, regardless of their disability, whether it was physical or intellectual. And people in the Beefisher Center had intellectual disabilities. And it really taught me something and grounded me in being basically what kids know in the playground, what's not fair and what's. what's fair. You know, children know that among themselves, what is fair and what is not fair. And as adults, we start dividing ourselves into groups. And so I really learned a lot from people with disabilities. How about human rights activism? That started with my work with people with disabilities, and I realized that human rights are indivisible. What's good for you is also good for somebody else, regardless of color, age, gender, marital status, any of those reasons. And so it started in 1983 when I was

appointed to a commission in Peter Lloyd's government and Bud Miller was the one who got me on it to after a teacher, Keekstra in Echville was denying the Holocaust and said it never happened and taught his students that. And so Peter Lloyd decided that this is not right, that students should be taught that there was no such thing called a genocide of people by the Germans, by the Nazis, I shouldn't say Germans, but the Nazis because they are different. They are a different breed of people, the Nazis. And so that led me to tolerance and understanding is what the name of the commission was called. And we traveled all over Alberta. Actually, we used the cabinet plane And there was 12 of us.

We went the length and breadth of Alberta. We drove where if the plane couldn't land or where it could land, we sometimes drove an hour and a half, two hours. And after that was done, I thought it was done. I got a call to sit on the Human Rights Commission from a friend. He said, if you sit on it, I will sit on it. And so I got on the Human Rights Commission. But all my fairness and my growing up and my values,

I have to say, started with working with people in the Bee Fisher Center. That's kind of grounded me in the game of fairness and equity. It's probably something a lot of people should just volunteer and help out with. It's not like a full-time thing, but just to open some eyes. Well, that's what community is, isn't it? That's how this country was built. This country was built not by paid people, by volunteers. You know, people pitched in.

You pitched in for your neighbors. I mean, you know, if you haven't finished your harvest, your neighbor comes and helps you without even sometimes being asked, say, hey, I've finished my harvest. That's how the whole, the West was built, Canada was built. And volunteerism, I think you get more out of giving. You hear that cliche all the time. People say, oh, you get more out of giving.

But it's true. It's very true. You get more out of giving of yourself. And actually, I would say I got more out of it than whatever I did in life. I got more out of it. And there's something to be said about volunteering. I was talking with Lesson Marilyn Mitchell. So my brother's in-laws. Thank you. And they're around your age, and they still volunteer like everything in kids. And, you know, I mean, young, I don't really enjoy volunteering, but you kind of wonder if, you know, when you hit a certain age or your kids get so busy, if you ever just stop volunteering and let the younger people do it or whatever. And I sat down and recorded them for their family, and I asked them that question. And they had a lovely answer, and I probably won't do it justice, but it was something along the lines of they enjoyed volunteering, they enjoyed seeing their community prosper.

but they really enjoyed the people they met volunteering. And so they looked at it instead of going out to the bar for a night with their friends, they had a way to go out with their friends and help make the community better. And so they had a tight-knit group that all volunteered together. And I thought it was, oh, that's brilliant. Because in Hillmont where I do 92% of my volunteering right now, I got a group of people I work with that are just fantastic, and it doesn't make it feel like work.

And if you can ever find that, you can see where you can do that for the next 50%, 50 years and it never ever becomes work. I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. That's exactly being the story of my life. I will never stop volunteering. Maybe a little less as you get older because we're getting older and don't have the energy or things like that. But or you like to travel.

But I couldn't agree more with less than Merrill Mitchell, definitely. 100%. Well, you haven't given me two names. He said that you knew, and I don't know if this meant just had met him or if you knew them personally, but Brian Mulroney was one of them. Did you actually know him or did you just meet the 18th Prime Minister of Canada? I would say we knew each other because we met about five times in different venues. As a matter of fact, I gave my jacket to his wife in Vermillion when he was running for Prime Minister. There was a rally in Vermilion and it was cold and she was shivering there.

And this was, I think, in June. So I took out my jacket and gave it to him. And years later, he remembered that. He remembered. He said, you're the guy who gave my wife a jacket in Vermillion. I said, that's right. That's true. And then we met a few more times.

So I won't say we're friends. But if he sees me, he might remember. The prime minister had a rally in Vermilion? Yes. Before he became Prime Minister for this writing. Okay, okay, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Before he became Prime Minister. I was thinking Prime Minister and Vermillion, geez, that would be a sight.

Yeah. No, before he became Prime Minister. The rally was in Vermilion. Yeah. The Conservative Party got together there. And then the other name he mentioned was Don. Mazinkowski. No, Don and I are friends.

We still are friends. We still keep in touch. I got involved, again, politics, volunteering. Politics brings you closer to people, gives you lifelong friends. Just like I bet Bud Miller, we became very good friends.

I delivered the eulogy in Bud Miller's funeral. So Don Mazenkovsky and I are still friends. I still call him every two months or sometimes a month, and we keep in touch. And he would call me a friend too, I'm sure. We've been here for an hour or 45 minutes now.

So I'm going to go into the Crude Master final five, the last five questions. We can go as long or as short as we want, but there's just five kind of questions directed to end off this. Well, this has been really interesting. I hope it's not boring for the people who listen. Oh, no, no, no, no.

If I'm sitting here and I'm looking at all, I'm going, holy crap, an hour, 45 minutes are blown by? Believe me, that's saying something. It's been really fascinating to be completely honest. You're the, no, I've got to think about this. But I want to say the first guest I've had on who was born and raised in a different country that isn't North America.

So somebody who's come from, I mean, you just come from a different life, essentially. So the first question is if you could sit down with one person, present or past, who would you want to sit down and have a, what's your poison that you have? Is it coffee or is it something a little stiffer? Well, coffee. Okay, well, there you go. If you could have one person to sit down across the table like this to have a coffee with, who would you pick? Very hard question. But I would probably pick Don Mazzinkowski because there's so much to learn.

So much to learn from him, so much he has done in his life. I would... And for the people who don't know who Don Bazankowski is, he was a cabinet minister under Brian Mulrooney. He was a deputy prime minister of Canada, and he was called the Minister of Everything. Okay, well, there you go. Yeah.

He was the most respected politician in Ottawa. And that came from a policeman who used to work here and who moved to Ottawa. And he said he's the most respected politician, Ottawa. So we should be proud of Don Mazzinkowski. He's an icon. And where is he from? Vagerville.

Vagerville. Actually, Viking and then Vagerville. If you could take a time machine and go anywhere, any time, to see any event, where would you go? That might be tougher than the one I just asked. I would like to go to the Montreal Olympics, 76 because it's in Canada and I think while rowing did well

even in 1952 in the Helsinki Olympics I think we did very well in the 76 Olympics so that would be a place to be did any of your rolling club ever go on to be in the Olympics No. No.

Politics came in the way. Because when you were rowing in India, you would have never had a chance at the Olympics then, correct? No, but when I came in, first time in 74, before I went to England, I was wandering in Vancouver, having won the national championship looking for where the Canadian team was training. And I did not know where they were. because I was going to say, I don't want to work. I don't have to work. I was already a doctor. I want to row.

But nobody directed me to where they were training in 1974. So I would have loved to. I think I would have had a good chance of making the team. 5'11.5 and a half and it was 195 pounds. Good size. I would have made it. at least had a good chance. You've traveled a lot of countries.

How many countries have you been to in the world, give or take? Oh, God. Well, let's throw out about at least 20 countries. Okay. What's one country you haven't been to that you would like to go to? Turkey. Ooh, Turkey?

Yeah. Because crossroads of Europe. Yeah. Lots and lots and lots of history there. History. I like history. Turkey would be, is on my bucket list, but seeing the world the way it is and how unsettled places are, I wouldn't want to go on my own. I probably would like to go with somebody who is from Turkey who can steer me off the dangerous spots. What part of history are you most fascinated by? the older history and the history of how countries evolved and the old civilizations how they lived so for example i've been to Italy, been to Rome you know I went to Cairo, Egyptian civilization

so you know that kind of stuff the British like the museums you know again good history there. I presume you read books, and I'm going to assume a lot of books. What have been, and I won't narrow it down to one, because I know that'll be pretty tough on you, but if there's a couple books that, you know,

along your path, you've picked up and been like, holy dinah, that was a good book. What are some books? Two books. One, Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom, and the other one,

very recently, Ken Dryden's book, Game change. Okay. Yeah, maybe that three or four years old, actually. I have a copy of it in my shelf there. Talks about hockey and how the game has changed and how the injuries have increased

and how you could prevent them and not wreck the game of hockey. He comes up with solutions too, does not complaints. It started with all the brain injuries and the fights and it's a great book. For any hockey enthusiast, I would recommend that. All I can think of is I don't want problems. I want solutions. Yes, he's got solutions for it too.

Well, your final question, before I let you go, if you could have been a doctor for any sports franchise, what one would you have wanted to be? I would have probably any sports franchise. Any sport, any sport, yeah. Any sports franchise. You could went home and been cricket. See, like rowing, there is no franchise of rowing.

There's still amateurs. Okay. There's no such rowing. But you could be the doctor for the Canadian rowing club. I did apply. Did you? Yes, when I first came. But the big city folks usually got the first kick at it.

crack at it. So the next one franchise would, if I want to be a doctor, I'd probably be the Edmonton Oilers. Well, that's not a bad choice. Because it's close to home. Close to home. Edmonton Oilers would be my choice. To go all the way back to where I started you with, with India,

what's the biggest sport there? Is it cricket? It's cricket. And what is the fanfare like for a cricket game over in India? Like, comparison, is there anything? Like is it a football game or like... Between 70,000 to 100,000 people. For a cricket game?

Depending on the stadium. And how long a cricket game lasts? Well, once upon a time, there used to be five days, but now one day games. So growing up, were they five day games? Growing up, five-day games. And you get 70,000 people watching that? Yes, they do. It's a giant picnic.

How is that entertaining? 50 to 70 when I grew up because the stadiums are not that big, but now they built bigger stadiums. So now 70 to 100,000 is quite common because it's one-day games. It's just one day. And it's fast and furious and aggressive cricket. I'm saying hockey. Aggressive cricket.

You know, people take chances and they score and they're not conservative. So it's quite exciting now. when I grew up if I went to two of the five days that was a big deal because it was sometimes very boring the games would end in a draw now you don't go to a game where nobody wins it's boring so that's the way cricket was

but not anymore it's probably on a part how much the players are made with basketball and and the NFL. Players make a lot of money now. For cricket? For cricket.

Really? Yeah. Because they have it in all the Commonwealth countries. All the Commonwealth countries. West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, you go South Africa, England. I mean, it's big. So growing up in school, did you play cricket in school?

Did they have like a school team of cricket? Yes. they're a school team. Would you play a five-day game? No. We just played one-day games because it was not five days in school. That's professionals played five days. We would play a day.

Well, no, two days. Sometimes it took two days to play. Yeah, it did take two days sometimes. Because you had to finish a certain number of overs. And an over is six, six times the fellow told. the ball at you. Six times the fellow throws the ball at you. So it's called overs. So you have to pay a certain number of overs. So sometimes it took two days to finish it. Hmm. Probably have a two hour podcast on cricket, to be completely honest. That's, it's very popular in many parts of the world. Yes. Well, I appreciate you coming in and

really enjoyed this, really enjoyed talking with you here in a bit of about your life and time while I mean a lifetime now in Lloyd and some of the history of the hockey and just the rolling and everything else it's been really fascinating for me thank you for having me I'm a fixture in this community now and I enjoy it it's one of the best communities I believe and I normally tell my friends in central Canada that Lloyd Ministers is the capital of western Canada and should be the capital of Canada Well, thanks again, Ralph. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Hey, folks, thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show and like what you hear, please click subscribe. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next time.