"It's still surreal": Don Bahnuik savours his time as a Roughrider
10/07/2024 10:32 AM
EDMONTON — Nearly 50 years after last suiting up for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Don Bahnuik still experiences the game-day buzz.
That was evident on Saturday, when Bahnuik was among 24,317 spectators who watched his beloved Green and White defeat the Edmonton Elks 28-24 at Commonwealth Stadium.
"The adrenalin, after all these years, does come back," the Edmonton-based Bahnuik said.
"It's great. I never miss a game when they're here."
Bahnuik almost never missed a game when he played.
He sat out only two contests over the eight full seasons (1967 to 1974) he spent with the Roughriders as a defensive lineman.
A knee injury sidelined him for Saskatchewan's second and third games of the 1971 season. That year aside, you could mark him down for a full 16 regular-season games, plus playoffs.
It was in the post-season, in fact, that Bahnuik first dressed for a CFL game.
A knee injury to Galen Wahlmeier in the Roughriders' 1966 regular-season finale created an opening Bahnuik filled for Game 2 of the best-of-three Western Conference semi-final.
He helped the Roughriders defeat the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers 21-19 and advance to the 54th Grey Cup Game, in which Saskatchewan downed the Ottawa Rough Riders 29-14 to win the first championship in franchise history.
Just 15 days earlier, the Regina Rams had defeated the Notre Dame de Grace Maple Leafs (from Montreal) by the same 29-14 score to capture a national junior title for the first time.
It was quite the eventful 1966 season for Bahnuik, who practised with the Roughriders as a member of the "taxi squad" in addition to playing for the Gord Currie-coached Rams.
Considering the circumstances, an ascent to the junior football ranks was an accomplishment in itself.
"I played six-man football in Canora," Bahnuik recalled.
"(Ex-Roughrider) Pete Martin was a sales rep for a school supply company and he was there in Canora in the fall, meeting with the principal and the caretaker. Having played football, he saw this (high school) football game being played, so he watched it.
"About three or four months later, the principal called me into his office. I was thinking, 'What the heck did I do wrong now?'
"He said, 'You've been invited to the spring camp of the Rams and Hilltops that the Roughriders put on in the long weekend in May.' I said, 'How did he pick me out of all those players?'
"I get there and, again, somebody was looking over me. (Former Roughrider) Paul Anderson took a liking to me or whatever it was and spent a good part of the three-day camp working with me on the basics.
"We didn't have a coach in high school. There was a teacher who had to be there for liability purposes, but we made up our own plays.
"So I get to the junior Rams and Paul Anderson was the coach. Again, Paul took me under his wing and I'm grateful to him."
Even though Bahnuik was primarily a receiver in high school, he was rated as the top lineman at the Roughriders' 1963 spring camp for high school grads.
That was a springboard to four seasons with the Rams.
Bahnuik's rookie season was so impressive that, at 19, he was invited to the Roughriders' 1964 training camp, where he also left an imprint.
"I got a chance to watch his work in the films of the intra-squad game and he showed me a lot of desire," Head Coach Bob Shaw told the Regina Leader-Post in mid-July of 1964.
Bahnuik attended two more Roughriders training camps as a junior-eligible player before playing his first of 126 CFL regular-season games.
He also played in 23 post-season contests, including the Grey Cups of 1967, 1969 and 1972.
His farewell to professional football took place on Nov. 17, 1974 at Clarke Stadium in Edmonton, where the host team defeated Saskatchewan 31-27 in the Western Conference final.
Following the 1974 season, Bahnuik (then 30) accepted a job in Edmonton with the Federal Tourism Branch.
Edmonton has been home ever since for Bahnuik, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a financial and insurance adviser.
At heart, though, he has always been a Roughrider.
Hence his presence at the game on Saturday, when he sweated through one of the team's typical nail-biters and ultimately witnessed a victory that allowed Saskatchewan to secure a playoff berth.
"It's still surreal," Bahnuik said when asked about his CFL playing career. "People say, 'Well, you played for almost nine years,' but it still doesn't sink in.
"It's something that's indescribable to this day."
