Jerry (Pee Wee) Wasnik, who practised with the 1956 Riders, formally became a member of the team’s alumni on Wednesday — his 87th birthday.
By Rob Vanstone
Jerry Wasnik’s 87th-birthday present was icing on the cake.
On Wednesday, Wasnik celebrated another year of a rich life in the treasured company of family members, friends and fellow former Saskatchewan Roughriders players by autographing the CFL team’s alumni wall at Mosaic Stadium.
“I can barely express my gratitude and feelings,” Wasnik said while wiping his eyes with a tissue. “I’m just about in tears.”
A comparable reaction was evoked the day before, when he was let in on a carefully guarded secret.
Unbeknownst to Wasnik, a number of people — such as Saskatchewan Roughriders Alumni president Rob Bresciani and former board chair Wayne Morsky — were working behind the scenes to honour the one season that Wednesday’s guest of honour spent with the community-owned team.
“I didn’t have any idea that this was going to happen,” Wasnik said.
His good name does not appear on an all-time roster that is listed in the media guide, simply because he never appeared in a game for the Roughriders.
“I was almost embarrassed to tell somebody that I did play for them,” he said, “because there’s no record of me ever being there.”
Nonetheless, he did practise with the team for most of the 1956 season, back in the days when active rosters were small and local reinforcements were often required for practice sessions or even the occasional game.
Such was the case for Wasnik — nicknamed Pee Wee — who lined up in the offensive backfield, often behind legendary quarterback Frank Tripucka, and took handoffs.
Back in the day, Wasnik was the understudy to fullback Bobby Marlow, a two-way star who also excelled at linebacker.
“If he got hurt, I’d go in,” Wasnik recalled, “but he never got hurt.”
Wasnik wasn’t as fortunate. He was injured in practice late in the 1956 season.
“I was running for a touchdown, home free,” he recounted. “Ron Atchison caught my heel. I kicked myself in my other foot and I broke a bone in my foot. That was the end of my career.
“I don’t remember who the team doctor was at the time. He just waved good-bye and said good-bye. I got my foot fixed and that was it.”
The outset of the season was eventful for other reasons.
On Aug. 18, 1956, the Roughriders kicked off the season with a 15-3 loss in Edmonton. On the very same day, Wasnik exchanged wedding vows with Rhoda, who stood proudly by his side on Wednesday.
The couple had three children — Grant, Jerry and Susan — who combined to make Pee Wee and Rhoda grandparents nine times over. Not only that, they have 14 (yes, 14) great-grandchildren.
Family members were everywhere at Wednesday’s birthday bash, which took place in the alumni lounge on the stadium’s fourth level.
Also present were five of Wasnik’s fellow alumni members — Bresciani, Cleveland Vann, Steve Mazurak, Preston Young and Greg Fieger.
“We just have to wait for the cake,” Bresciani told the attendees, “because Greg has to jump out of it.”
Wasnik made the jump to the Regina Rams junior football team during its inaugural season (1954). The Rams were formed when two teams, the Bombers and Dales, amalgamated.
The brand-new Rams lost their season opener, falling 35-1 to the Winnipeg Rods at Taylor Field. The Rams also tasted defeat in their next game, won 16-14 by the visiting Saskatoon Hilltops, but history was made nonetheless.
Wasnik, you see, scored the first touchdown in Rams history.
In the fourth quarter, he caught a deep pass from Bev Bell on the Hilltops’ 20-yard line and, as the Regina Leader-Post’s Lindsay Crysler put it our Sept. 7, 1954 edition, “outdistanced the Hilltop safety man for a touchdown.”
Oh, and there was also this sub-headline, followed by some printed plaudits.
WASNIK DANGLES
“Wasnik, a five-foot, seven-inch backfielder in his first season of organized football, was one of the shining lights in the Rams’ ground attack,” Crysler wrote. “Wasnik accounted for 24 of the Regina club’s 57 yards rushing.”
He spent the 1954 and 1955 seasons with the Rams before being invited to join the Roughriders at age 22.
“I was a bricklayer in those days,” Wasnik noted. “I’d lay bricks and then I’d go to practice.”
In the process, the Melville-born bricklayer — whose family moved to Regina when he was seven — became part of the Roughriders’ foundation.
“I’ve always said that one of the things missing from the alumni is part of our history from the early days,” said Bresciani who, a fter some brief introductory remarks, invited Wasnik to sign the alumni wall.
The man of the hour looked around for that perfect spot before using a black felt marker to sign his name. The application of his nickname and uniform number (17) was also a testament to his precise penmanship.
Not far away was the signature of another No. 17, Joey Walters . And there’s No. 17, Don Thompson, who was on the taxi squad with a 1966 Roughriders team that won the franchise’s first Grey Cup title. Another 1966 taxi-squadder, Ron Cobbledick, has signed the wall. Wasnik was essentially in the same situation as Thompson and Cobbledick, but 10 years earlier.
Wasnik, for his part, left his signature in the upper left-hand corner, below Terry Bulych (No. 32), between Jeff Bentrim (1) and Mike McTague (19), and above Wally Dempsey (54).
A warm round of applause and a chorus of “Happy Birthday” ensued.
As a final gesture, Bresciani presented Wasnik with an official Roughriders alumni card — another indication that, as birthdays go, nothing can hold a candle to No. 87.
VIA: https://leaderpost.com/sports/football/cfl/saskatchewan-roughriders/rob-vanstone-pee-wee-wasnik-treasures-giant-birthday-surprise
Photo by Troy Fleece/Regina Leader-Post
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