By Rob Vanstone,
Regina Leader-Post
The Calgary Stampeders weren’t the only visitors of note at Mosaic Stadium on Friday.
Glenn Maddock — the grandson of Fred Ritter, an original member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders — was among the 28,800 spectators.
Maddock, who hails from San Diego, drove up to Regina to research the life of his grandfather. Ritter coached and/or played for the Regina Rugby Club (later known as the Roughriders) from 1910 to 1913.
“I’m trying to dig up the history, because nobody in my family anymore remembers the history of what he did and what he accomplished and where he lived,” Maddock said after arriving in Regina on Friday.
“I remember hearing stories from my mother about him coaching a football team, but she wasn’t quite sure what team it was and she didn’t follow football that much. Now she has Alzheimer’s disease and she lives in Florida with my dad, so there’s nobody who can tell me these stories anymore because I’m her youngest child, and she was the youngest child of coach Ritter.
“I’m trying to piece together what’s happened and the more I dig, the more stuff I find about him. It’s amazing.”
Maddock spent part of Friday conducting research at the Saskatchewan Archives Board before attending last night’s CFL preseason game between the Roughriders and Calgary. The Roughriders recognized Maddock as their honoured guest at the game.
“It’s kind of amazing,” Roughriders president-CEO Jim Hopson marvelled. “We are talking about the first years of the club.”
Ritter also played for the Roughriders before concentrating on coaching. Regina football legend Al Ritchie was among the players whom Ritter coached.
“I was exposed for the first time to a dedicated human dynamo — a man who breathed, slept and ate football,” Ritchie is quoted as saying in the 1984 team history, Rider Pride, written by Garry Andrews and Bob Calder. “He was our coach, our quarterback, our religion.”
Under Ritter, the Regina Rugby Club won the Saskatchewan final in 1911 before capturing Western Canada Rugby Football Union titles in 1912 and 1913. After the latter season, Ritter left Regina to become an assistant coach at Princeton. He would later coach against the RRC with the Winnipeg Victorias and the University of Manitoba seniors.
His last surviving child is Joan Ritter, Maddock’s mother. Fred Ritter died before Maddock was born.
“He contacted us and indicated who he was and said he was trying to do some research and said he wanted to come up and visit,” Hopson said. “We said, ‘If you do come up, be sure to let us know and we’ll make sure we invite you to the game as our guest and help you in any way that we can.’
“He saw the name somewhere and got on the Internet and, the next thing you know, found out that his grandfather had been here from 1910 to 1913. It is a neat story. He seems pretty gung-ho to find out more about his grand-dad and the Riders. We said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”
The Roughriders were happy to welcome Maddock on Friday.
“This is all new to him — the Riders, Saskatchewan, Regina,” Hopson said as the exhibition game loomed. “It’s a bit overwhelming for him, too, as he goes back and looks.
“Coming on a night when it’s sold out, it’s going to be crazy. It’s great. We’re glad to have him. Maybe as we get into our 100th-anniversary celebrations — because we’re not far away from that — we’ll see more of those kind of people connect with the club and want to come back.”
