In some sad Dawgs News........

We lost a major Dawgs supporter going back to the first days of the Dawgs in Okotoks; in fact, even before the decision had been made to move the Dawgs to Okotoks.

Dawgs dear friend, Ed Poffenroth passed away at the age of 103 years.

I have a very clear recollection of my first communications with Ed. I was sitting in our house in Britannia contemplating the Dawgs next move in locating a stadium after bashing my head against the walls erected by the City of Calgary. The Calgary Vipers were still a year from bankruptcy, but they were the choice of the geniuses at Calgary City Hall.

Meanwhile, for months I had been engaged in countless, ultimately fruitless, meetings and presentations looking for land on which to build a new stadium for the Dawgs. Mount Royal College (now university), the University of Calgary, Tsu Tina Nation, City of Calgary, basically any one with land. It was a long and exceedingly frustrating list of denials. I was exhausted and honestly, losing faith in the project.

Amid that despair up popped a late-night email from a fellow named Ed Poffenroth. It started pretty innocently. He was looking for a top summer collegiate team for his grandson, a sophomore at a college in Texas, to play.

I didn’t think much of it and remarked, “yes, the Dawgs would have been a good fit, but we have nowhere to play. Calgary has shut us out of Burns Stadium”.

He responded immediately, “have you considered Okotoks?”.

Well, truth be told I had considered Okotoks. In fact, I had toured most of southern Alberta with the Don’s, Johnston and McLeod, looking for a place for the Dawgs to play. So, I responded back to Ed: “Okotoks would be a great option, but I don’t think you have a suitable facility or available land to build a new stadium.”

In the course of discussions, I became aware that Ed had been a proctor in the Town or one of the other communities of the Foothills and was a very well-known local figure. He subsequently advised, “John, leave it with me. I know some people.”

In the days that followed, Ed had arranged direct contact between me and Bill McAlpine, then Mayor of Okotoks. Subsequently, Don Seaman, Dawgs principal donor, and I had one of many lunches with Mayor Bill, and the ball started rolling in earnest.

And that ball did not stop rolling until Seaman Stadium, the truly phenomenal and state of the art, facility, was built on Don Seaman Way at the current intersection of 32nd Street and North Railway Street.

What started with a late-night email conversation between myself and Ed Poffenroth had become what the Globe and Mail subsequently referred to as a “grassroots baseball phenomenon”. The Dawgs and Okotoks had made a truth teller out of novelist, WP Kinsella, “Build it and they will come!”

Our first year in Okotoks marked the first of 3 consecutive WCBL Championships; what has since become known as the Dawgs first 3-PEAT. Ed’s grandson, Ryan, was an outstanding relief pitcher and closer on 2 of those teams before moving on, ultimately in true Dawgs fashion, pursuing a career in engineering.

I remember attending a reception that Ed had arranged at Crystal Shores where we celebrated our first championship in Okotoks. There were a few speeches made that night that have faded in time, but I woke up this morning after hearing the news of Ed’s passing and the words from one those speeches came to mind. The words were Ed’s, and this is what he said:

“Knowing this community. Knowing the people in this Town. Being close to Mayor Bill, Paul Rockley and John Barlow, I knew the Dawgs would be a success in Okotoks. But it wasn’t until I saw the hundreds of young kids running the bases with the Dawgs mascot, Diggity Dawg, at the end of the Dawgs first ever game at Seaman Stadium, that I fully understood just how significant the Dawgs would be to our community.”

In my mind, Ed stands with Don Seaman and Mayor Bill McAlpine as the Mount Rushmore of the Dawgs in Okotoks.

Fare thee well, Ed. The Dawgs will never forget you.

What follows is a link to a story in the Western Wheel newspaper back in 2021 when Ed celebrated his 100th birthday with former Dawgs closer (and his grandson, Ryan Poffenroth).

Centenarian helped Okotoks lead a Dawgs' life - Okotoks & Foothills News