LET’S PLAY WINTER BALL

Some of the golfers in the group suggested that we look into playing slo-pitch in a ‘golf dome’ – a facility for golf club members to practice their shots during the winter. The Dominion Gold Course people were receptive, and Winter Slo-Pitch was started. It wasn’t an ideal facility for slo-pitch, which meant that several ‘ground rules’ had to be instituted – but basically it was slo-pitch and that was all that mattered.

Members has to ‘pay-to-play’ out of their own pockets. A group of players would finish their slo-pitch outings by gathering for lunch in the course dining-room and, frequently, the topic of finances came up. Playing in the dome was fairly expensive on the individual participants.

The original executive had a desire to make sports participation free for everyone, so funds had to be raised. The Legion Branches continued their very generous support, (we really don’t make a big enough deal about the efforts of these branches, but without them, we never would have been able to get anything started) but the league grew faster than the finances and it was obvious that other sources of revenue were needed.

LET’S PLAY BINGO

About this time DOUG SMITH came into the picture. Doug was a fine slo-pitch player who joined our ‘Winter Slo-Pitch in the Dome’; but he had another skill that enabled the organization to really grow. Doug’s nickname was ‘BINGO’ and that described his contribution. He was quite experienced at conduction bingos as fund raisers and he suggested that we organize ourselves in a manner that would allow us to apply for a bingo license.

Several meetings were held at the Dome with Doug, and he convinced that group that the Bingo idea to raise funds would work. It seemed out of reach, but Doug knew what he was doing. He led us through the application for the license, organized the entire program, and trained several members to be able to run bingos. In 1993, the first bingo was held and some $4000.00 was raised!! Wow!! Now the sky was the limit, seemingly as far as the number of players and teams and activities that could be taken care of. And the organization really too off!!

At first it wasn’t recognized just what Doug went through. A bingo license, which permits the licensing organization to conduct bingo, was not easy to get. It usually took organizations several months or years to get one, but Doug found a way to get one for us. A license permitted the organization to conduct 13 bingo, which could bring in several thousand dollars. So a bingo license was precious and scarce.

To obtain a bingo, there had to be an organization. After much discussion, the group came up with the name: WINDSOR/ESSEX COUNTY SENIOR SPORTS ORANIZATION. That’s how WECSSO came into being.

The thinking behind this name choice (recall that WINDSOR RETIREES was the original name) was that it better reflected what the organization really was about. By this time we had several members who were from outside Windsor, thus the addition of ‘Essex County’ in the name. Then we had several members who weren’t retired and still wanted to play, thus the ‘Retirees’ was dropped from the title. The word ‘sports’ was added for obvious reasons – we already has slo-pitch, volleyball, dome slo-pitch – and so the organization, by happenstance, was becoming all encompassing. This is an important distinction. In playing tournament and exhibition games against teams in different sports from other cities in Canada and the United States, we learned that we were unique. These teams would say – we have a slo-pitch league back home, or we have a volleyball club back home, but we never heard of an organization that includes all sports. They were astounded. SO WE ARE SPECIAL!

The following were listed as officers of the first WECSSO executive:

FRANK EDWARDS – President

HARRY LAPLANTE – Treasurer

JERRY VIDLER – Secretary

And its charity was listed as ‘sports for seniors 55 years of age or over’.

Doug Smith wasn’t finished. Shortly after the first license was procured, he was at the license bureau and learned, by accident, that another license had become available, which meant another 13 bingos – and he ‘snapped it up’. This also meant that another organization had to be formed. ON the spot, Doug came up with the name – WINDSOR RETIREES SPORTS ORGANIZATION or WRSA.

This was an unfortunate choice of name because the original organization had the name WINDSOR RETIREES – and the similarities presented problems. Eventually, on the advice of our layer, WINDSOR RETIREES ceased to exist. Some of the funds that they still had on their books from the original federal grant plus the Legion donations were used for hockey, under JIM BROWNELL, but eventually the remaining funds were turned over to WECSSO as a last gesture. Thus the demise of THE WINDSOR RETIREES, the founding group. It was necessary for the WRSA to have a ‘charity’, and so it sponsored a Monday Evening Slo-Pitch League for players 50 to 55 years of age.

THE BEGINNINGS

TOM SIMPSON is generally given credit for the founding of WECSSO, but if the truth  were know, this credit might be ill-directed. In 1987, Tom, a navy veteran, retired from Custom and Excise in Windsor; and, after having led a very active and involved life, suddenly found himself somewhat lost with nothing to do. He was restless, antsy, probably crabby (of course), and just a pain in the butt around his home. He was driving his wife of many years, Florence, up the wall. In the spring of 1988, she probably said something to the effect – For crying out loud, get out of here; do something to get yourself involved and get this restlessness out of you; go find some guys to play some ‘scrub ball’!!!! And that was the push behind the formation of what would eventually become THE WINDSOR/ESSEX COUNTY SPORTS ORGANIZATION. Thus it was Florence, not Tom, who was the real reason for our organization!!

LET’S PLAY SOME SCRUB BALL

The Royal Canadian Legion Branches have always served, among other things, as a social setting where armed forces veterans can talk, argue, plan, reminisce about anything and everything. Sports is always a popular topic of discussion, and frequently the senior members present would get talking about the ‘good old days’ when they were heavily involved in any and all sports. Of course the stories that were told brought back many wonderful memories of past accomplishments, and most certainly, of enjoyment and fun. Tom was a regular at some of these branches, and during one of these ‘bragging sessions’ brought up Florence’s scrub ball idea – and the seed was planted. ”Why can’t we get back to those days? Now that we are retired and have time to enjoy our ‘golden years’, – what is holding us back?”

In the spring of 1988 TOM, GORD WAFFLE and JIM SCHROLL got a bat and ball, dug old gloves out of mothballs, and started getting together at AKO field to ‘hit the ball around’. This turned out to be more enjoyable than they expected; so they decided to try to get others involved. They started spreading the word by making calls, inserting an advertisement in the newspaper, and even getting some TV exposure. The first ‘add on’ was STAN SCRATCH. He called GERRY VIDLER; and things snowballed.

LET’S FORM A SLO-PITCH TEAM

In a month there were enough scrub ball payers to form a Slo-Pitch team. Now they needed some opposition. This led to the first game – an exhibition game with a bunch of local young guys in their 20’s. This went very well. So they played several more exhibition games with teams of younger players, and more than held their own. They decided to try competing with teams of ‘their own age’ level – but where could they be found.

ART GRUNDY, another member of the ‘originals’, and JIM SCHROLL had played in an ‘old timers’ league in Detroit; and they were able, in 1989, to set up several exhibition games with teams from that league –  and ‘our guys’ were quite successful. They were so successful that the next year, 1990, they were admitted to the league as a full-fledged member; and the league became the CAN-AM LEAGUE.

LET’S FORM A BOARD OF DIRECTORS

To carry on the program, and to expand its horizons, funds were needed for equipment, uniforms, league fees, etc.; so the group formed a Board of Directors with the main purpose of raising funds for this team to compete in the CAN-AM league. The board was as follows:

TOM SIMPSON (President)

FRANK EDWARDS (Vice-President)

JIM SCHROLL (Treasurer)

JERRY VIDLER (Secretary)

Tom was the ‘main pusher’ of the organization, and for that, has been included on every Board of Directors. His drive, enthusiasm, and vision were invaluable in getting things going. He is fully deserving of any and all compliments for his efforts. It is quite likely that without Tom, there wouldn’t be this tremendous program that is so valuable to so many seniors in this area.

This first board of directors, plus others who jumped in to help at any time, deserve everlasting thanks from the several hundreds of WECSSO members, past and present, who have benefited from the ‘joy of fun’ of participation in ‘play’. There are much bigger benefits – such participation puts off ‘growing old’ both physically and mentally. It keeps us young in both heart and body. One only has to witness the ‘seniors at play’ to recognize how true this is.

The board approached the Canadian Government for a grant under one of its ‘Heritage Programs”, and received $3000.00! They were ‘off and running’. Realizing that most of the members (at the time) were war veterans and were members of various branches of the Royal Canadian Legion, they wrote letters to all the branches in Windsor requesting donations. Branches 594 and 598 made very generous donations to the cause, and continued to do so for several of the formative years of the organization.

WE WILL BE FOREVER INDEBTED TO THE LEGIONS, BRANCHES 594 AND 598.

With funding in place, the board turned its direction to attracting more new members, and soon there were enough players to form another team. It, too, played in the CAN-AM league, and it, too, was successful. Eventually a 3^rd team was formed. These three teams played in different levels in the league and we won all three championships! Now there was a sizeable group of local seniors playing slo-pitch at a very respectable level.

LET’S FORM A LEAGUE

As time went on, several players found that going to Detroit for games was too demanding. The closest games were an hour away, including the custom and immigration delays, and this was costly in terms of time and gas money. It wasn’t convenient, to say the least. FRANK EDWARDS pushed the idea of developing our own league in Windsor. He organized a ‘contact group’ made up of WES O’GRADY, HARRY LAPLANTE, GORD WAFFLE, and JIM SCHROLL; and these guys went through the telephone book and called any names that looked familiar, and prodded them to come out to ‘have a ball’.

This very active committee also advertised in the newspapers and on television, and urged all the present players to use word of mouth to get other guys. The group’s efforts were successful, so -much so that in 1993, a four-team league of our won was formed! Games were played at Jackson Park and the season was from early May (as soon as the sun started to warm us up), until October (based on the onset of cold weather). These guys loved playing so much that the weather had to be really bad to call off games. They called themselves THE WINDSOR RETIREES – The original name of the organization.