[CanuckRightWinger]

….Story to follow

[Rams1PlateSince1976]

This should be good. I had two East European Professors and another professor who was the the son of a White Russian who had horrid stories about life under the hammer and sickle.

[CanuckRightWinger]

Part One...Springtime In Vegas For Canuck Clan
I met former Rams QB Ron Jaworski, by chance, at Oscar's Steakhouse in the Plaza Hotel, Fremont Street, Old Las Vegas in early April 2019. Why didn't I post this back in April you ask? Well, I tried posting the pic and the story twice.....but I lost my posting both friggin' times....so I will post in sections, BECAUSE I CAN TELL'YA THAT WHEN YOU WRITE A LONG TOLSTOY STORY AND YOU LOSE IT OUT INTO SPACE....WELL, LET'S JUST SAY THAT MY REACTIONS RESULTED IN LOCAL POLICE GETTING CALLS FROM ALL AROUND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD ….COMPLAINTS ABOUT SOME LOUD EERIE HOWLING SOUNDS...LIKE A WOLFPACK SUDDENLY HAD SHOWED UP IN THE SUBURBS!!!

Anyway, last April, the Canuck Clan were down in Las Vegas to help keep fueling the surging USA economy, and I believe that Mrs. Canuck and my two 20-something daughters' (one boyfriend came along too...a Steeler fan ) anyhoo, due to numerous demands to visit local Sin City shopping malls, I do believe that we succeeded single-handedly in kick-starting the Women's Apparel Sector. Such was the volume of Canuck gal purchases, that I heard MACY'S stock was up 3 Points!!!

Anyhoo, after an afternoon of said shopping, I was ready for a cocktail (or two) so we all head to Oscar's for Happy Hour and had just sat down at a table for 5, very near the bar. Then in walked Ron Jaworski, alone & very low profile, and sat down at the bar right near our table. Heck, I think, we haven't even ordered drinks yet, and right in front of me is one of my College era sports heroes. How's that for Canuck Luck huh!!??

[CanuckRightWinger]

Section Two....The Meet
So there's Ron Jaworski, about 10 feet in front of me. I say to Chris, my youngest daughter's boyfriend (and Steeler fan), Hey, that's Ron Jaws Jaworski sitting there!" Chris is 25 and has no idea who Jaws is! …. and then, there's Mrs. Canuck is telling me I should not bother the man....let the celeb enjoy his privacy, she urges.
So, of course I go over, and start the conversation:
Me: Hi, just wanted to say that I'm a big Rams fan from Canada, and that I grew up 15 minutes from your hometown of Buffalo....on the Canadian side, just west of Fort Erie and the Peace Bridge.
Jaws: Yeah, I know Fort Erie....I actually grew up in Cheektowaga.
Me: You know, I was 95% it was you....but those two rings definitely were the giveaway.....NFC Championship Rings from the Eagles?
Jaws: Yeah, I wear them all the time. So they were the clues?
Me: Yeah, the rings confirmed it for me! I wanted to tell you that I belong to a few Rams Talk Forums and ALL of us babyboomer Rams fans lament the way the 1975 Playoffs went. You had played GREAT in St. Louis beating a very strong Cardinal team with Air Coryell, Mel Gray, Jim Hart, Terry Metcalf....you played great there and we won by more than two touchdowns. Then the following week we finally get a HOME Playoff game against Dallas...…..and we had played them tough earlier that year in Dallas...…...so we all think that the stars are aligning for us and Knox FINALLY in the Playoffs......AND THEN THEY GO AND DECIDE TO START SHACK HARRIS AT QB INSTEAD OF YOU AGAINST DALLAS.....AND HARRIS's FIRST PASS GETS PICKED AND WE WERE DOWN 7-0 BEFORE YOU COULD SAY GROUND CHUCK!!! GUYS IN OUR FORUMS STILL LAMENT THAT AND WONDER HOW HISTORY WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IF KNOX HAD DECIDED TO START YOU AGAINST THE COWBOYS.
At this point Ron Jaworski looked me in the eye and said "You know, that was one of the biggest disappointments in my life.....just before gametime and Coach Knox tells me I am not the starting QB against the Cowboys. Man that was a tough one." Jaws went on to talk about that 1975 team, players, ups and downs, how he had played well in St. Louis the Playoff week before, etc etc....I just listened while he talked and reminisced about his Ram days. When he was done, I added....

ME: One other thing about 1975, that was such a strong Ram team that year, not only could we have beaten Dallas that year, but the eventual SuperBowl Champs that year were the Steelers....and we beat them in the Season Finale in the Coliseum on a rare Saturday Night game where some plucky Polish guy beat Pittsburgh 10-3 on a 6 yard QB sneak!!!
Jaws: (Laughing) Hey! It was a QB Draw....get it right!! Seriously how did you remember that play from 1975.
ME: I told you I AM A BIG RAMS FAN!!
Jaws: Super! Great stuff!
ME: One other thing I wanted to tell you that I'd written about you in those Rams Talk Forums.....the first time I saw the Rams play live was September 1970 as a 12th grader when George Allen's team beat the Bills 19-0 at the old War Memorial Stadium, that I wrote "War Memorial Stadium which native Buffalonian Ron Jaworski said the locals called The Rock Pile.
Jaws laughed and said something like "Section 20, Row D, Seats 3&4....and I say, your seats? and Jaws says, "Those were my dad's season ticket seats where we went every Bills home game for years." I said, yeah the Bills had some good teams in the old AFL days.....Jack Kemp at QB, Marty Schottenheimer at LB.....
Jaws nodded and agreed about those old Kemp and Schottsy teams....turned out we are near the same age, Jaws born in 1951 and me in '53.
ME: One more story about the Rock Pile. Back in the early eighties, there's gonna be a Hollywood baseball movie with Robert Redford, THE NATURAL....but there's a problem, they cannot find a stadium still standing that can pass for the 1930's movie venue....but they find War Memorial Stadium....so Redford, Glenn Close etc spend the summer shooting the movie in Buffalo....and I remember the local media asking Robert Redford what he thought about Buffalo.....and typical Hollywood snob, Redford said, "the local drivers habits caused me to have sore molars." Like the guy couldn't say, something like 'Buffalo, great people, great food, Niagara Falls, biggest Polish population outside of Warsaw, great beer Gennesee, Utica Club....no, no...Redford has to get cute and diss Buffalo. Typical Hollywood'
Jaws: I didn't know they filmed THE NATURAL in Buffalo....but I have met some Hollywood types....and yeah, I get what you mean.
I ask Jaws if he wants to come over to our table and meet the family, and he says he might come over later, but he was waiting for some people to arrive. I say "Okay. see you later then?" We shake hands and I go back to our table and then my daughters decide to take over....

[BobCarl]

So there's Ron Jaworski, about 10 feet in front of me.

Nice ... very nice.

Thank you for sharing this experience. I enjoyed the read

[CanuckRightWinger]

Part Three...The Canuck Gals Take Over (the best part for me)
So I go back to our table after leaving Jaws at the bar, and I say, 'He's waiting for some people, but he might come over and say Hi a little later." My wife and daughter (none of whom are Sportsfans, though, over the years, I took them to many venues trying to ignite a sports-loving spark) are just looking at me and finally, my youngest, Nicola our Bank Exec says, "Dad, while you were over there we googled your friend....he's been in SuperBowls and stuff. He was an ESPN analyst. He's a famous guy.....and you just go up and have this 15 minute conversation with him!!! Wow!"......or words to that effect. Anyhoo, I say, well, "he was a Rams player, who I followed and rooted for....so we had alot common ground."

Nikki says, "Dad, we need to get your picture with him!!"
Me: "What??!!"

Now, I have never been an autograph hound or selfie kinda guy.....the memories are what I hold onto.....like when in August 1975 when I was on military leave and I meet Jack Youngblood, Isaiah Robertson, Dave Elmendorf and Bob Klein in the now long-gone Buffalo Airport Playboy Club...and Jack buys ME a beer!!! So I say, "Nah, we had a nice talk. He's a really great guy....very engaging, and a good sense of humour. I don't wanna mess it up by bugging him now."
Nikki and my eldest daughter Katrina, our Marketing Rep, both say practically in unison "Dad you were talking to the guy for over 15 minutes and he was laughing and uber animated with you.....C'mon WE ARE GOING OVER THERE AND GET YOU GUYS IN A PHOTO!!!" With that both daughters are off in a shot, and leave me flat-footed momentarily. Mrs Canuck just smiles and says "Better go join your daughters!"

I get there just as Nikki is starting to say something to Jaws, and I blurt out, "Oh, yeah Ronnie, sorry but a coupla Hungarian girls wanted to say Hi!!!"
With that, Ron Jaworski jumps up and shakes both daughters hands immediately and introduces himself, and we chat a bit about Canada and Vegas, and then Ron Jaworski says to my two girls, "You dad has been regaling me with stories about football plays I made from 50 years ago....THAT I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER. Your dad has an amazing memory, I can tell you." My daughters just nodded and laughed and said to Ron Jaworski, "Yeah, he's pretty amazing, our dad."
That was the best moment.

With that Katrina snapped a few pictures....one with Nikki between Jaws and me....on Ron's insistence. That was also a very nice moment.

I ended it with Ron Jaworski that day by saying "thanks for being nice to my family. You're a good guy!"
Jaws: "You have a beautiful family."
Me: "Thanks a lot. I appreciate you saying that. One last thing, and I hope it means something to you, like it means to me......I seldom pull for ex-Rams players who leave the team, BUT after you left the Rams, I still pulled for you.....because why? BECAUSE you, like me, had East European roots.....and us East Europeans, we stick together."
Jaws: Drawing me in with a vice-grip handshake, and eyeball to eyeball "You're right! We do stick together....and we get that from our Dads! Thanks for meeting and introducing me to you family! All the best!"

About 5 minutes later a group of three business types join Ron at the bar and they move off to a table at the other end of the Steakhouse, we get our drinks and meals, and this Rams fan has another Ram memory to pass on to his comrades.

This has proven to be a fine fraternity, this group of Rams followers that I selected to join back in December 1967, watching Tony Guillory blocking Packer Donnie Anderson's punt on our family B&W Marconis TV set. No complaints from me on what's been one helluva Rams Fandom ride for this Canuck!!

[ramsrams]

Which one is Jaworski?

Great story.

And Ron is right about Canuck raising a great family.

May have told this one before, but I met one his daughters, Katrina, during what I think may have been our second annual get- together back here in Toronto. ( and does time fly, I believe it was our thirteenth a few months ago)

So Canuck gives Katrina a few bucks to go shopping while we discuss Rams football and life. We were at the airport, just before their flight home. She returns at the appointed time, gives the money back to her Dad, and says “Stuff at the airport is way over-priced”.

For a fourteen year old, that was damn impressive to me.

Cheers.

[CanuckRightWinger]

Thanks for the kind words pal.
I am very proud of the two fine young ladies who call me "dad".

[LARams_1963]

Awesome story my friend!

[dieterbrock]

Haven’t had a chance to read this, must say I’m looking forward to it.