After 330 Games, and 20,000 chants Pete Calls It a Day.
Paul Weiler, 72 years young, approaches the Tiger-Cats' last home game of the season today. After 31 seasons, he'll be hanging up his bowler hat and retiring as Pigskin Pete, the tireless cheerleader who, through good times and bad, has led fans through the familiar chant:
Oskie wee wee!
Oskie wa wa!
Holy mackinaw!
Tigers! Eat 'em raw!
He will help the Tiger-Cats select his successor before the 2007 season. The team plans to honour his service on the field today. It will a sad day in the Hammer as we say good-bye to some one who brought such class to the city and never asked for anything in return.
THE HISTORY OF 'PIGSKIN PETE'
(sources, The Hamilton Spectator)
Weiler comes from a big family. One of six kids, he is also a father of two, and grandfather of five, so it's not surprising that he has 60 relatives and friends coming to todays game. The Tiger-Cats are hosting them all under two tents in the west end zone. Many are coming from Montreal, where Weiler grew up as an Alouettes fan, and where he drove a city bus until a fateful visit to Hamilton in 1964 made him contemplate a move here.
When word of a job offer from Dofasco came through, he pulled his bus over at noon, rounded up June and the kids in the family Volkswagen and headed to Hamilton for good.
Here, he continued his admiration for the Alouettes, for a little while at least. He and June were great fans of football in general and became regulars at the Quarterback Club, then a thriving hub of football activity in the glory days of the Tiger-Cats and of Hamilton itself. The ballroom at the Royal Connaught Hotel would be jammed for every meeting, and Weiler's allegiance began to shift.
Pigskin Pete II retired after the 1975 season. That was Bill Wirtz, who had taken over the job from his father, Vince Wirtz, in 1967. Vince had been doing it since the '20s.
Before the 1976 season, June Weiler was doing some secretarial work for the Quarterback Club, and team president Ralph Sazio approached Paul about taking over the job, hoping to avoid a public process that was sure to make Sazio "one friend and a thousand enemies," as Weiler puts it.
And so began the career of Pigskin Pete III.
He used to get paid for the gig -- $25 a game under Michael DeGroote's ownership, $40 under Harold Ballard's. David Braley, Weiler remembers, gave him a ticket and a parking spot. In 1993, when the team failed to furnish him with a ticket to a game, he stayed away in protest.
The strike lasted one game, before public pressure led team president John Michaluk not only to invite him back, but to send a limo to his house and drive him right on to the field.
I remember that time and it had to be the only time this mild mannered gentlemen got truly angry, for the right reason. I'm sure there's still poop stains on the ceiling of Michaluk's old office.
Today, the team gives him a pair of season tickets and he pays for another pair, giving the extra seats to family and friends.
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Through sickness and health, and every kind of weather, he has never missed a single game beyond the strike game.
On Weiler's watch, the Tiger-Cats reached the highs of two Grey Cup victories (1986 and 1999), and the lows of the team's worst records ever: 1997, when the Cats lost all but two games, and 2003, when the team produced only one win.
Weiler had actually planned to retire last year after completing his 30th season, but with the team's 5-13 record, he decided he would wait a year and go out on a high note.
With the Cats' acquisition of several high-profile players, including quarterback Jason Maas, receiver Terry Vaughn and running back Josh Ranek, it looked like this would be a turnaround year. Instead, the Cats stumbled out of the gate, opening the season with four straight losses. Going into today's game, the team is out of playoff contention with a pitiful 3-12 record.
Next year, he'll be back on the field to pass his bucket-sized bowler -- size 7 and seven-eighths -- to his successor, and take his seat in Box A, as Paul Weiler, ordinary fan.
I hope the CFL honours him with a special induction into the Hall of Fame, got knows he's contributed to the growth of the Canadian game as much or more than any player, owner or builder has.
Pigskin will be missed.
Later,
Kenaz
