For the second time in his life, Steve Mazurak is leaving the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
This time, though, it’s on his terms.
Unlike 1981, when he was cut by then-general manager Jim Spavital, Mazurak is walking away without any bitterness. The Roughriders’ vice-president of sales and partnerships is retiring Thursday, ending an affiliation with the CFL team that began in 1973.
“It’s going to be really different,” says Mazurak, 66. “What has been gruelling has been getting all these meeting invitations for 2018 and going, ‘Decline. Decline. Decline.’ It’s a constant reminder that I’m not going to be at that management meeting or that SLT (Senior Leadership Team) meeting or that staff meeting.
“But it’s a new era. Craig Reynolds is the president and CEO and he inherited me as his VP. We’ve got a new chief branding officer coming. We’ve got our toes wet in a new stadium. There is such a bright future ahead and that bright future will be molded by a lot of young people — which is good, because they don’t need my grey hairs in here.”
Mazurak was hired in 2005 by then-president and CEO Jim Hopson, who was replaced upon his retirement by Reynolds in 2015. Reynolds had joined the club as chief financial officer in 2009, so he has worked alongside Mazurak for almost a decade.
In that time, Reynolds has been impressed with the commitment and fervour that Mazurak displayed toward the organization.
“Steve has an incredible passion for our brand, for our fans and for everything associated with this team,” Reynolds says. “He’ll keep that as a fan moving forward, but it’s nice to have something like that in the organization.
“He has seen so much and experienced so much that when he speaks, he does so with passion. There’s so much history behind that passion and you understand why. He’s so protective and supportive of the brand because he wore the S.”
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Mazurak played one season of high school football at Sheldon-Williams Collegiate before accepting a scholarship to the University of North Dakota in 1970.
After redshirting for one season, Mazurak left UND — he calls himself a “redshirt walk-off” — and returned to Regina. He was recruited by Regina Rams head coach Gord Currie and suited up for the junior team in 1971 and ’72.
In 1973, the Roughriders added Mazurak as a territorial exemption and the receiver became a pro.
“Coach John Payne was magnificent, especially for young kids like myself,” Mazurak says. “He put things in their simplest form. And the practices were so well-organized and with such a strict script as far as the playbook, it gave guys like me the opportunity to compete because the coaches didn’t get too far ahead of themselves.
“Our biggest challenge was dealing with a quarterback (Ron Lancaster) who never used to call a play in the huddle. He always called it on the line, so you had to study your playbook.
“But I knew I was ready from the very first practice. In one-on-ones, I did my thing against All-Americans and all-stars and I found I could handle myself on the field.”
Mazurak learned the CFL ropes from Lancaster, fullback George Reed and the Roughriders’ other veterans — an amazing experience for a Reginan who had grown up watching those players. But the man they call Maz didn’t catch a pass as a rookie, instead spending his first season on special teams.
“I was the Canadian with good hands who was dispensible,” says a chuckling Mazurak, who had 17 punt returns for 71 yards that season. “I could catch a punt and I could take a hit.
“That was the learning year and they had some pretty darn good receivers. I was a backup to (Gord) Barwell and I was quite content to be a backup with eyes wide open.”
Mazurak had a more active role in the offence in 1974, catching 17 passes for 335 yards and four touchdowns in nine games. He had his most productive season in 1977, registering 52 receptions for 978 yards in 16 games.
But he was relegated to backup in training camp in 1981, in part because of a knee injury, in part because of the emergence of Chris DeFrance — and apparently in part because Mazurak was working as the executive director of the CFL Players’ Association.
“The writing was on the wall,” he says. “I was hauled down to the office to see the principal, Mr. Spavital, between every practice. While others were having a nap between their two-a-days, I was going one-on-one with him.
“My days were numbered. I wasn’t going to make the team and I thought I was maybe OK with that because I was on to this other career (with the CFLPA).”
Still, Mazurak was hurt when his hometown team cut him. Even though at the time he was the sixth-leading receiver in Roughriders history, with 3,714 yards on 237 catches, his time in Green and White was over.
But he landed on his feet with the CFLPA and remained in that role for five years.
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Mazurak left the CFLPA in 1986 and, after stints with Sask Sport and CKCK Radio, embarked on a 13-year run in the telecommunications industry.
Late in 2004 — shortly after he had been inducted into the Roughriders’ Plaza of Honour — Mazurak got a call from a former teammate that sent him down a different path.
Hopson was set to become the Roughriders’ first president and CEO in 2005 and he recruited Mazurak to be the team’s director of sales and marketing.
“Rider Nation had a whole lot of confidence in Jim, but I don’t know if they had a whole lot of confidence in, ‘How can this North of Dewdney guy get along with this cake-eater from Sheldon-Williams? How can they take the team in a new direction?’ ” Mazurak says with a chuckle.
“It really was a new direction. That’s when they did the culture shift from a management board of directors to a governance board. They vested full control and autonomy on Jim. He was looking for a marketing and sales guy and someone who could watch his back through this new journey. Man, it worked out well.”
Mazurak took over a business side that he now says was “technologically inept,” with inferior capacity to handle ticketing, retail operations, partnerships and game-day experiences. What followed was an evolution as the organization worked to modernize its operations.
“We were blowing up a lot of things to bring the Roughriders into a new age,” Mazurak says. “It was wonderful for the board to say, ‘Jim, it’s yours. Run it like a business. We’re going to step back.’
“Before that, board members were involved in selling sponsorships, tickets and memberships. They stepped back from that, so it was exciting to be a part of a brand-new culture and a brand-new way of doing things.”
•••
Eventually, new retail outlets were opened across the province. New methods were utilized to sell tickets. And new relationships were formed with partners that resulted in multi-million-dollar deals for things such as videoboards and naming rights.
What in Mazurak’s words was previously a “mom-and-pop organization” suddenly was on the leading edge of sports marketing. Further lessons in brand development helped focus the team’s approach even more.
“There was a concerted effort in 2005, and even right now, that the team wouldn’t base marketing campaigns around the score, what happens on the field, the players or the coaches,” Mazurak says. “The only consistent thing was pride and passion.
“Players and coaches come and go. Wins and losses happen. What was consistent was the fans. We built campaign after campaign where the primary focus was the fans. Our marching orders of the day were, ‘Build a major-league organization that honours the fans and the fans can honour you right back.’
“To have been a part of that and to contribute to what the organization looks like in the marketplace gives me a lot of pride.”
For Reynolds, Mazurak’s work on the Mosaic Stadium project is perhaps his greatest legacy. His work in securing financial support for the stadium — including the assistance of the 11 Founding Partners — helped get it built.
“This is the final step in terms of his goal to take us from mom-and-pop to the big leagues,” Reynolds says, “because this is a big-league stadium.”
Mazurak has had success throughout his Roughriders career, both on the field and off, but he notes that it was easy to do so when surrounded by people like Lancaster, Reed, Hopson and Reynolds.
Mazurak also credits his team in the business office with helping him get things done.
“(Apple co-founder) Steve Jobs said it perfectly,” he says. “You don’t hire smart people and tell them what to do. You hire smart people so they can tell you what to do.”
•••
Mazurak has taken annual motorcycle excursions with ex-teammates Al Johns and Cleveland Vann, but the length of the journeys always has been limited by Mazurak’s work schedule.
That isn’t the case anymore.
“Maybe those trips will go from eight days to 18 days, so that’ll be a lot of fun,” Mazurak says. “Then there are projects at the cabin (on Last Mountain Lake). There are prairie chickens and pheasants to be hunted and fish to be caught. I’m really looking forward to (retirement).”
Mazurak and his wife, Heather, have four children (Nicholas, Andrew, Jaclyn and Lee) and seven grandchildren, so retirement will provide more family time. Mazurak says there also are some opportunities in which he could get involved in the future — if he so desires, that is.
All he knows right now is that, 45 years after it started, his run with the Roughriders is over.
“I’ll be 67 years old this year and I look forward to that next adventure,” Mazurak says, “and it’s going to be an adventure, I guarantee you.”
