as the Saskatchewan Roughriders take on the BC Lions in CFL West Final action in Regina, SK, November 8, 2025. Photo Electric Umbrella/Liam Richards
Dale Richter’s pandemic project has been published.
What began as a curiosity has turned into a new book — Glory, Duty & Sacrifice: The Regina Rugby Club and the Great War.
“I wanted to tell stories of heroes from another era who answered the call and sacrificed a great deal,” the Regina-based Richter says.
“It didn’t start out as a book. During COVID, when everyone was being told to stay home, I turned to the Internet to explore two of my passions — military history and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.”
Before too long, he was immersed in a project that eventually morphed into a book
Richter focuses on 53 members of the Regina Rugby Club — renamed the Regina Roughriders in 1924 — who served in the First World War.
“Ten who left didn’t come back,” Richter says. “I wanted to honour them, especially.”
The book’s 11th chapter is devoted to those 10 players — Edward (Hick) Abbott, Tommy Blair, Bob Boucher, Clarrie Dale, Robert Leggat, Harold Longworthy, Norman Pawley, James Scott, Sam Taylor and Russell (Punk) Thomson.
Neil Joseph (Piffles) Taylor, Sam’s brother, also served in the war. Piffles, after whom Taylor Field was named in 1947, lost an eye in battle but resumed his playing career after the war.
Due to the global conflict, the Regina Rugby Club (RRC) and senior squads throughout Canada suspended play. The Regina team was dormant in 1917 and 1918.
“The team only had 30 cents in its bank account after the war,” Richter noted. “There was a huge undertaking of collecting money in the city.”
Those efforts were successful and the team was back on the field in 1919 — nine years after the RRC’s inaugural season.
When play did resume, the team had to find a new facility. Dominion Park, the RRC’s original home, was no longer available.
During the war, the City of Regina sold the Dominion Park grounds to the T. Eaton Company Limited. Dominion Park and Eaton’s were once based on land that is now occupied by Regina’s Value Village.
With Dominion Park out of the equation, the re-formed RRC played its post-war games on Regina’s Exhibition Grounds and at the RCMP barracks. Into the 1920s, the RRC played more frequently at Park de Young, which became the team’s full-time home in 1936. The Taylor Field name was applied 11 years later.
These tidbits and so many others appear in a book that was published in conjunction with the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Football Saskatchewan. The book was designed by Benchmark Press.
Glory, Duty & Sacrifice: The Regina Rugby Club and the Great War can be ordered online at Benchmark Press (CLICK HERE) and SaskBooks (CLICK HERE). It is also available at McNally Robinson in Saskatoon.
