Courtesy Regina Leader Post:

Former CFL referee Paul Dojack, who dedicated his professional career to enhancing the lives of young people, died Tuesday in Regina. He was 93.

Dojack, who officiated in 14 Grey Cups (including eight as head referee) and 546 Canadian professional football games over 23 years, had been hospitalized with pneumonia. He was in the arms of his wife, Ellen, when he slipped away.

“It was quite a life,” Brian Dojack, Paul’s nephew, said Tuesday. “He affected a lot of people in a lot of ways.”

Although Dojack was renowned in sporting circles, he was especially proud of his 37-year association with the Saskatchewan Boys Centre — where he worked with troubled youth who were committed to the institution for treatment and rehabilitation. The facility was re-named the Paul Dojack Youth Centre in 1985.

Dojack was hired as the Boys Centre’s recreation leader in 1938 and eventually became its director. He believed that sports and recreation were integral components of the rehabilitation process.

“Hundreds and hundreds of the kids keep in touch,” Dojack said in a 2005 interview with the Leader-Post.

“One of them phones twice a week. I think he keeps phoning to see if I’m all right.”

Dojack received various honours for his work with the Boys Centre, including a Centennial Medal in 1967 and a Governor General’s 125-Year Medal in 1992.

He was also frequently decorated by sporting bodies, including the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Museum (into which he was inducted in 1971), Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1978), Canadian Sports Hall of Fame (1995) and Regina Sports Hall of Fame (2003). All members of the Saskatchewan shrine automatically entered the Regina Sports Hall of Fame at the time of its inception.

Before becoming a football official, Dojack was a successful coach and player. He formed the Dales Athletic Club in 1929, at age 15. He was the team’s coach and quarterback at the time.

Dojack coached the Dales to four consecutive Western Canada junior rugby football championships, beginning in 1937. The Dales — a forerunner to the Regina Rams — also won the national title in 1938 after travelling to Montreal.

“We were guaranteed $915 to make the trip,” Dojack recalled in 1986. “Our costs were going to be $1,800 just to get there and back.”

Despite the financial pinch, Dojack headed eastward along with 18 players and a trainer. Upon arriving in Montreal, they shoehorned themselves into one hotel room and prepared for the game.

The Dales ended up beating Montreal Westmount 4-3 to win the title. The game was broadcast by CKCK Radio — an arrangement that benefited the Dales in terms of profile and finances. At halftime, Dojack made a plea over the airwaves.

“I got on the radio and I was tellin’ the fellas back home that things were gettin’ pretty skimpy,” Dojack continued.

“We had a hotel bill to pay.

“After the game, we waited it out in the hotel and we eventually got enough money to pay all the bills by the wires. Had we not won, we’d probably still be crawlin’ home.”

The Dales, who returned home with $8 to spare, were eventually inducted as a team into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame.

Dojack refereed his first football game in 1941. He was hired as a full-time official after being discharged from the armed forces. He was in the Regina Rifle Regiment (now the Royal Regina Rifles) from 1941 to 1946 while on leave from the Boys Centre.

Of all the football games Dojack refereed, the most famous was the Fog Bowl. The 1962 Grey Cup, played at Toronto’s CNE Stadium, was suspended in the fourth quarter due to fog. When play resumed the next day, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 28-27.

“I made the decision that it couldn’t go on any longer,” said Dojack, who was also the head referee in another storied Grey Cup, the 1950 Mud Bowl. “I was at the far hash marks and I couldn’t see the down marker.”

Dojack, the youngest of eight children, became a Reginan at age 10 when his family moved from Winnipeg to establish a music retail business. Paul and Ellen Dojack were married 54 years. The Dojacks did not have any children.

Funeral details are pending.