Rob Vanstone: An unforgettable day with the great Henry Burris

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A YEAR IN A CAREER: 2000

Henry Burris was a rider — in my car — early in his tenure as a Rider.

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Such was my first extended interaction with Smilin’ Hank, a few days before the Saskatchewan Roughriders began their training camp in 2000.

The initial plan was for the charismatic quarterback to visit the Regina Leader-Post for a photo session. An interview with yours truly was also part of the agenda.

That all changed one morning in May, when Tony Playter — who was then in charge of media relations for the CFL team — called to inform me that Burris would not be able to make it to the L-P.

That morning, Burris discovered that his vehicle had been burglarized, so he was without transportation. His entire day had been thrown into chaos, considering that he also had some errands to run.

After pondering this, one of my 16 brain cells was activated.

“If you’d like,” I said to Tony, “I could pick him up and drive him around town so he can get things done. I could just interview him in the car.”

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Sold!

A few hours later, I picked up Burris outside his downtown residence. The first destination was Advance Glass & Mirror, where the windshield of the stricken vehicle was being repaired.

The interview began during that short drive. Burris held my tape recorder — yes, this was before the digital age — and cheerfully answered my questions.

After the first stop, we headed downtown. More questions. More answers.

I parked near Hamilton Street, because there was banking to be done. As Burris walked toward his financial institution, one fan yelled, “Hey, Henry!”

Instead of simply acknowledging the greeting from a distance, Burris went out of his way to interact with the supporter. The Roughriders’ quarterback, soon to turn 25, ran across the street, high-fived the fan, asked how he was doing, and then resumed the short walk toward the bank.

I will never forget the look of utter astonishment on the fan’s face. It was priceless.

“It made it perfect for me as well, because I had people who were excited to the point where they actually knew who I was before the season even started,” Burris recalled during a recent interview. “They cared enough to say hi, so I thought, ‘I’m going to go over there and say hello.’

“I’m a fan of the fans as well. To know that I played in one of the marquee places in North America when it comes to fan-player involvement and interaction, and also excitement, it was an honour.”

After Burris tended to some more errands downtown, we headed to Leader-Post World Headquarters.

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Upon entering our Park Street palace, Burris did something else that I will always regard as extraordinary.

He walked up to every employee, at every desk, and introduced himself.

Honestly, who does that?

“There’s this feeling of nervousness sometimes when people first meet each other,” explained Burris, a 2020 inductee into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. “I’m a person who wants to cut through the cheese and get it finished right away.

“Whenever I’m in an atmosphere with people who love the game of football and just love being around each other, I want to get in there and just break that silence right away, just so we can have conversations and just so that we’re not wasting time.

“That’s kind of what it meant to me to get in there and go around and introduce myself to everybody. I’m coming into their house, so therefore I should do that and create a comfort zone of communication so we can start having those talks and getting to know each other and talking about the upcoming season and looking at the anticipation of what’s to come.

“If they have any personal questions that they want to ask me, I want them to feel comfortable to ask me anything, because I’m an open book. I have nothing to hide. I am who I am. I just want people to feel comfortable when they’re around me. It’s just how I am as a person.”

A Hall of Fame person, I might add.

(Rob Vanstone is the Regina Leader-Post’s sports editor.)