“I played with some good Saskatchewan teams in softball and baseball but in 1968, I reached a point where I still wanted to be active on ball diamonds but was tired of playing,” said Moore upon looking back on a favourite pastime.

“Johnny Haider convinced me to try umpiring. Ed Reimer and Ed Bitz gave me their wholehearted support and it seemed like a natural fit. In umpiring, you have to work hard; you have to be positive. If you show any weakness or difference in attitude, the players, the fans and your fellow umpires lose their respect for you. I’ve always said you’re only as good as your last call.

“I have been keeping records of people who came into umpiring in Saskatoon. Since 1974, there have been 430 of them. Half of them quit after one year because they couldn’t handle it.”

That ability to stick to something he loved in both fastball and curling, as well as his willingness to make a difference in sports, have landed Moore the 2020 Saskatoon Kinsmen Sportsmen of the Year award. Previous award winners chose him as a shining example of conviction and contribution towards sports in the community.

Normally, the award would be presented at the annual Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner, but because of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, the dinner has been postponed this year. Moore will be recognized at the 2022 dinner.

Moore was born in North Battleford in 1945 and grew up in Speers, where he was a longtime teammate and friend of curling great and baseball player Ed Lukowich. The Speers team won the Canadian schoolboys’ curling championship in 1962.

“Ed was such a natural athlete in whatever sports he tried. He was so physically strong. His record in curling is outstanding. And here’s a story about Ed that most people don’t now. While he was attending the University of Saskatchewan, he was invited to try out for the wrestling team. First time, fresh out of the locker room and onto the mat, Ed won a match against Gordon Garvie, who became a Huskie star and Olympian,” said Moore.

Moore remained a competitive curler for years, including one shot at the finals of the Canadian seniors’ championship. He was a former president of the Nutana Curling Club, volunteered at three Briers and one Scotties tournament in Saskatoon, and was on the board, including one year as president, of the Delta Bessborough Classic from 1975 until 2000.

On ball diamonds, he played baseball for the North Battleford Beavers, fastball for the Saskatoon College Lads and Merchants, and was playing baseball for Saskatoon Commodores just before shifting to umpiring.

He umpired in fastball when pitchers Eugene McWillie, Peter Froese, Rob Guenter and Pete Zacharias were at the top of their games.

“Eugene was so good, worked so hard, averaged two strikeouts an inning and was almost unhittable. I thought these pitchers played in an era where there was more intensity, more hustle, more teamwork. We had games which were done within an hour.”

Was it ever dangerous behind the plate when those pitchers were on the mound?

“When I started, the only padding we had was the two leg guards. We protected ourselves by hiding behind the catcher. That all changed when we got shoulder pads, chest protectors and we moved out into the slot. As the game grew, the softballs became livelier, the bats were better, players got bigger and faster and they came out of better coaching systems.”

There were many memories. He was under fire early. His first Canadian senior men’s tournament was in 1980 and he did others in 1994 and 2008. He was the Canadian umpire at the International men’s fast pitch in Sioux City, Iowa in 1986. Part of his role was gathering information in advance of the event when it came to Saskatoon in 1987.

He was also an umpire at the Pan-Am world women’s qualifying tournament in Venezuela in 2009.

“Spanish was the predominant language. I usually had three people nearby to be liaisons with teams and players who only knew Spanish. Biggest memory! I was never more than five feet away from the hotel door before there was arm’s-carrying guard right beside me and he stayed with me

“It was a 10-11-day adventure. When it rained, there were no storm sewers. The water gathered in the ditches alongside the roads, then drained into a nearby lake.”

His work in both sports has been recognized before. In softball, he was honoured as Saskatchewan’s umpire of the year in 1994, with the Darren Lipinski award for outstanding contributions to softball in 1999, was chosen into Softball Canada’s Hall of fame as an official in 2010 and into the Softball Saskatchewan’s Hall of Fame in 2011.

He was selected int the Saskatchewan Curling Hall of Fame in 2004, the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 and won the Ken Rowley Friend of the Game from Curl Saskatoon in 2019 for dedication, commitment, leadership and volunteer service.

In the work field, he was with Sterling Hardware in Saskatoon for 18 years and then shifted into a 22-year career with Canada Post, where he retired as superintendent.

And then there was the time he was in the right spot at the right time, working with two others, including his daughter Kim, to rescue a fiveyear-old boy who was almost a drowning victim at Blackstrap Lake.

“It was a cold October day in 1993, when we were at Blackstrap. Suddenly, there was a call for help from people in a boat which had over-turned. After rescuing the father, we found out there was a boy trapped underneath the boat.

“At first, I couldn’t see him. His life jacket floated to the surface, I grabbed him, he was white and we couldn’t find a pulse. He was taken to Royal University Hospital and by 9 that night, he was feeling fine.”

From that special night when Moore was badly shaken himself, there are still some nightmares, but he became the hero who saved James Beaton’ s life.

-Ned Powers