Sutherland going into Alberta Sports Hall of Fame

“Honoured. Surprised and honoured. (It is) very rewarding for a guy once his career is finished, for sure.”

Sutherland says the nomination process was started by Stan Schwartz, best known for being involved with the Calgary Stampeders football team for 40 years including time as team president. The two have been friends for 30 years.

Sutherland is joining local athletes Christine Nordhagen and Willie de Wit in the hall.

“Willie and I are still close friends. We were when he was starting his boxing career here. We seem to run into him a couple times a year. We’ve done some charity sporting events when he was still active. We’ve done some things together,” he said.

“Christine, she’s younger than I am. She was certainly a world-class athlete.”

Sutherland also joins fellow chuckwagon drivers Dick Cosgrave, Ron and Tom Glass, and George Normand. Sutherland says Cosgrave was one of the “original pioneers of the Calgary Stampede.”

Sutherland adds what he remembers the most from his career is the competition.

“I was always a very, very competitive individual. Fortunately, I still have my brother Kirk and his son Mitch are still involved. My son Mark is involved.”

Sutherland’s also has two grandsons, Dayton Sutherland and Tuff Dreger, who race wagons. So does Tuff’s dad Dean.

“There is still lots of chuckwagon around the Sutherlands that I am part of the spring training and stuff,” he mentioned.

” I don’t miss the travelling. As you age and after 50 years in the sport, I mean, we felt like gypsies. Sometimes we actually had to move in the middle of the night or after the races in order to get to the next spot to rest the horses for a day. Some of the shows were back-to-back during that stretch I raced.”

Sutherland also says there is also nothing like standing in front of 20,000 fans at the Calgary Stampede, a show he won 12 times. He also won 12 World Championship titles.

Sutherland says chuckwagon racing is “a great sport” that is great for family. There are two issues though.

“The sport right now is really troubled by cost. COVID has hit it relentlessly, has knocked the wind right out of the sails. People have to appreciate that these thoroughbreds are probably no less than $2000 a year to keep around and you need about 30 of them to race.”

“Each driver is down $60,000 a year. If (they) can’t compete and can’t get corporate sponsorship to help them, then that is a direct cost from him or his family. That has taken a toll. I think we’ve lost probably 10 per cent of the drivers.”

Sutherland says he “fears for the sport” if Calgary and Ponoka don’t run this year as they are the two events that attract bigger corporate sponsors.

He says it did not matter if fans cheered him or booed as they paid to get in and that sport exists without fans.

“Probably the year I quit was one of the toughest. I was in Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon for the last time they announced, and two middle-aged women came up and they were kind of in tears,” he explained.

“I didn’t know them from anybody, and they said we have followed you for 35 years and just really, really upset and sorry you’re leaving the sport. I said, ‘well there is a time for everything.'”

Sutherland says that was touching for him as they had never met. He says he always tried to create fans in the sport.

Sutherland says he used to go visit cancer patients, take them posters, and talk to them. He says he always tried to encourage them to keep fighting.

“There were a lot of rewarding things to me that I got out of the sport rather than just pure competition.”

by Curtis Galbraith

Sutherland going into Alberta Sports Hall of Fame

Pro Tips