Bauman made splash on BU court, field

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This article was published 08/02/2022 (1544 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dave Bauman had the worst seat in the house the day he took his strange, unenviable place in Brandon University Bobcat lore.

It was 14 years after his final basketball game in blue and gold, 18 after he pioneered the tradition of talented American athletes migrating to the Wheat City.

At this moment, Bauman wasn’t the three-time Bobcat athlete of the year or the guy who caught a 96-yard touchdown pass that’ll forever be a school record; “The university’s first real, true star,” as former Sun sports editor Jack Gibson once said.

It was Sunday, March 2, 1986, at the University of Manitoba’s East Gym and he was “ref.” Specifically, the ref who emphatically waved his arms to deny Marvin Russell a game-winning basket, ending Brandon’s season.

It took Bauman and partner Ken Epp 16 seconds to leave the gym.

Everyone knew the obscurity of the scenario entering that Great Plains Athletic Conference final. Manitoba was ranked No. 1 in the country and a lock to move on to a regional tournament as a wildcard even if it lost to Brandon, which was wrapping up a two-year probation and could only advance as the GPAC champ.

None of that crosses an official’s mind in the split-second Russell tips a John Carson airball at the horn. “Why did I wave it off?” Bauman said. “Because I saw the ball still in his fingertips when the horn went off, so it’s not a shot. I felt good about it.”

The Bobcats played, rewound, played, rewound and played back the dying seconds of their 78-77 loss for hours. Even with today’s technology and slow-motion replay, this might have been filed in the “not enough evidence to overturn the call” file.

“If I called the basket good, both sides still would have been OK because it was so close. It just shows you that if it took those guys several re-runs to show what it was, I had a blink of an eye, not even that,” Bauman said.

“I had to make a decision right then and there and that’s why calls like that go either way and you got to accept them because we’re all human.”

One decision made a massive impact. It also turned into a source of motivation for Brandon, which famously captured the next three national titles. Maybe it could have been four, but it’s hard to overstate the butterfly effect of Bauman’s choice to heed his high school hoops coach Gary Howard’s advice and move to Brandon in 1968 from Sheridan, Ore.

Bauman recalls the sports scene he grew up in was far superior to Canada. Even in a city of 5,000 people 100 kilometres southwest of Portland, they had talented teams. He said it’s because just about every coach at his high school was a big-time player in their sport at one time.

All Bauman knew about Canada was his parents took their honeymoon in British Columbia. He assumed it’d be similar and wasn’t pleased with the breathtaking cold. BU football coach Doug Steeves, however, was ecstatic to stumble into a top talent at receiver.

Bauman set a record with a 97-yard touchdown reception against Jamestown on Oct. 8, 1968, on a strike from quarterback George Kunyckyj.

He frequently led the Bobcats varsity basketball team in scoring, including a 22-point performance in a loss to Lakehead at BU’s home tournament on Feb. 21, 1969. It was just four days after tearing ligaments in his right ankle.

Bauman shattered some BU records with 43 points in one game against Regina Bible College, amassing 536 points and 253 rebounds in his rookie season. Bauman was the clear-cut Bobcats athlete of the year, an award he won three of his four seasons at BU.

“My best quality of basketball was shooting the ball and I was accurate,” Bauman said. “I don’t know why I became that accurate but (Howard) said ‘If you’re hot, keep shooting. If you’re not, shoot until you get hot.’”

Bauman became BU’s all-time leading scorer after just two seasons and played the next two as Brandon joined the Western Canada Intercollegiate Athletic Association — now Canada West.

The Bobcats weren’t bound by any sort of import rule and within a few years, the basketball team was loaded with 11 Americans. That is until they transitioned in 1971 to the Great Plains Athletic Conference, which voted to outlaw American players entirely. Only those already on the rosters would be allowed to stay.

It mattered little to Bauman, who graduated after that season and landed a teaching job in Rivers, where he stayed five years before returning to Brandon. The physical education teacher spent some time at Neelin and hopped around a bit, eventually wrapping up his career at Waverly Park.

He realized coaching wasn’t for him but took a liking to reffing. Bauman spent decades working the university games and even reffed some semi-professional ball, including the now-defunct Winnipeg Cyclone and International Basketball Association.

While he won’t take credit for the future successes of his alma mater, he was proud to see the Bobcats capture four national titles in 10 years.

“That was amazing to see. I enjoyed watching that,” Bauman said. “People playing after me were head and shoulders above me, but I was part of it in the basement somewhere. People began watching and because of that and because Jerry was so good at coaching and recruiting, the program steadily grew with a lot more Americans and good ones.”

Shortly before Bauman retired from teaching, his son Chris eclipsed his athletic achievements as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats took him with the first-overall pick in the 2007 CFL draft.

Chris starred as a receiver for the Vincent Massey Vikings with quarterback Tim Feasby. He made the provincial team in Grade 11 and the tandem headed to the University of Regina together.

Dave didn’t expect his son to play right away in his rookie year. He made plans to spend a week with Chris in Hamilton in July 2007. He would drive a car out to him, spend a few days while the team played in Winnipeg, then fly home.

When Dave was halfway there, however, Chris called to let him know he was dressing for his first game in his home province. The Ticats made arrangements for Dave to fly on the team plane to catch the game, and back to have his visit.

Hamilton struggled that year, going 3-15 with Jesse Lumsden putting up 748 yards at a 7.6 yards-per-carry clip.

Chris picked up 370 yards that season, then had his best year as a pro in 2008 with 48 catches for 588 yards and three touchdowns.

He dropped off afterwards, though, putting up 553 yards and three scores in the next two seasons combined. Hamilton released him and Edmonton picked him up for 2011, then he rounded out his career in Calgary, losing the 100th Grey Cup to Toronto in 2012.

Chris broke his wrist in training camp the following year and tore his right ACL that October. The Stampeders released him in 2014.

“All of us were sorry it went so quick,” said Dave Bauman, adding that following Chris’s career allowed him to meet “so many great people.”

Bauman noted all three of his kids were athletic in high school. His oldest son, Craig, has two daughters and works in information technology. His daughter, Amber, went into interior design.

Chris’s choice to pursue football came without fatherly pressure.

“I didn’t push any of my kids into that, I didn’t want to do that,” Dave said. “All three of my kids were pretty good athletes but Chris took it a step further. My one arm is longer than the other one from throwing him pitches or throwing him footballs … he never stopped. Whatever came along, he was going to play it.”

Bauman and some former BU football players established the College Cap and Bobcat Football Legacy Scholarship to support current student-athletes. He still takes in some games from time to time. While virtually everything has changed in the 50 years since his last game, Bauman looks back at his Bobcat days as a pivotal time in his life.

“It was everything,” he said. “I had a chance to play four years of basketball and football and become a teacher. That shaped my whole life.

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