The Carleton Ravens football team is losing longtime equipment manager Wayne Baird following his retirement in December after more than 30 years with the program.
After working as a custodian for Carleton Athletics for just under a year, Baird started with Carleton’s football program as an assistant equipment manager in 1975. He then worked as operations supervisor of the Athletics tuck shop, now known as the Welcome Centre.
In 2007, nine years after Carleton’s football program was disbanded, Baird retired. But when the team relaunched in 2013, he joined as equipment manager and has been with them ever since.
“I just did the job because I liked being around football and I thought I was pretty good at what I did and I enjoyed it,” Baird said. “I didn’t do it because I thought it was gonna have an impact on anybody. I just did it because I liked it.”
To those close to the team, Baird is known as “The Colonel,” a nickname given to him by players in the 1980s after American DJ Colonel Nasty.
Baird has built relationships with many players over the years and the team has grown to mean a lot to him. He said what he enjoyed most was “just being around the guys,” seeing them succeed and trying to cheer them up when things didn’t go well.
“It’s for sure more than the equipment,” linebacker Louis Cavanagh said. “It’s also like the relationships that he had with every single player on the team.”
Interim head coach Paul Eddy Saint-Vilien echoed that sentiment.
“For me, Wayne is the heart and soul of the program,” Saint-Vilien said. “He had a huge impact on the players and on the coaches and the way we do things.”
Wide receiver Keaton Bruggeling said his relationship with Baird helped him feel at home with the team. Once, when he forgot to bring his shoulder pads to a game—”I have like three things to bring,” Bruggeling joked—Baird made sure he had everything he needed.
“Wayne knows that sometimes I have a little bit of anxiety and he handled every player differently,” Bruggeling said. “Where he might have given some players some more hassle or whatever for that blunder, because it is a blunder, he was very nice to me and he’s like, ‘Oh it’s okay, I bring like 10,’ or whatever. In my locker, there was two sets waiting for me.”
Baird, who turns 72 this year, said the late nights and physically demanding work were becoming too much for him.
“Then with COVID, it’s a whole new ball game,” Baird said. “There’s lots of things we couldn’t do and lots of things that [former head coach] Steve [Sumarah] and therapist Adam Davies didn’t want me doing because of my age.”
Although he may not be on the field with the team, Baird said he still plans to attend as many games as possible with his wife, who has also been heavily involved with the team.
Josh Sacobie, offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, said Baird’s contributions won’t be forgotten.
“He’s forever going to leave a lasting impression in the Carleton Ravens football history books,” Sacobie said.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
