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Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
2019.2.3 |
Object Name |
Video Recording |
Title |
Douglas 'Doug' Mitchell Interview |
Interview Summary / Résumé d'entrevue |
Doug Mitchell, Order of Sport recipient, inducted in 2019, born in Calgary, Alberta, tells the story of how he began playing football in university as a walk-on (versus starting with a spot on the roster), a decision which he made on his own. Despite this, Doug recalls that his involvement in multi-sports was primarily due to taking advantage of opportunities. Doug describes how he chose the University of British Columbia for law school because they had a football team. Doug is asked about his transition from playing sports to sport administration, and he talks about his belief in providing opportunities for youth to participate in sport. He explains how he became involved in the Calgary Booster Club and how his family became involved in horse racing. Doug iterates the importance of parents supporting their children in sports. The interview concludes with Doug replying to a question about his greatest fear. Entrevue avec Doug Mitchell, 23 mai 2019. MP4 d'origine numérique, temps de visionnement de : 00:19:17. Doug Mitchell, récipiendaire de l'Ordre du sport, a été intronisé en 2019 et est né à Calgary, en Alberta. Il raconte comment il a commencé à jouer au football à l'université en tant que walk-on (joueur sans bourse et fréquentant l'université par ses propres moyens), plutôt que de se voir offrir une place sur la liste des joueurs recrutés officiellement par la direction de l'équipe, et qu'il s'agit d'une décision qu'il a prise tout seul. Malgré cela, Doug se souvient que son désir de participer aux sports était surtout parce qu'il voulait profiter des opportunités disponibles. Doug explique que son choix s'est arrêté sur l'Université de la Colombie-Britannique lorsqu'il devait choisir son école de droit parce qu'ils avaient une équipe de football. On demande à Doug de parler de la transition de joueur à administrateur sportif et il parle de sa conviction, c'est-à-dire de l'importance de donner des opportunités aux jeunes de participer dans le sport. Il explique comment il s'est impliqué dans le Calgary Booster Club et comment sa famille s'est impliquée dans la course de chevaux. Doug affirme à quel point il est important que les parents appuient leurs enfants dans le sport. L'entrevue se termine par une réponse de Doug au sujet de sa plus grande peur. |
Scope & Content |
Doug Mitchell interview, 23 May 2019. Born digital MP4, viewing time 00:09:17. 00:00:00:00 The best decision you ever made? 00:00:05:05 the best I ever made, I would have to say that was a decision when I was a hockey player at Colorado College and I'd phone down and talked to the football coach and I asked him if I can have a tryout on the football team and he said you have a hockey scholarship why do you want to play football? And I said I'd just like to try. Well he said, we don't have any roster spots, but you can walk on and I said well what does that mean? And he said, well you just show up first day of training and work out with the team and we'll decide whether or not you can hang around for a while so I packed up where I was working in Burstall, Saskatchewan went down as a walk on, made the football team and I think it probably was a decision that changed the rest of my life, not that my life was bad at that stage, but took me in a totally different direction 00:01:01:09 00:01:03:13 Great, do you have any one that you consulted for that decision or did you make it all on your own? 00:01:09:24 That was a decision, I look back on it sometime and say how did I possibly have the intestinal fortitude to do that, I was in University one more year to go for a degree and I just did it on my own, in fact I'd phoned home and told my parents that I was leaving my job three weeks early, to go tryout for the football team and my parents responded like a very puzzled response, why would you want to play on two teams, to which I said maybe I wouldn't make the hockey team, so maybe I can make the football team. 00:01:42:06 00:01:43:14 Good point. In terms of sport, you got myriad sport, you're a multisport person, how do you characterize a community that crosses so many different like did you run into other people all the time? 00:01:59:23 I think my involvement in multi-sports was always opportunities that were presented to me. Many of them were very strange and I wondered why they were asking me to do certain things but, no, I was very fortunate for that stand point, different sports hockey came from my connection at UBC, football I played pro football for BC briefly, so I guess all those opportunities just came to me. I wasn't very good at pursuing things, but if opportunities came, I was pretty good at accepting them. 00:02:32:01 00:02:33:20 That's a good point, was there much crossing of the streams, like in training, did you run into the same people in university sports all the time? 00:02:45:29 I definitely did not run into the same people at University all the time. In fact, when I went to the University of British Columbia, it was based entirely on the fact they had a football team and they played in the U.S League and I still had one year of eligibility remaining while I was in law school, so definitely I went to UBC law school because they had a football team at UBC and they didn't have one in University of Alberta. 00:03:15:15 00:03:17:19 Ok good answer, you know beyond your competition years, how did that change your ambitions for sport, I know that you are very involved in, in, promoting amateur and professional sport? 00:03:31:27 My involvement in getting in sport from an administration stand point rather than playing was based on the fact, that I think every youngster in our country should have an opportunity to participate in sports. I think you learn so much from sports, a lot of people say you only learn only bad things, but I don't agree with that. In fact, I got in trouble one time when I made a speech and said I think University four years on a varsity team in university you have more retention and you learn more than you do from a degree because everything is about practical exposure and learning a lot about competition and just the general background that you get out of sports, I think it's tremendously important. 00:04:16:10 00:04:17:18 You're absolutely right you the executive function more correlated than success, than I.Q, so you are right, so in term sorted of advancing that agenda, is there any stand out person in the community that you've admired that is doing the work to make sure these opportunities exist? 00:04:40:11 I never really had anybody that I followed in sports, I think it was just the general interest I had, when I came to Calgary from University I'd heard about the Calgary Booster Club which was an organization that helped promote sports and get young people involved and I knew that one member of that club was in the same building, my offices in the same building and I stopped him one day and said would it be possible for me to get involved in the Calgary Booster Club, and he said yes absolutely, and took me to lunch about a month after that, then they nominated me for the Executive and then I became President, but I always wondered why I ascended so quickly to the Executive then I found out the year before that they lost money and were virtually bankrupt, but there was a reason to get more people involved and I guess I was one of those people, but I think I was involved with it for twenty years actually it was a great organization, business developing organization, but making a difference in Calgary for young people in sports. 00:05:44:04 00:05:45:19 That's awesome, do you find yourself, now you're spread pretty thin as a family doing a lot of work for a lot of people, do you find yourself doing something that you thought you'd never do? 00:06:01:18 Well I think one of things that we did as a family we got involved in horse racing. Some people might not think that might not be a sport, but got involved with it, a friend of mine at the University got me to buy half interest in a race horse, and then when it came time to pay the rest of it he coughed up to me and said I didn't pay anything, you'll have to pay the full price if you want to keep the horse, so I got involved in horse racing and Lois and I took our four kids to our box at Stampede park on a regular basis and I had a wonderful, wonderful partner, who knew a lot about horses, he made up for my lack of knowledge , we turned it into a great family sport for about twenty years. 00:06:46:01 00:06:47:00 That's great, I love horses, your fellow inductees a lot of them have you know sort of encapsulated their interest in sports yours quote being you know you don't have to play a sport to be one, the other inductees also had some things to say Waneek Horn-Miller was about the entire country reaching its full potential not just certain faction of it, Martin Brodeur had said it's a privilege doing what you love, Jayna Hefford said she has a lot of respect for people who are parents and are also participating in sports, it's stressful and Vicki Keith said you have to take on these impossible challenges, do any of those themes resonate with you now, anything stands out? 00:07:37:28 I think one the important things is the relationship between kids and their parents. What I see these day is overly aggressive parents who want their kids to play a lot of sports and be really good at it, force them, push them, and by the time they get to be twelve years old, they have had enough and I think parents should stand by, support them, but get out of the day to day routine of talking to the coaches and pushing their kids into sport. 00:08:06:08 00:08:07:11 It's a very good lesson and I think introducing kids to sports is there job, a lot of sports. In the final analysis, give me a sense a few little snippets of your life for instance do you have a greatest fear? Told you there will be hard questions. 00:08:41:24 Yeah, do I have a great fear, I always believe in overcoming fear right. I guess that question really relates to am I motivated, free of fear and yes, I think you are always gonna have some fear, some trepidation, why I'm doing this? Can I do this and, but it's never dominated me and I think one of the things that bothers me the most is that people say they don't have time, that's such an excuse I think. 00:09:16:14 |
Date |
2019/05/23 |
People |
Mitchell, Doug |
Search Terms |
Doug Mitchell Multisport NHL CFL Interview Hockey Football Order of Canada Alberta Order of Excellence UBC Board of Governors |