John Robertson

Who is John Robertson?

John Robertson is a retired Canadian media personality.

A good amateur baseball pitcher, Robertson had a tryout in 1950 with Major League Baseball's Washington Senators. When his playing days ended, he would stay around the game as a reporter, in later years writing newspaper columns on the Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays. In 1998, he was inducted in the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame

Journalism/Broadcasting career:

⁕1956-1958 : Winnipeg Free Press/Regina Leader-Post, Winnipeg, Manitoba/Regina, Saskatchewan

⁕1958-1963 : Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba

⁕1963-1966 : "Regina Leader-Post", Regina, Saskatchewan

⁕1966-1968 : "Toronto Telegram" Toronto, Ontario

⁕1968-1974 : Montreal Star, Montreal, Quebec

⁕1974-1977 : CFCF and CJAD radio stations, Montreal, Quebec

⁕1977-1982 : CBC, Winnipeg, Manitoba

⁕1982-1986 : Toronto Sun, Toronto, Ontario

⁕1986-1989 : Toronto Star,Toronto, Ontario

Robertson worked as a sports reporter and columnist at the Regina Leader-Post in the early 1960s and grew to love the Saskatchewan Roughriders CFL football team over his hometown Winnipeg Blue Bombers. When the Roughriders were close to bankruptcy during a tragic 1979 season, Robertson flew in from Winnipeg at his own expense to help out coach Ronnie Lancaster. The two men were flown around Saskatchewan in a small plane to drum up ticket sales for the final game of the 1979 season. Taylor Field was full to capacity for that game and the efforts of Lancaster and Robertson managed to save the football team from certain extinction. Around the same time in November 1979, in his regular back page column for Maclean's magazine, Robertson coined the term “Rider Pride" when he wrote about his experiences and his feeling that the Roughriders had the best fans in the CFL. Robertson never received a cent from the Saskatchewan Roughriders franchise for his efforts nor an acknowledgement that the term "Rider Pride," used extensively by the Saskatchewan Roughriders CFL franchise in their marketing and annual multi-million dollar merchandise sales, was coined by journalist John Robertson.