Keenan "KMAN" Wellar moved to Ottawa with his family as a young lad in 1968. He attended Ottawa Rough Rider games first with his father, and later with friends, especially Glen Mui. Favorite players included Tony Gabriel, Skip Walker, Greg Marshall, and JC Watts. With Glen and others he suffered through the dark decade or so before the Riders demise in 1996.
Like many members of the core brigade of Ottawa football fans, despite all the suffering of the 80s and 90s, he moved quickly to embrace the new franchise in 2002. Some things have changed, however. In the Rough Rider years he enjoyed the games from what was then the West (endzone) stands, where field goal tries often carried footballs into the wooden benches to be fought over by children from age 4 to 84. With the coming of the Renegades, he and his wife Julie and father-in-law David are now sitting in more comfortable quarters on the western edge of the second tier of Section G, where there has developed a small community of some 20 season ticket holders who have been in their seats since the launch of the franchise. Keenan's father Barry fills in from time to time when one of the regular threesome cannot attend.
The KMAN has come to love watching football more than any other sport, having become disenchanted with regular season NHL hockey (even before the strike) although playoff hockey (and even better, olympic hockey) still gets him screaming at the television. He also thinks the 67s are still the best entertainment value around. KMAN likes the NFL (and admires the way it is managed) and has been a Steelers fan since the 80s (Lambert and Bradshaw!) but prefers the CFL game. The rules are better, and very few of the players make enough money to be out there just to please themselves. KMAN never gives up on a game (just ask him about the double overtime victory of Montreal on July 1st!) and expects the same from coaches and players.
When they are not cheering on the Renegades, KMAN and his wife are usually throwing their hearts and minds into LiveWorkPlay, the Ottawa charitable organization for people with intellectual disabilities that they founded in 1995.
The KMAN appreciates comments, good or bad, about the Renegades and his column. Send your emails to kman@ottawarenegades.info.
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