Big D is surrounded by his sons et al at the Pickett family golf tournament.

 

I'll be honest - when I sat down to write this profile of the Pickett family, I really struggled with where to begin.

 

There is so much to this family, so much that's interesting and unique, so many great anecdotes, and without a doubt, so much athleticism, it was difficult to choose the best angle from which to begin.

 

Should I start off by mentioning that all ten boys - Joe, Don, Ted, Bob, Tim, Paul, Bernie, Gord and the twins, John and David - played football at St. Jerome's high school? That's pretty unique on its own.

 

Although, to be clear, John and his late brother David, did leave the former downtown school and transferred over to Bluevale to play for the Knights shortly after. But then, who could blame them? With eight older brothers preceding you in the program, making your own mark somewhere else seemed like a reasonable move.

 

I could also begin by focusing on how nine of the boys were baseball players who played for either the Kitchener Dodgers (as the junior IC team was known in those days) or the Kitchener Panthers of the Inter County senior league…or both!

 

Tim, who was an All-Canadian safety on the University of Waterloo Warriors football team, went to OFSAA in track and field three times and played all-star hockey, says baseball was always his favourite sport.

 

"I loved nothing better than to go out and shag flies and smack baseballs around" Tim told me when I had an afternoon visit with he and brother Bernie at his Kitchener home last week.

 

"Baseball is a game loaded with stats and sometimes they have a negative impact on players. But I think all of us were more concerned about clutch hits and big wins than in knowing our batting averages."

 

Bob recalls it being late in a home game one night when manager Bob McKillop put himself, Don and Tim into the outfield together.

 

"He called it 'the Pickett fence.' "

 

The only one who didn't play baseball was Gord but then he was too busy setting track and field records including one in the 400m that stood for over 25 years.

 

Nowadays Gord manages a medical office in Ottawa and has a black belt in karate but in the mid-seventies, I do remember that he could run like a gazelle.

 

I say that because when the Eastwood junior football team I played on back then met the Lions in the Twin City Championship (before WCSSAA was formed) at Centennial Stadium (before it was dismantled) in the pouring rain, it was Gord Pickett who gave us all whiplash as we helplessly watched him run circles around our defense from his tailback position. The final score was not pretty.

 

Seven of the boys also played hockey, the teams ranging from Kitchener all-star teams to the Guelph Beef Kings and the New Hamburg Hahns.

 

(Side note: all ten had a rooting interest in professional hockey as well. Seven were Montreal Canadiens fans and three were loyal supporters of the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was their late father, Don Sr., more commonly known as "Big D", who had to play the role of peacemaker in the family on that front.)

 

In addition to the football/baseball/hockey trifecta, different brothers were equally accomplished in other sports.

 

Like Gord, eldest sib Joe was exceptional in track and field. Paul has run marathons. Several played basketball.

 

It makes one wonder where all this athletic ability came from?

 

-------------------------------------------

 

Don and Anne Pickett met in Kenilworth, Ontario at elementary school after Don's family moved there from Toronto.

 

Don returned to Toronto for university and for a time considered going into the priesthood. When that didn't pan out, he returned home and shortly after, his mother invited Anne over to the house for dinner.

 

The rest, as they say, is history. They were married in July of 1948 and went on to have eleven children.

 

What I haven't mentioned thus far is that the youngest of the family was their daughter Mary Anne.

 

Unfortunately Mary Anne was born with a heart condition and wasn't able to play sports.

 

"Mary Anne was born with heart problems and spent her first six months at Toronto Sick Kids" recalls Bob.

 

"She did not participate in team sports but was a loyal fan at all of her brothers' games. I am told that she was spoiled by her brothers but we brothers would deny this claim."

 

"She passed away from a heart attack at age 25. We all felt a  profound loss but our mother provided a wonderful perspective at the time."

 

"She said that we were blessed to have enjoyed Mary Anne for twenty-five years. 'We could have lost her at birth'."

 

If there's one thing that came through loud and clear during my visit with Bernie and Tim and from messages the other siblings sent, it was how much love and respect the offspring had and continue to have for their parents.

 

Says Don: "We were extremely fortunate to grow up in an environment of loving parents whose number one concern was the well-being of their children. Without that love and care who knows where we might have ended up."

 

"Our parents instilled a love for us all that still continues to this day and although they may not be with us on earth, they are instilled firmly within our hearts along with our deceased brother and sister."

 

Bob, who earned a football scholarship at Syracuse University along with teammates Steve Scully and Bernie Ruoff, echoes Don's thoughts about their parents.

 

"My mother supported all of us in our sports endeavours. She made sure that our uniforms were always clean and mended but preferred to stay in the background."

 

"I remember an incident where the K-W Record wanted to do a photo of mom hanging all the various ball uniforms on the wash line. She said that there were other mothers who did more for Kitchener baseball than she did and she thought that they should be featured in the paper rather than her."

 

"As far as dad goes," says Bob, "he was the consummate coach. Always encouraging and instructing us."

 

"He would help us with batting, fielding and throwing in baseball. In football, it would be blocking and tackling. In hockey, skating and shooting."

 

"I remember a time in pee wee baseball when I was struggling with my batting. Dad took me out to the backyard to practice my swing. He made several suggestions. When we finished he said that if I  swung like that in the game, I would hit the ball a mile. The next day we were playing in a tournament in St. Thomas and at my first at bat, I hit a home run."

 

Don Sr., a.k.a. Big D, was a highly regarded teacher, particularily in the field of guidance.

 

My favourite dad story," says Paul "came from a chance meeting in a restaurant in Tampa, Florida with an older couple sitting near my wife and I."

 

"After finding out that we were fellow Canadians, we find out that they were also from Kitchener. So the guy comes over and introduces himself and when I do the same, he asks if my father is Don Pickett."

 

"When I say yes, he bursts into tears."

 

"He brings his wife over and she starts sobbing as well."

 

"Apparently my father helped them to get married over 40 years ago. My dad knew both sets of parents but unfortunately they did not like each other. Dad was somehow able to bring peace between the families which allowed this couple to get married."

 

------------------------------------------------

 

One person I reached out to for some thoughts about the Pickett family was Garry "Butch" Ertel - a man who knew the entire family well.

 

A retired teacher/coach from St. Jerome's, Ertel resides in Sauble Beach these days and is someone many of the siblings mentioned in their comments as a significant role model.

 

This comment from Paul is Exhibit "A":

"The definition of a man is Butch. He could only be described as the best of the best."

 

"He was strong, funny, compassionate, understanding and tough as hell. Simply put, he is the man I measure myself to...I am not nearly in his league but he is someone I try to aspire to be."

 

It's pretty clear that Ertel and the Picketts have a mutual admiration for one another.

 

"I first met Don Pickett when he was a young teacher and I was a grade nine student at SJHS," says Ertel, "so I knew him first as a teacher and coach."

 

"I was grateful to be able to add friend to that list as time went on."

 

"He was a very good athlete himself (hockey, basketball, semi-pro baseball in Texas). He left St. Jerome's to go to Eastwood to teach before I finished high school. But he maintained a very close relationship with the school and in fact sent all of the boys there."

 

"Don was a parent and fan and rarely missed activities in which the boys were involved. The boys all brought a great work ethic and a determination to school and athletics."

 

"His religion was important to him so you could always find the family at nine o'clock mass on Sunday morning - no matter what time Saturday night ended for the boys!"

 

Ertel makes a point of mentioning the matriarch of the family.

 

"One would be remiss not to acknowledge the role that Anne played in the family. Ten boys and a girl and I am fairly sure that she never raised her voice."

 

"But when she spoke, they all listened. I suspect that as tough as they all were, she may have been the toughest."

 

"The home on Ash street was a joy to visit. It grew as the family grew and the table grew along with it. Friends were always welcome and there were many."

 

"It was and is my pleasure to know the Picketts. Teaching and coaching the boys and knowing this family has been one of the highlights of my life."

 

Tom Connolly is another person I asked to share some thoughts about Big D and the family.

 

Connolly was the Head of Counseling at Grand River Collegiate at one time but retired from the Waterloo Board as the coordinator responsible for dealing with traumatic events. He continues to do counseling today in private practice.

 

Don Pickett was a significant mentor of Connolly's when Pickett worked at the Board Office as the coordinator for Guidance.

 

"Don was an 'anomaly'. He worked in an atmosphere of expensive suits but was simply adorned with a clip-on tie. His down-home wisdom minced with friendly humour penetrated any high level strategy meeting."

 

"He commanded the highest level of respect from the custodians to the Director of Education and his influence spread to every school in the county."

 

But to Connolly, there was much more to the man than just the high professional standard that he set.

 

"As a family man, he was a person I aspired to emulate," explains Connolly.

 

"Don was most animated in conversation when he spoke of his children and his grandchildren."

 

"He was one of my heroes and I miss him."

 

-------------------------------------------------------

 

Bernie Pickett and I have a lot in common.

 

We graduated from high school the same year. We both played sports for Wilfrid Laurier (I was basketball and he was football for the Golden Hawks). And as hard as it to believe on some days, we are both now grandparents.

 

We even shared a pass during the Twin City Sr. football finals on a snowy field at Seagram Stadium in the fall of 1976.

 

Unfortunately for me, I was the quarterback throwing it and he was the linebacker intercepting it.

 

Just like my reminiscence of Gord, we won't dwell on the final score.

 

While chatting last week, we also agreed on who our most bitter football rivals were back in the day. I said that I couldn't separate the intensity of playing against St. Jerome's or Cameron Heights and he agreed that CHCI and Eastwood were inseparable as opponents who got him fired up.

 

And although I grew up in a small family and he grew up in one with thirteen members, we're also on the same page when it comes to acknowledging the importance of the family unit.

 

And now I finally know how I should have started this piece - with "family".

 

Because in the end, that's really where it all begins.