Ron Lancaster statue vandalized outside Mosaic Stadium

A monument to a Saskatchewan football legend has been vandalized.

Graffiti comprising seemingly random letters and numbers were put on the football in the hands of the statue of Ron Lancaster, located outside Mosaic Stadium.

Sabeen Ahmad, manager of marketing and communications for Evraz Place, said she does not know when the graffiti was done.

“I know our team is looking into seeing if they can find out when exactly it happened, but as of right now, we don’t know of an exact date or time,” Ahmad said.

Graffiti on the football in the hands of Ron Lancaster’s monument at Mosaic Stadium on July 2, 2020. (Libby Giesbrecht/980 CJME)

It is also unclear whether there is any meaning behind the vandalism.

“As far as we know, it’s not some sort of gang tag, it’s just a bunch of letters. It’s done in black marker or some sort of paint,” Ahmad explained.

“It kind of blends into the football, so if you’re walking by and not actually looking at the statue, you wouldn’t notice it.”

Known as “The Little General,” Lancaster played for the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1963 to 1978, and was quarterback of the team when it won its first Grey Cup in 1966. Lancaster was also the head coach of the team during the 1979 and ‘80 CFL seasons.

He died in 2008.

Lancaster’s statue was placed outside the new Mosaic Stadium in September 2017 alongside a monument of legendary Roughriders fullback George Reed.

Ahmad said the team at Evraz Place is working to carefully clean up the graffiti on the monument.

“Our team is currently working on figuring out what type of agent they can use to clean it off without taking any of the polish off the statue or possibly ruining the statue,” Ahmad said.

“Obviously with the finish of any type of statue we want to keep it in its best order, so we don’t want to put some sort of cleaning agent on it that could possibly take the polish or finish off it.”

Ahmad said she can’t recall any similar situations having occurred at Evraz Place for as long as she has worked there.

“Especially when it happens to our Rider legends, it is disappointing to know that something like that would happen,” she said.

Rider fans agree. On social media, fans have been offering to make lengthy drives to come to the stadium and restore the statue themselves.

“It’s Rider legacy, so we know what Rider Nation’s like and they’re always in support of helping clean it up. They don’t want to see anything defaced when it comes to our property,” Ahmad said.

“We’re going to work quickly to get it off and hopefully people just respect the property.”