PLAZA PROFILE: Screensaver is a memory to savour for Paul McCallum

Paul McCallum will always remember the aftermath of a forgettable game.

“I was walking out the front of the stadium and there was this little girl who had her face painted,” McCallum, who will be formally inducted into the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Plaza of Honour on Oct. 17, says while rewinding to the 2015 CFL season.

“She came up to me and her face was just glowing. She caught my attention and she was asking me to sign something. Her mom said, ‘I want to take a picture.’ ”

McCallum wasn’t the picture of happiness at the time, following a frustrating football game, but was typically accommodating.

“The girl’s mom grabbed her phone and it wouldn’t work,” the 2022 Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductee continues. “I said, ‘No problem,’ and gave her my phone and said, ‘I’ll just text it to you.’ I did that.

“Now I had that picture on my phone. It just made me feel really good. I actually had that picture on my phone for probably three months as my screensaver.”

Seven years later …

“The last Grey Cup that was in Saskatchewan, the CFL alumni and the Riders flew me in,” McCallum says. “I was in the indoor soccer facility and they had the little goal posts up.

“I’m sitting in the bleachers and I look over to my right and I see this teenager. I’m going, ‘She looks familiar ...’ Then I put two and two together.

“This lady — the girl’s mom — walked up to me and I said, ‘Can you just give me five minutes? Please don’t go anywhere.’ I grabbed my phone and I was thumbing through thousands of photos.

“I pull up the photo (from 2015) and I show it to the girl’s mom. I told her that I had this picture on my phone and I had it as a screensaver. This teenager is looking at her mom and I and thinking, ‘What are they doing?!’ The girl comes over and the mom takes a picture. Then I look at the girl and say, ‘Can I have a hug?’

“This girl had made my day after a (lousy) football game and had no clue that she had done that.”

Without knowing it, she had made an impact. McCallum, a tireless ambassador for the Roughriders during his time with the team, could relate.

“I remember my first game back at Taylor Field when I played for the Lions,” the second-leading scorer in Roughriders history says.

“I had a ritual. I’d get off the bus, go into the stadium, walk around the field, go inside, get changed, go outside, warm up by myself, and then go back out and warm up with the team.

“The first time, I went out to warm up by myself. As I was walking back in, one of the ushers or security people stopped me and he said, ‘I’m sorry to bother you, but if you’d give me two seconds, I just wanted to say thank you.’

“He proceeds to tell me that when I was in Saskatchewan, he was having troubles with his young son. The boy didn’t have much direction and didn’t know what he wanted to do. I guess I ran into him and talked to him and said something to him.

“His dad told me, ‘Now he’s at the University of Manitoba.’ He started to get all teary-eyed while thanking me for helping his son. I looked at him and said, ‘Thank you very much. I’m trying to get ready for a football game and I don’t want to cry.’ ”

McCallum’s career, which has few parallels, included multiple stints with the Lions and the Roughriders.

He attended training camp with the Lions in 1992 and made his regular-season debut with them the following year. In addition to suiting up once for B.C., he played in three games with the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1993.

In 1994, McCallum handled the Lions’ kicking in four games while the legendary Lui Passaglia recovered from an injury. During the latter stages of that season, another future Hall of Fame kicker — Saskatchewan’s Dave Ridgway — suffered a thigh injury.

Ridgway was sidelined as the Roughriders were preparing for a home-and-home set with the Dave Ritchie-coached Lions. Alan Ford, then the Green and White’s GM, sought to bring McCallum to Saskatchewan.

“Lui was about to come off the injury list at the time,” McCallum says 32 years later. “Dave Ritchie came up to me in the locker room and said, ‘Has anyone spoken to you?’ I said no. Then (Director of Player Personnel) Bill Quinter came up to me and asked me the same thing. I thought, ‘What’s going on?’

“Then, all of a sudden, my mom showed up at practice and said, ‘The Saskatchewan Roughriders are trying to get in touch with you.’ I thought, ‘Ahhhh, OK.’ But we were playing Saskatchewan that week.

“Al Ford and (Head Coach) Ray Jauch said, ‘We’d like you to come play for us,’ but I said, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be playing for B.C.’ Coach Ritchie said, ‘We’re not going to know until the day before the game.’

“That was kind of awkward. I was going into special teams meetings and the special teams coach said, ‘OK, guys. On kickoff return, just watch where he points the laces on kickoffs, because that’s where he’s going to kick the ball.’ I jokingly said, ‘What if I put the laces in a different direction?’ ”

The direction of the Lions’ placekicking situation had yet to be determined.

“After we finished our walk-through the day before the game, Lui went out and kicked and said, ‘OK, I’m fine,’ ” McCallum says.

“I’m walking off the field, too, because I wanted to see how he was going to do. By that time, the Riders were coming on to the field. They’re grabbing me and saying, ‘Are you going to play for us?’

“Then I said to the GM (Eric Tillman): ‘I’m on the practice roster, but I’m missing out on a game cheque. I don’t feel right. If you guys look after me, I won’t go play.’ ”

McCallum remained with the Lions for another week. After one game sans Ridgway, the Roughriders renewed their efforts to land McCallum.

He was claimed off the Lions’ practice roster on Oct. 14, 1994 — one day before the Roughriders played host to B.C. The North Vancouver-born specialist proceeded to kick 12 field goals (in 14 attempts) over his first five games with Saskatchewan.

McCallum rejoined the Lions in 1995, only to spend most of that season on the injured reserve list. By October of 1994, the Roughriders’ brass was looking to replace the 36-year-old Ridgway, so overtures were made once again to McCallum.

The sudden demotion of Robokicker sent shockwaves through Riderville.

Into the firestorm stepped McCallum, who made eight of nine field-goal attempts over the final two games of the 1995 campaign.

His first game back in Saskatchewan was a kicking duel. All 33 points resulted from field goals, courtesy of McCallum (who had five three-pointers for Saskatchewan) and Mark McLoughlin (who connected six times in an 18-15 Calgary Stampeders victory). McCallum added three more field goals — including a 52-yarder — during the Roughriders’ 1995 regular-season finale.

He spent most of the next 10 seasons with the Roughriders, contributing on and off the field.

One of many notable football feats was the first 63-yard field goal in CFL history. McCallum set a distance record on Oct. 27, 2001 against the visitors from Edmonton. (Winnipeg’s Sergio Castillo tied McCallum’s mark last season.)

The low point took place in overtime, during the 2004 Western Final in Vancouver.

To conclude Saskatchewan’s first possession, McCallum was called upon to attempt an 18-yard field goal. Shockingly, the kick was wide.

Even then, McCallum showed his best side. He answered all inquiries from reporters, embracing accountability after a 27-25 loss.

The cleats he wore in that game were auctioned off for charity.

And here’s the kicker, so to speak: After 2004, McCallum was an eye-popping 46-for-47 on field-goal attempts during playoff or Grey Cup competition.

Most of the 47 kicks were attempted on behalf of the Lions, with whom he spent the better part of a decade.

There was, however, a return to Saskatchewan for much of the 2015 season. At age 45, he made 29 of 36 field-goal attempts, including two 50-yarders in one game.

McCallum finished his time in Saskatchewan with 1,615 points and 368 field goals. He was second only to Ridgway, who had 2,374 points and 574 three-pointers, in both categories.

As well, McCallum is the Roughriders’ All-Time leader in punts (1,116) and punting yardage (45,670). The latter figure is the equivalent of 26 miles.

Taking everything into account, McCallum is second in league history in points (3,145) and field goals (722). Only Passaglia, whose 875 field goals helped him amass 3,991 career points, ranks higher.

Having joined Passaglia and Ridgway in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, McCallum is now poised to enter the Plaza of Honour alongside two former Roughriders teammates — offensive lineman Dan Clark and receiver Rob Bagg.

In the first game of McCallum’s stint with the 2015 Roughriders, he converted a touchdown by Bagg. The opposing starting quarterback in that game: Trevor Harris, then of the Toronto Argonauts.

McCallum, Bagg and Clark will officially enter the Plaza at halftime of an Oct. 17 game against the visiting Stampeders.

“I didn’t think I was going to go in,” says McCallum, a Vancouver-based realtor. “It has been a long time. I’m very pleased that I was still recognized.

“It was like when I got the call from Darrell Davis about going into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. It was really cool and surprising. Then you start to think about everything that transpired from the beginning until now — all the people I’ve met and all the relationships I made while living in Regina.

“Meeting fans and everything like that brought everything back to light.”