Regina Wheat Kings

The Regina Football Club was founded in 1925, just two years before it made the move to the WFU. The Football Club had replaced a previous Regina team that had stopped operations 2 years before. The team’s founder, Archie Carson, was a great team builder and was able to put together some strong teams with limited talent throughout the 1930s. Unfortunately, the Great Depression would hit Carson and the Football Club. Despite an appearance in the Mackenzie Cup in 1936, the team would fold after the season. 

In 1948, football would return to Regina in the form of the Regina Threshers. Carson was the primary owner for the first couple of years, as he laid the foundation of the team’s only championship season in 1951. However, Carson would step away from the organization with money continuing to be an issue. Over the next decade or so, the team would go through a couple of different owners, but none were able to provide financial stability. Eventually, the team was bought by the city and funded by the citizens. It was not a long-term solution, but they hoped they would finally find suitable ownership. In 1964, they would finally get one in the form of agribusiness mogul, Bill Kingsley. Kingsley had deep pockets after creating a very successful business in the province and was easily the richest owner to take control of the team. Of course, he would make some changes to the team. The most notable was the team’s name. He renamed them the Regina Wheat Kings. Despite the marketing jargon that Kingsley spread about the name change, most knew it was to get his own name on the team. Many of the fans were not happy with the name change, but they would accept since they would get to keep their football team. Kingsley has stabilized the team over the last few years and hopes that he can eventually get a new stadium built for the team to bring in some more fans. Kingsley was the only owner to vote against the agreement with the NAAF, as he is concerned that Regina won’t be able to keep up with the larger markets and that he could lose his team.

The Team
While Kingsley has brought stability off the field, the team on the field is very rough. They are led by Head Coach, Wayne Combs. Combs is a pretty inexperienced coach, having only 2 seasons at the small school of Saskatchewan A&M prior to joining the Wheat Kings last season. Combs’ system is pretty bare-bones. On the field, the team is led by journeyman QB, Rusty Lamb, who had previous stints with Calgary and Winnipeg. RB Deion Chapman is a pretty solid option out of the backfield, with some potential. Luckily the team has an alright O-line made up of a lot of local talent that should help Chapman. Their best WR is Nick Spalding, who is pretty solid, but not a typical #1 option. Their biggest star is DL Pete Gingers, who is from Regina. The local star has desired to stay with the team over the years despite the poor play. DB Madison McGee, LB Brett Pride, and DB Chris Berrymore are also all solid players, but the depth is where the team is expected to crumble. Expect the Wheat Kings to be a bit of a mess in their first season in the NAAF.

Brand
The Wheat Kings have been using a basic script “R” as a logo for a while now, so Kingsley wanted the Patterson team to come up with a new set of logos. They were hard at work and they came through with an okay result given the time crunch. 

Logos: The team did try to pitch a logo with the R and a single stock of wheat next to it, as the primary, but Kingsley insisted on a crown being included. So, the team would make up a logo, that they were not as satisfied with. The crown featured the same “R” but with two stocks of wheat and 7 gems included on the crown. The other logo would remain as the secondary mark in the team’s brand. 

Uniforms: When the Regina Football Club originally joined the WFU they were forced to change away from their green uniforms since Edmonton already had dark green uniforms and only wanted one jersey. Regina, not having the money, would also want a single jersey so they simply changed to be a team that wore gold all the time both home and away. The new look stuck for the team and they have kept that branding going into this season. The home jersey is a gold-on-gold uniform with green features, while the road is much the same just with a white uniform. The helmet does feature the secondary mark, which the team convinced Kingsley to allow on the helmet after saying it would be cheaper and easier since they had already put the stickers into production, having thought that they had the design down.

Stadium and Field: The Wheat Kings play at Broad Street Stadium in downtown Regina. The stadium is far and away the smallest in the NAAF and the WFU, only holding 19,000, and that is with some temporary seating being added for this upcoming season. It was opened in 1948, just before the team returned to the WFU. Its age and size are both major reasons Kingsley is hoping to get a new stadium built soon. The field features the crown at midfield and a simple block letter “Regina” in each endzone.