Ex-CFL player Paul Markle used his marketing skills to help the Blue Jays soar

Globe and Mail

5 days ago

At the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in October of 1992, the police created a barrier around Paul (Sparkle) Markle and a group of Toronto Blue Jays front office workers and players' children and wives. It was Game 4 of the American League Championship Series and after Roberto Alomar slapped a ninth-inning, game-tying homer off A's closer Dennis Eckersley, the fans, already rowdy, began sniffing for Canadian blood. The Jays eventually won in the 11th inning.
'The police said, 'Stay in your seat until the crowd leaves,' because we didn't want to get rained on with popcorn and warm beer,' says Glen Wilkie, known as Hoop, Mr. Markle's best friend of 67 years. As Mr. Wilkie relates, the Jays' contingent did as the police advised, but the evening wasn't over.
After exiting the stadium, Hoop and Sparkle, sporting powder blue Jays' caps and shirts, hit an East Oakland bar.
'Of course, we decided we needed one more beer, so we enter this place and all of the people are wearing black leather and chains – it was a biker bar,' Mr. Wilkie says, adding that the situation's danger subsided when Sparkle showed how he earned his nickname for exploits well beyond the playing field.
'Paul just went over to one guy and started a conversation – engaging him – and that guy brought over his friends,' Mr. Wilkie says, disbelief still apparent in his gravelly voice. 'Next thing you know, we're part of the biker gang, and that was Paul: a raconteur, but he listened and was always interested in other people.'
Mr. Markle died on July 2 from early onset dementia complications at the age of 78, with Lisa Moore, his wife of 28 years, and his son, Blake, at his side.
He was born on Oct. 23, 1946, in London, Ont., to Beatrice, a homemaker, and Gower Markle, a labour negotiator with the gift of gab, who would body-build and demonstrate his physique in miniature gym trunks, his body painted in gold.
'It was a popular thing in the fifties, posturing like Adonis, and I think dad grew up like grampy, admiring the beauty of the human form,' Blake recalls, adding that his father was a standout high-school football player at Richview Collegiate in Etobicoke and then Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University).
After university, he married Cheryl Johnson, a flight attendant with Canadian Pacific Air Lines whom he first met at a Toronto bar. He was drafted by the Toronto Argonauts in 1968, and later played for the Blue Bombers. In Winnipeg, he thrived as a hard-to-bring-down tight-end and a neighbourhood fixture when being a CFL star was still a lunch pail job.
'When those Canadian kids made the roster, especially making it as a starter, it was special,' says Ken Derrett, a sports marketing professional who grew up in Winnipeg and remembered Sparkle giving him an autograph as a childhood fan. 'Paul had time for young kids and wanted to have a conversation. Even then, he was genuine, caring and calm.'
Mr. Markle's six-year CFL career included stints in Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton. He capitalized on the unique light professional sports shone on homegrown stars. He believed in the power of storytelling and competition, which made him a natural in sports marketing.
'He was a small-market jock in Manitoba and, as an enthusiastic side hustle, hosted radio shows and the interview program CFL Today,' Blake recalls. 'I think he enjoyed breaking down the nuts and the bolts of the sport and articulating the nuances of the game and its players – his buddies – to a wider audience.'
He also worked at a used-car dealership. When his CFL games played on the radio, the announcer would urge listeners head over later to buy a car from Sparkle Markle.
After his CFL career ended, Mr. Markle moved his family back to Toronto and took a job in marketing with Labatt's, which then owned the Toronto Blue Jays, a brand new expansion baseball team. Like a hand in a glove, the opportunity was a perfect fit for the former pro athlete, who had enough chutzpah and entrepreneurial zeal to become the team's first director of marketing.
'Paul was able to expand our fan base not only across the city, but across the province and, ultimately, across the country,' says Paul Beeston, the Toronto Blue Jays president from 1989 to 1997 and again from 2008 to 2015. (Mr. Beeston, from Welland, Ont., was president of Major League Baseball from 1997 to 2002). It was under Mr. Beeston's watch that the Jays moved from Exhibition Stadium to the SkyDome in 1989 and Mr. Beeston says that Sparkle Markle was able to bring athletes, executives and sponsors on board to his line of community building and growth.
Generally, over a beer.
'Paul was the one who kept everyone together and he may not have been the face of the Blue Jays, but he was the heart and soul of it,' Mr. Beeston says.
Under the leadership of Mr. Beeston and Mr. Markle, the Blue Jays became the best and most popular team in baseball. In the 1991 season, they became the first team in Major League Baseball history to surpass four million fans in attendance. The team – backed by John Olerud, Roberto Alomar and walk-off home-run-hitting Joe Carter – won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
When Blake Markle was growing up, he recalls, the Blue Jays were like Marvel superheroes, and like Marvel executives, his sky's-the-limit father knew how to extend the intellectual property.
'There wasn't a single non-branded Blue Jays item in our house,' Blake says, adding that his father, through his network, knew how capitalize on his beloved team's popularity. 'He was like, 'Blakester, I know a guy with Polo Ralph Lauren who has a warehouse downtown,' and we went into that factory and took whatever we wanted because Dad had gotten him season tickets. Everybody wanted a piece of the Jays – Dad knew how to pull those levers.'
His career with the Blue Jays would last 14 years and when it was over, Mr. Markle took his love of sports and drama to public speaking, giving inspirational talks across Canada and, once, in New Zealand. He became a sports marketing instructor at Toronto's George Brown College and maintained his lifelong loves of marathon running, people and taverns.
In 1997, after his first marriage ended in divorce, he married Ms. Moore, a television commercial producer. Together, they enjoyed golf, crossword puzzles, music and catching the game – any game – with Mr. Markle's wide circle of friends.
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Mr. Wilkie says that until the end, his buddy enjoyed telling stories, engaging with strangers and letting other people shine in his light.
'He was one year and one day older than I was – my birthday is Oct. 22 and his is Oct. 23 – so every year we'd have a tray full of draft beer and reminisce about the old days at the downstairs bar at the Old Victoria Hotel,' Mr. Wilkie recalls. 'Various loved ones would come and join us, but Paul would also engage with people he didn't know.'
The evenings would sometimes get a bit rowdy. Even after 67 years of friendship, Wilkie says, certain things didn't change.
'Right up until the very end,' Mr. Wilkie says, 'he still called me Hoop.'
Mr. Markle leaves his wife, Ms. Moore; son, Blake; daughter-in-law, Julie Bogdanowicz; granddaughters, Mia and Flora; as well as his former wife, Cheryl Markle; his brother Ross; and extended family. He was predeceased by his brother Glen.
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