Wayne Leslie Dye

WAYNE LESLIE DYE MEMORIAL

January 27, 1953 - November 08, 1988

The Morning Star, Sunday, November 13, 1988

We regret to announce the sudden death of Mr. Wayne Leslie Dye on November 8, 1988, at the age of 35 years.

Wayne was born and raised in Vernon and was active for many years in sports in the area, excelling in hockey and in baseball.

He is survived by his two daughters: Tenille and Tiffany, and their mother, Heather; by Nancy; his parents: Vern and Joyce Dye; and his grandmother, Mrs. Pauline dye; brother and sister-in-law, Barry and Debbie; sisters and brother-in-law: Wendy and Jack Gilroy, Tracy and Paul Harrison, and Kim and Rob Brown; a number of aunts, uncles and cousins; and a host of friends.

Funeral Service will be held on Saturday, November 12th, 1988, at 12:30 pm, in the Chapel of Vernon Funeral Home, with Pastor Henry Young officiating. Internment will follow in the Vernon City Cemrtery.

Friends wishing to do so may make donations in memory of Wayne to the Vernon Junior Lakers Scholarship Fund, in care of Vernon Funeral Home, 542-0155.

No. 8 Should Be No. 1

Morning Star Newspaper: By Roger Knox Published: September 26, 2010

The tradition of retiring uniform numbers in sports is a long one. Every major sport does it. Colleges do it. So do junior organizations. And now, the Vernon Vipers have begun what will likely be a tradition of retiring a worthy jersey number, and they started with four year veteran, and Vernon native, Rob Short's No. 20 in a nice ceremony last weekend at the Wesbild Centre.

Naturally, when you start something like this, somebody has to be first. And I have nothing against Short, nor do I mean him any disrespect. However.... It seems to me-and I've written and pushed for this before-that the first number that should be retired belongs to a man who played in Vernon in the 1960's and 70s when the team was known as the Essos.

The late Wayne Dye, No. 8. Dye, like Short, a Vernon native, is the all-time leading scorer in Vernon junior hockey history. A total of 325 points, set more then 30 years ago.

Let's face it: Dye's record will likely never be broken because anybody who can score in the BCHL dosn't stay around for more than two years before being snapped up by a university, major junior team or pro squad.

The mighty Jones twins, Kellen and Connor, didn't break Dye's record. Scott Longstaff didn't break it. Dallas Drake didn't break it. Ed Johnstone, John Price, Ernie Gare, Jason Elders, Duane Dennis, Don Murdoch, Ron Areshenkoff, Glen Metropolit, Dave Oliver, Tont Szabo, Ryan Bayda, any number of former Essos, Vikings, Lakers and Vipers didn't break it.

I understand the team has been called the Vipers for 15 years now, but that shouldn't stop the organization from recognizing one of the all-time greatest hockey players ever to come out of Vernon.

So I asked Vipers owner, Dr. Duncan Wray, would the organization look at retiring the No. 8 now worn by rookie defenceman Philip Patenaude?

"I wasn't around when Wayne Dye was here, there's a lot of history there and it's certainly something we'd consider," said Wray in between periods of last week's home loss to Merritt. "We have options to retire any number of jerseys of players who have been successful over the years and that's one that comes to the fore. We figured we had to start with somebody who was here and that I knew, and an obvious place to start, for me, was retiring Rob's jersey.

"But certainly retiring Wayne's number is something we'll consider for the future." Wray admitted he'd had lots of suggestions from fans for other players whose numbers should be hanging in the rafters.

Dye passed away in 1988 and, to be fair to Wray, his number should have been retired immediately after his death by the then-Vernon Lakers organization.

I talked to some of Dye's family, and it would mean a lot to them to have Wayne's number retired. Same with some of his former Esso's teammates. And it would mean a lot to some of Dye's former fans. Myself included.

Dyes headed to shrine

Vern and Wayne Dye will be inducted, posthumously, into the Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 23.

Kevin MitchellNov 13, 2011

Image: Wayne Dye shows his swing at the Major League Baseball Seattle Pilots' training camp.

Signed by the Chicago Black Hawks one year. Locked up by the Major League Baseball Seattle Pilots (now Milwaukee Brewers) with a $10,000 signing bonus at just 16.

If you have only moved to the Vernon area in the last decade, you may not have heard of Wayne Dye. The Morning Star named Dye the city's Athlete of the Century in 1999.

He left us in 1988 at just 35, but the standards he set in hockey, baseball, track and field and snooker will never be forgotten. Wayne and his late, great father, Vern Dye, will be inducted into the Okanagan Hall of Fame with a Wednesday luncheon Nov. 23 at the Schubert Centre.

It's been almost 20 years since the shrine has honoured an athlete or builder so putting the father and son team in together is well overdue and well deserved.

Making the moment even more special will be the induction of Major League Baseball slugger Kevin Reimer, the pride of Enderby. It was Reimer's father, Gerry, a former 11-year minor pro player whose connections in the game helped get Wayne scouted in baseball.

'Gerry's influence helped,'Vern told me in a '99 interview. 'He talked Wayne into going to Newark (New Jersey Class A). He could have signed with the Expos and he would have started in Billings (Montana) where we could have drove to his games, but the offer was only half what Seattle had offered.'

Gerry is already in the Hall of Fame so having Kevin join his dad, along with the posthumous induction of Wayne and Vern, is rather touching. At age six, Wayne joined 10-year-old Clark Inglis as bat boys with the Okanagan Senior Baseball League Vernon Luckies. They used to fill the bleachers at Polson Park for Sunday matinee games.

Dye and Inglis later played baseball and fastball together.

'Wayne was a talented kid,' Inglis, a catcher, told me. 'He was so smooth and baseball was so effortless for him. He had such high expectations for himself so his frustrations and his temper went against him. He was a great kid. He could hit for power, he could run and never went into any long slumps because he had a real compact swing.'

Dye was a 16-year-old rookie third baseman with the Luckies when he won the league MVP playing against grown men. He played the hot corner and shortstop in one season with Newark and quit his second year, partly he said, due to being homesick.

Wayne played a few games with the Junior A hockey Vernon Essos as a 13-year-old and was a regular at 14. He wore No. 8 and was fiery, unpredictable, fearless and ultra-talented. He didn't need a composite stick to unleash his cannon shot.

He won the BCJHL scoring title in 1969-70, a year when the Essos used a Jack Marsh overtime goal on Victoria Cougars' goalie Ed Forslund to win the playoff crown before 5,219 fans at Memorial Arena.

Dye finished his Junior hockey career as a 20-year-old with Punch McLean's New Westminster Bruins, scoring 35 goals and getting picked 109th overall by Chicago in the 1974 amateur lottery.

He spent one year of minor pro with the International League Flint Generals and then after being sent to Flint after his second training camp with the Hawks, chose to play semi-pro with the Spokane Jets, leading them to three WIHL titles.

Vern spent most of his life involved in baseball and hockey in Vernon. He was a voluntary scout with the St. Louis Cardinals in the '50s and '60s. Vern and his brother-in-law Ernie Kowal worked with city engineer Dave McKay in 1971 to have Lakeview Park built for ball diamonds and was instrumental in establishing the diamond and stadium facilities at Polson Park.

He helped found the B.C. Junior Hockey League and Vernon's franchise, and is a lifetime honoured member of the circuit. Vern, who was like a father-figure to hundreds of young hockey players, was named Vernon's Good Citizen in 1998.

'One day I counted and I cooked either lunch or dinner for 27 kids in the same day, ' said Vern, whose wife Joyce was like a den mother. 'We had sandwich bags all over the place.'

I grew up in the East Hill and Wayne Dye was my idol. I was scared of him, but I admired him. And when younger kids like Bob Mann and I were allowed to play in the rousing street hockey games, it was a great day.

I watched him crush the ball and fling it a zillion miles an hour at Lakeview Park. Saw his temper at its worst when he flung his bat against the fence after a rare strikeout.

I also got to see Kevin Reimer crush the ball and throw fireball pitches, at Creekside Park. I was coaching a Junior Babe Ruth team with the likes of Greg Kowal and Richard Belec. If Reimer was pitching the three limited innings, we didn't expect to get a runner on base.

Vipers to honour Dye, Canadians

by Black Press Media Staff Nov 28, 2017

Wayne Dye played a few games with the Junior A hockey Vernon Essos as a 13-year-old and was a regular at 14. He wore No. 8 and was fiery, unpredictable, fearless and ultra-talented. He didn't need a composite stick to unleash his cannon shot.

His jersey will be raised to the rafters in a special pre-game ceremony when the Vernon Vipers entertain the Trail Smoke Eaters in a B.C. Hockey League showdown Friday night at Kal Tire Place. Wayne, named Vernon's Athlete of the 20th Century, died accidentally in 1988 at age 35 Morning Star reporter Roger Knox, a former director with the Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame, has long pushed in columns and articles, to have both banners grace a local arena.

"Jack Gilroy, who married Wayne's sister, Wendy, and I approached Mayor Akbal Mund with the idea a few months ago and then Dan Bosquet with Wayside (Press) jumped aboard," said Kevin Mitchell of the sports shrine. "Wayside graciously donated the banners and Todd Miller of the Vipers (executive vice-president) helped make it all happen."

Dye's jersey will not be retired but rather the Vipers and the City will honour him with a legends banner.

Dye won the BCJHL scoring title in 1969-70, a year when the Essos used a Jack Marsh overtime goal on Victoria Cougars' goalie Ed Forslund to win the playoff crown before 5,219 fans at Victoria's Memorial Arena. Dye finished his Junior hockey career as a 20-year-old with Punch McLean's New Westminster Bruins, scoring 35 goals and getting picked 109th overall by Chicago in the 1974 amateur lottery. His late father, Vern, helped found the Vernon franchise and the B.C. Junior Hockey League.

Wayne, a father of two, was also drafted by the Major League Baseball Seattle Pilots.

"We have invited four of the living Canadians to be there for the ceremony with their families, as guests of the Vipers", said Mitchell. "Those four legends are Merv Bidoski, Odie Lowe, Tom Stecyk and Walt Trentini."

Castanet - Super athlete honoured

by Darren Handschuh - Dec 1, 2017

The jersey of Wayne Dye will be hoisted to the rafters of Kal Tire Place tonight as the city honours the well-known athlete. Tragically, Dye passed away in 1988 at age 35, but not before making a huge impact on the North Okanagan sporting community. Dye joined his father, Vern, as a 2011 inductee into the Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame.

According to a write up on the Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame website, at 16 Dye was locked up by Major League Baseball's Seattle Pilots (now Milwaukee Brewers) with a $10,000 signing bonus and started his minor pro career in Class A in Newark, New Jersey. But Dye was also skilled on the ice.

Dye's hockey career appeared promising from the outset as he played with teammates two and three years older through minor hockey. As a 13-year-old left winger, he spent the last part of the Junior A season with the Vernon Essos.

Dye spent five full seasons in the B.C. Junior Hockey League before joining the Western Canada Junior League New Westminster Bruins as a 20-year-old where he racked up 35 goals in one year.

Dye was also hailed as one of the best snooker players in the province and was a star in track and field. He was named Vernon's Athlete of the 20th Century.

He died in his sleep at age 35.

His jersey, No. 8., will be retired at tonight's Vernon Vipers hockey game.

BCHL 60th Anniversary Team (Page #18)

Wayne Dye (Vernon Essos - 1967 to 1972): Dye played four season in the BCHL, all with the Vernon Essos. He finished his career with 156 goals, which puts him in seventh on the all-time list. He also won two league championships with Vernon, once in 1970 and another to wrap up his career in 1972.
BCHL - 60th Anniversary Series PDF

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