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Manny Lewis enjoying a round at Olympic
View Golf Course with the Chiefs.
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Manny Lewis is in Victoria
enjoying the Mann Cup as part of Six Nations Chiefs' owner Ken
Hill's entourage. You more likely remember him as Emmanuel Lewis.
Even more likely is that you remember him simply as Webster, from his
title role in the 1980s sitcom in which he played the adopted son of
linebacker Alex Karras. Yep, Webster's in the house.
Lewis says he met Hill years ago in
Atlanta, where Lewis went to university. He isn't thoroughly familiar
with the game. “It's not a sport that I grew up on, but it's very
interesting,” Lewis said. “The sport of lacrosse is very
interesting, it being created by the First Nations people. I thought
that was very interesting in itself.”
The first game he saw in person was
during the Chiefs' Major Series Lacrosse championship victory over
the Brooklin Redmen, and “I think it was pretty awesome. I don't
necessarily know all the rules yet, but there's a lot of technique
and running around.” Lewis is sitting with the rest of the Chiefs'
fans in a section of Bear Mountain Arena. He even got the feel of a
stick in his hands. The diminutive former child star tried out a
stick that Kasey Beirnes had cut down for his son.
These days, Lewis spends a lot of his
time working with charitable causes in the Atlanta area and
elsewhere. “Wherever there's somebody in need, that's the cause
that we're looking at,” he says. “Whether they be health issues,
cancer, AIDS or elderly. There's lots of great causes and I like
working with various different organizations and charities to help
bring awareness.”
As for his famous past, Lewis says he
embraces people remembering him as Webster, as so many folks do.
“It's part of my bio. It's part of my legacy. I didn't work that
hard at what I did to ignore it. Yeah, there's other things that we
do, but clearly that was a defining moment for everyone and I loved
it a lot.”
Right now, though, his focus is on the
Chiefs and the chance to win a Mann Cup. “I hope that we make it
very quick and swift,” Lewis said before Game 1. “I hope that
they get a jump on them and do what they came here for, a
championship. I want to see that trophy, the Mann Cup in our hands.”
