Not many people or players knew Daryl Waud south of the border before he played in the 90th East-West Shrine Game in Florida a couple of weeks ago.

But by the time he was done, he left a lasting impression.

The Western Mustangs’ defensive tackle was one of two Canadian university players named to the American university football all-star game.

“They didn’t know anything about me or about Canada for that matter,” Waud said of his teammates and opponents.

Waud made an appearance Monday as one of the celebrities at the London Sports Celebrity Dinner and Silent Auction in aid of the Thames Valley Children’s Centre. Some of the top American university football players were at the Shrine Game as was dozens of NFL scouts, coaches and general managers. They got an eyeful.

On the first play from scrimmage Waud beat his blocker and brought down the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage.

Waud’s 6’5”, 295 pound frame attracts a lot of attention to begin with. The defensive tackle’s first play garnered even more including some from the blocker he beat who wanted to know what school Waud’s helmet represented.

“I had a lot of people ask me that,” Waud said. “I told a few guys I was from Canada. They asked me ‘so where did you play?’ I said ‘Canada.’ He looked at me and said ‘I didn’t know you guys had football in Canada.’

“It was kind of a culture shock to some of those guys that we actually play football in Canada. It was kind of cool.”

One player asked Waud if “we had fruit in Canada.”

“I got a lot of fun questions. People joked about our money. They really laughed about loonies and toonies,” he said.

Waud may not have been able to give all those guys the full curriculum on Canada but he showed them that yes indeed, Canadians play football and guys like Waud play it very well.

“It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience,” Waud said adding many of the coaches were former NFL coaches. “If you didn’t learn something you didn’t have your eyes and ears open. I think I got my name out there a little bit. It’s just a matter of taking what I learned to get to the end goal.”

While Waud would love the end goal to be the NFL, the CFL certainly has his eyes on him.

He was rated No. 3 for this year’s CFL draft and was the top CIS player on the board. While Waud still has a year left of eligibility for the Mustangs, he likely won’t be back.

“I’m looking forward to what the next few months have in store.”