The final hurdle that the slow introduction of this new form of “aerial” attack had to endure came in the form of the initial passing rules and restrictions – for instance, any passes falling incomplete were treated as a live ball! Had that rule not changed later on, how much passing would there be in today’s game?
Saskatchewan is a big space with a sparse population – five times as many people live in Toronto and environs as in the entire province – and Regina is the smallest city in the country to have its own big-league team. Though football has been played there for more than a century and Regina clubs were among the first western teams to challenge for the Grey Cup, and though the ’Riders were part of the modern Canadian Football League from its inception, for long stretches of their history they were hopelessly out of contention.
All the same, any conversation about the culture and lore of Canadian football will very quickly turn to Saskatchewan. Any list of its most beloved players will be topped by the quarterback and running back tandem of “the Little General,” Ron Lancaster, and George Reed – one from Pennsylvania, one from Washington – who are as firmly fixed in this country’s sports pantheon as any homegrown hockey player.
Beyond that, as the sports world changes, and the larger world changes, there’s a natural tendency to look towards Regina and see the game as it was, pure, simple, and unspoiled. The Roughriders are owned, figuratively and literally, by the community in which they make their home. They represent not just a city but an entire province. Their fans travel enormous distances, sometimes in awful prairie weather, just for the privilege of sitting in the stadium that was long known as Taylor Field.
In tough times – and there have been tough times – the people of Saskatchewan did whatever was necessary to keep the team alive. Those stories of season’s tickets paid for with bushels of wheat can’t all be apocryphal. Once, it took a telethon to cover the Roughriders’ debts and keep the club solvent. People reached deep not just in Saskatchewan but all across the country, because a little, sentimental piece of every CFL fan’s heart resided there, because Saskatchewan was everyone’s second-favourite team (unless you lived in Winnipeg). Perpetual underdogs, passionately supported, the “national team” from a society as distinct as they come, the Green ’Riders are unlike anything else in Canadian sport. That’s why, on the two occasions the Grey Cup has been staged in Regina, it was at least a little bit like bringing the big game to Brigadoon.
Regina’s legendary Taylor Field.
This is also true: though there have been precious few championships for ’Rider fans to celebrate, on the occasions when their teams got to the big game, something dramatic has invariably happened. That was the case even with the first Regina Grey Cup team in 1923, which suffered that 54–0 beating.
The eastern sports press was unsparing in its contempt.
“Regina Drubbed in Farcical Final” was the headline in The Globe.
“They were dazed, dumfounded and drubbed without being able to raise their hands in self defence. Outclassed in every position … they gave a woeful exhibition … the visitors appeared to have a lot of natural ability, but lacked plays, strategy and experience.”
Another newspaper report was made up simply of short, sarcastic stabs at the visitors. Among the more choice items: “Next year’s dominion final should be a handicap affair … The eastern champions should be compelled to spot the western representatives at least twenty points.… Saturday’s game looked like a herd of elephants playing cross-tag with a flock of jack rabbits.… Western football tactics, as exemplified by the Regina team, are prehistoric.… That Regina team certainly took a swell photo.”
The Argos take on the Roughriders in 1933.
Amid the snarkiness, it was noted in press reports that the crowd in Toronto actually got behind the ’Riders, even as the hopelessness of their cause became apparent. It’s the first recorded example of what would become a continuing theme: Saskatchewan as sentimental favourites.
Undaunted, the men from the prairies kept right on accepting the challenge – and kept right on losing. Six times between 1928 and 1934, the Roughriders emerged as the dominant team in the west, and six times they failed to win the Grey Cup – by a cumulative score of 122–27.
Though the results were consistent, those games were hardly uneventful. The 1929 Grey Cup, for instance, in which the ’Riders played the Hamilton Tigers on a day so terrible that only a hundred or so fans were in the stands at the HAAA Grounds for kickoff, marked the occasion of the first forward pass ever thrown in the championship game. The rule book was rather fluid in those days, as the game was quickly evolving. The newly legalized forward pass first caught on in the west, and it would be the Roughriders’ best hope against a powerful Hamilton team.
“While Regina gave a fine exhibition of the art of forward-passing, probably the best yet seen in Eastern Canada, it could not be said that their gains made up for their losses,” M. J. Rodden of The Globe reported. “Most of the Regina passes were short ones, and they were scientifically made by [Jersey Jack] Campbell. Tigers had practiced the play for only three days, and hadn’t taken it seriously at any time. Much confusion seemed to exist among players and officials regarding uniform interpretation.” (In fact, Hamilton’s only forward pass of the game went for a touchdown, but it was called back because the officials ruled that it had been thrown inside the Regina 25-yard line – thus violating the existing rules. Problem was, because of all the snow, no one really knew for sure where the yard lines were.)
Between 1928–34 the Roughriders would fail to make the Grey Cup game only once, though they lost every time. Seen here playing in 1930 against Toronto’s Balmy Beach.
“Tigers were (confused) when Campbell, a southpaw, dropped back from snap in the last thirty minutes of the game and commenced to hurl the ball far and wide,” Lou Marsh wrote in the Toronto Star, describing what would come to be known as zone and man-to-man defence. “The Bengals had absolutely no defence for the play. Instead of working an area defence for the forward pass they tried to cover up the men they thought were going to receive the ball, and the result was that Prairie Patrol made ground on every pass they tried. Out of twelve or fifteen forward passes the boys from the Saskatchewan Capital completed at least ten without a bobble – and on the others they held the Big Cats for a substantial gain. It is hard to believe that story which came out of the west to the effect that the Roughriders had only used the forward pass twice before this season. It looked like a great play – against Tigers. It certainly was spectacular.”
For all of the new play’s shock value, the Tigers won relatively comfortably, 14–3.
In the 1931 game, it was the ’Riders’ opponents, the Montreal Winged Wheelers, who completed the first touchdown pass in Grey Cup history, en route to a 22–0 win over the western champions. The 1934 game saw the last drop kicks for points in a Grey Cup – by the Sarnia Imperials, who beat the Riders 20–12.
In 1951, Saskatchewan made their first Grey Cup appearance in the modern era of Canadian football, and their first wearing the now-famous green and white. The team’s colours had at different times been gold and purple, blue and white, and, for most of its early history, red and black. The first green uniforms arrived in 1948, after one of the club’s executives found them at a bargain price in a Chicago surplus store. That was the same year that the Regina Roughriders were rechristened the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
DYNASTIES AND DROUGHTS
EACH ERA OF CANADIAN football has had its stars, those whose talents reflected the most admired skills of their day. Over the years these standouts have ranged from the rough-and-tumble “inside wing” plungers of the 1930s, such as Brian Timmis and Dave Sprague, and the talented two-way players of the 1950s, like Jackie Parker and Hal Patterson, to the more recent passing heroes, including Doug Flutie and Anthony Calvillo. In 1909, the premier gridiron hero was Hugh Gall, renowned for his “aerial” skills.
Today, the concept of an “aerial atta
ck” is easily understood as referring to the passing game. But in 1909, the forward pass was not yet legal. Instead, punting ability was prized over all other skills – even above running with the ball. In Hugh Gall’s era, then, the aerial attack meant the kicking game, and it was his forte. He could kick well with either foot, and would kick on any down in an attempt to gain valuable field position. Scores in football were low in those days, and the “single,” or “rouge,” was more common than any other scoring method.
The Edmonton Eskimos won five consecutive Grey Cups between 1978 and 1982.
As a halfback for the University of Toronto and later for Parkdale, Gall played in three Grey Cups and was twice on the winning team. He was the first player to score a point in a Grey Cup game (after a 65-yard punt and rouge) and added that day’s first touchdown as well on a five-yard end run. Gall’s eight singles in 1909 remain the record to this day. So the game we recognize as the first to award the ancient trophy featured a man who – despite the appearance of being much older than his years – probably could not be outkicked by any player of any age or era.
The best way to describe Gall’s “game” and persona may be found in 1910 Grey Cup accounts: “As Simpson was the main works on the Tiger back line, so was Gall for Varsity. The young player, with the old man’s face … booted the pigskin in the style that has given him the reputation of being Canada’s greatest.” In 1913, after Gall’s final Grey Cup appearance, The Hamilton Spectator assessed him as follows: “Parkdale was Hugh Gall and a dozen Hugh Galls couldn’t beat this team.”
No discussion of this great Hall of Famer would be complete without pausing to consider an oddity of the Canadian game: the average distance that punts travel has changed little, if any, since Gall’s day.
DYNASTIES FROM TO YEARS GAMES WON OF NOTE
Edmonton Eskimos 1973 1982 10 9 6 Won five in a row, 1978–82
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 1957 1967 11 9 4 Played in five in a row, 1961–65
Montreal Alouettes 2000 2010 11 8 3 Five games in six years, 2005–10
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 1957 1965 9 6 4 Bud Grant era
Toronto Argonauts 1945 1952 8 5 5 Undefeated in five games
Calgary Stampeders 1991 2001 11 6 3 Wally Buono era
APPEARANCE DROUGHTS FROM TO YEARS GAMES WON OF NOTE
Ottawa Rough Riders/Renegades 1982 Today 19 0 0 Last game in 1981, vs. Edmonton
Calgary Stampeders 1950 1967 18 0 0 Lost in 1949 and 1968
Toronto Argonauts 1953 1970 18 0 0 Won in 1952, lost in 1971
British Columbia Lions 1965 1982 18 0 0 Won in 1964, lost in 1983
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 1966 1983 18 0 0 Lost in 1965, won in 1984
Regina/Saskatchewan Roughriders 1935 1950 16 0 0 Lost in 1934, lost in 1951
Historical notes:
Hamilton teams during war years of 1942–44 not included.
Edmonton did not appear in the Grey Cup from 1923 to 1951, but operated in only 12 of those seasons.
The CFL had a team based in Ottawa from 1958 until 1996, and from 2002 to 2005.
WIN DROUGHTS FROM TO YEARS GAMES WON OF NOTE
Regina/Saskatchewan Roughriders 1921 1965 45 8 0 First franchise win in 1966
Toronto Argonauts 1953 1982 30 2 0 Lost 1971,1982; won 1983
Ottawa Rough Riders/Renegades 1976 Today 24 1 0 Lost in 1981, last win 1976
Calgary Stampeders 1949 1970 22 3 0 Lost in 1949, 1968, 1970
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 1963 1983 21 1 0 Lost in 1965, won in 1984
Historical notes:
Wartime years of 1942–44 not included.
For Regina/Saskatchewan, 1921 was chosen as the start of this range because it was the first year in which western clubs were invited to play in the Grey Cup.
What was to that point the best-ever Saskatchewan team lost in crushing fashion, 21–14 to the Ottawa Rough Riders, in part because much of their squad – including star quarterback Glenn “Dobber” Dobbs – was hobbled by injury.
“We’ll be back next year,” Dobbs said to his centre, Red Ettinger, who needed painkilling shots around his injured ribs just to play in the game. “We’ll be back and it’ll be different.”
They would be back – but not for a long, long time.
The 1951 game was also notable for the beginning of another great Grey Cup tradition. In 1948, the Calgary Stampeders and their travelling band of fans had turned the atmosphere of staid old Toronto upside down when they arrived to watch their team win its first Canadian championship. In 1951, the Saskatchewan fans followed suit.
“An indication of the great love of football in the west is the safari of Saskatchewan citizens which reached its eastern destination yesterday,” Jim Vipond wrote in The Globe and Mail. “The long trainloads of gaily bedecked supporters complete with chuck wagons, horses, pretty gals, 15,000 loaves of bread and a special green ink edition of the Regina Leader-Post.”
Go to the Grey Cup now, and whichever teams are competing, you can bet that the streets will be filled with people dressed in green. They may not bring the loaves of bread anymore – but the Rider Nation brings the party.
The great ’Rider teams of the 1960s and 1970s made five trips to the Grey Cup, and again, even when they lost. In 1967, they were shut down entirely by a Hamilton defence that may have been the best of all time, 24–1. In 1969, it was the final game of Russ Jackson’s stellar career, and his Ottawa Rough Riders prevailed. In 1972, Ian Sunter of the Tiger-Cats hit a field goal on the final play to clinch a dramatic victory for the home team at Ivor Wynne Stadium. And after what happened in the 1976 Grey Cup, Saskatchewanians would be haunted by “The Catch.” Everyone knew that Ottawa’s Tom Clements was going to throw the ball to Tony Gabriel in the game’s final minute, but still the western ’Riders couldn’t stop it.
Bookending those games, were two epic victories that will live on in Saskatchewan sporting lore.
Returning to the championship for the first time since 1951, the 1966 ’Riders were a powerhouse on both sides of the ball, with Reed, a season removed from being named the league’s most outstanding player, very close to his peak.
Back in 1963, the Roughriders had announced their renaissance by beating the Calgary Stampeders in a two-game, total-points semifinal after losing the first game 35–9 in Calgary. So despondent were ’Riders fans that few showed up for the second game on a frosty winter day. But as the miracle unfolded, they left their houses and headed en masse for Taylor Field. By the time the teams came out for the third quarter, the stadium was packed, and the ’Riders rolled to an unlikely victory, taking the game 39–12, and the two-game set 48–47 (they went on to lose two out of three games to the B.C Lions in the western final).
Ron Lancaster (right) and Hugh Campbell were the key players in Saskatchewan’s first Grey Cup victory, 1966.
Three years later, facing Jackson and the Rough Riders at Empire Stadium in Vancouver, they were finally ready to accomplish what no Saskatchewan team had done before. After playing a close, back-and-forth first half, the Roughriders took control after the break. A touchdown pass from Lancaster to Hugh Campbell put them ahead, and fittingly Reed sealed the victory with a 31-yard touchdown run straight up the middle. The victory celebration that followed, and the weeks during which the Cup visited what seemed like every crossroads village in every corner of the vast province, made that one long prairie winter a little bit easier to endure.
After Lancaster and Reed retired, the Roughriders fell on hard times. During one stretch lasting into the 1980s, they missed the playoffs eleven years in a row. Lancaster returned as head coach, but the magic that he possessed as a quarterback simply didn’t translate. (It would, eventually, but not until he moved on to coaching jobs in Edmonton and Hamilton.) Those were the years of near bankruptcy, of telethons, and of faint hopes. With no wealthy private owner to pay the bills, the community that owned the club had to dig into its own pockets to keep it alive.
George Reed (right) played his entire career with the ’Rider
s and is considered the greatest running back in CFL history. Pictured here with Hugh Campbell.
The team that finally emerged at the end of that dark era was one of the best in ’Riders history, with Austin as its star quarterback, receiver Don Narcisse as his favourite target, and a kicker named Dave Ridgway – “Robokicker,” they nicknamed him, for his great consistency, because he seemed to almost never miss.
In 1989, the ’Riders finished third in the west, with just a 9–9 record, and then beat both Calgary and heavily favoured Edmonton – a 16–2 team that year – on the road in the playoffs to advance to the first Grey Cup played at Toronto’s then brand-new SkyDome. The opponents were familiar, from 1972 and 1967, and from all the way back in 1928, 1929 and 1932: the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, champions of the east, Grey Cup winners three years earlier, an experienced and explosive squad quarterbacked by Mike Kerrigan.
Both teams had terrific defences, but you wouldn’t have known it that day under the dome. On the fast indoor field, offensive records fell by the wayside. As it soon became clear that whichever team had the ball last would probably win.
Forty-four seconds before the finish, it looked like the Ticats had forced overtime, when Tony Champion made a spectacular touchdown catch while falling backwards. But Austin had other ideas. Following the kickoff, he calmly and precisely marched the Roughriders into field goal range, setting Ridgway up for a 35-yard attempt on the second to last play of the fourth quarter. Of course he wouldn’t miss. Final score: Saskatchewan 43, Hamilton 40.
“It’s funny how it works out,” Ridgway said afterward. “They played a great football game and it comes down to a skinny little guy with a clean uniform. But that’s what they pay me for.”
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