How could this be? I felt prophetic when Tom Wilkinson hit John Konihowski for a yard touchdown early in the third quarter to help Edmonton assume an lead. However, the Roughriders quickly countered with three-yard touchdown runs by Harlan Huckleby following a yard pass from Sanders to Walters and Patterson a mobile quarterback who returned to the field in a short-yardage situation. Inevitably, Edmonton roared back. A yard touchdown run by Jim Germany, punctuated by a Dave Cutler convert, created a deadlock.
The tie was broken in less-than-ideal fashion when Macoritti missed another field-goal attempt, this time from 34 yards away, and settled for a single with only remaining in the game.
Naturally, Edmonton moved the ball into field-goal range for Cutler, a future Canadian Football Hall of Famer who was called upon to attempt a yard game-winner on the final play.
Wilkinson, the holder for Cutler, soon returned the kick — which was caught by Macoritti just inside the Saskatchewan end zone. Cue pandemonium. Appropriately, the ice-breaking conquest took place on the 41st birthday of then-Roughriders head coach Ron Lancaster.
If ever a team deserved to win a game, this one did. The fans, 20, of whom showed up for a game at which Rider Pride buttons were distributed for the first time, also deserved a chance to celebrate after enduring 12 generally gruesome losses in succession. The news seems to be flying at us faster all the time. A couple years before, the Riders had been on the verge of declaring bankruptcy and without ever winning a Grey Cup.
Seasons of and in and plus some dreary home attendance was about to do them in. But he retired in January, following a heart attack a month after the first round of the playoffs, the same season he had been awarded CFL Coach of the Year for his record. During the off-season, Riders general manager Ken Preston had purchased a young, Ohio-born quarterback named Ron Lancaster who had played three so-so years with the Ottawa Rough Riders.
On a good day, the chunky Lancaster might have come in at 5-foot-9, not exactly the tallest signal-caller in the league. Anyway, when Lancaster reported to Shaw at the downtown Roughrider office for the first time, the conversation went something like this:.
Lancaster soon discovered he was one of several quarterbacks vying for the Number One job. It was the beginning of a stormy relationship the two would have for the next two years. Shaw nearly cut Lancaster too in mid-season, and it boiled down to one game being the deciding factor. At home in Taylor Field against the Edmonton Eskimos, Lancaster had started but was benched in the second quarter and replaced by veteran Frank Tripucka.
Lancaster then found himself back in the game in the second half. At one point, the Riders were on their one-yard line, their backs to the end zone.
Coolly, Lancaster marched his team yards on 16 scrimmage plays, climaxed by an eight-yard pass to Dale West in the end zone.
The Riders won , and Lancaster kept his job…for the time being. Bolstered by a record, the Riders made the Western playoffs for the second straight year and again would meet the Calgary Stampeders in the first round of a two-game total-point playoff. Unfortunately, Calgary won the first game at home on November 9 as Lancaster tossed three interceptions. Now, in order for the Riders to take the first round, they had to win the second game by at least 27 points!
Yeah, right, as if that was going to happen. He might insert such a chapter if the book is re-printed. Since his book about the Grey Cup team spanned from to , and the book on the Grey Cup team spanned from to , he immersed himself in as much team lore as he could from that time. Interesting things he discovered were the team was supposed to be a rowing club; the jerseys changed colour regularly; the name changed often, and; the team played on five different fields until settling at Taylor Field.
In fact, Regina and Moose Jaw were the only two teams in the league that year. They played each other four times and Moose Jaw won all four contests. Furthermore, many of the chapters were linked to players who wore that particular jersey number. Vanstone prioritized the first 10 chapters so they would draw in readers. He struggled with what chapter 1 — the Grey Cup win — should be, followed by the next nine chapters.
Deciding in which order to put the stories was as big of a challenge as deciding what should go in. Conducting research allowed Vanstone to see how football evolved. Changes began happening in the late s and into the s, with the forward pass beginning to appear. However, more aspects of football began happening after the Second World War. While Vanstone had many favourite topics in the book, he singled out the chapter on legendary quarterback Ron Lancaster. After being booed at Taylor Field — his last home game ever — the week before, Lancaster came into the Edmonton game in the fourth quarter and engineered one of his famous comebacks.
Since it was his last game ever, fans at Commonwealth Stadium cheered him enthusiastically and wanted to see him play.
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