You Beautuful Uglies

Back in the late 60's, we were building a team of winners.

We had Tricky Dick, we had Marv Luster, we had Sy (old 33 ).
But we could not get past the Roughies, so
when the 70's dawned, we looked to the east and saw the magic man had finally retired to become a high school principal. ( Bye Russ )

Then we looked at Jonas, and we looked at Wilkie ( boy kinda blew that one ) at QB.

We recruited like fanatics, and we had the best CFL recruiter, and he was our coach, Leo the Lip.



So we sent him on adventures to the south, we had scouts yes, but when we saw talent, we had Cahill, the prodigious Leprechaun sell the player on Toronto.

And they came, they spurned the NFL and they heard his clarion call, and they came. From Kent State, from Rutgers, from the golden dome of Notre Dame , the Detroit Lions practise squad, but they came.

It was Stillwagon from Ohio State, it was Timmy Anderson to play free safety, it was Barrie, Ontario born Jim "Big Country " Corrigal, it was unheralded Leon "X-Ray" McQuay, and it Greg Barton, and it was a Heisman winner, Joe Theisman. Joe spurned the Miami Dolphins who wanted Joe to return punts, but Joe wanted to play QB, and Leo said he could.


So we parted company with the Tom Wilkinson, Don Jonas, Jim Thorpe and Dave Raimey, and others, and brought in what we felt were major new parts to the Boatman, " More Oarsmen , he cries, "Pull Together ", he yelled ". So they pulled the Boatmen forward to 1st place in 1971.

We had stall wards on defence in Luster, Thornton and Allridge, and new heroes in Anderson, Stillwagon, and Corrigal. We won 14 games that year...14 !!! Can you believe it,a nd we made it to the eastern final , but this year no Jackson, this year no Margene Adkins, or Whit Tucker, or Billy Ray Booth. This time it was the Cats from Steeltown.

h the Cats were good, and always any team with Tommy Joe Coffey, Joe Zuger and Garney Henley was always taken seriously.

We went to play them with the factories of Stelco and Dofasco staring at us, reminding us these were hardened men, tough men, eat ya raw kinda dudes. That cheer, that Oskie Wee Wee chant, and the fans were right on you , so close to the benches.

We beat em in their own park, and we're going home to play part 2 the following weekeknd. God I miss that 2 game playoff.

We lead them 25-15 on points. Could the uglies pull together another game.

I went to that game, sat in the middle section while we held the Tabbies all day long, to a saw off at 15-15 on the day, but enough to send us to Vancouver for the first time since 1952.

It ended poorly on that rainswept day at Empire Stadium, it rained almost the entire game, and we fumbled our final chanced away to the Stamps. If only, if only, if Stillwagon had blocked
Calgary QB Jerry Keeling, then Dick Thornton's interception return would have found the end zone and victory. If only...

You beautiful uglies, you gave me my finest memory as a fan.