OUT OF THE TUNNEL: DRAFT PREPARATIONS AND REVISITING HISTORY

BY: RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF

It’s a strange world we live in. We hope everyone is doing well, practicing physical distancing and is washing their damn hands. Many of us continue to work from home and are just trying to make the best of it. This is also true for all nine Football Operations in the CFL.

They are thick in the preparation for the upcoming 2020 CFL draft that is slated for April 30th. First, let’s hope TSN and the CFL take advantage of this exclusive stage of the rare original sports programming coming out of Canada for the next few months.

Secondly, those CFL operations people are going to have to go into the Draft a little more blind than usual. There isn’t a CFL combine to see how the players stack up physically. There isn’t an opportunity to have the incredibly precious player medicals. The most important part that’s also missing is the one-on-one battles that pit the best Canadian players from all walks of football against one another on the national stage.

Without those battles, the player personnel folks won’t get a true look at how a player competes against the best competition.

The 2020 draft will harken back to the drafts of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s when all teams had was tape. Granted, the tape usually doesn’t lie, but if a player is able to stand out in a lower level of NCAA football or the CJFL, how do you compare them against CIS and higher level NCAA? Teams will be left without a good idea of what the potential is for some of these players. 

This also reminds us how much fun an all-Canadian senior bowl would be. Invite all of the draft eligible Canadians from all walks of football. Have week-long practices, interviews, and the combine in one great event that ends with a game.

The problem with that is, where? Nowhere in Canada has appropriate indoor facilities to host 200 players, staff and personnel for daily practices and a game so this is the biggest setback for a proposition like this. So while we would love to see this done at the Fargo Dome, the home of the North Dakota State Bison, one of the best places to have it would be the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. This would eliminate the fan portion of it, but for a made-for-tv production, it would be perfect. 

At least having the draft is a bright glimmer of positivity on the horizon as we all work through this very difficult time.

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Now let’s escape for another 5-10 minutes as we go deep into the annals of CFL history. Let’s revisit another one of the truly quirky games that could only happen in the CFL and a game which we would love to see replayed.

This time it’s one of the weirdest games in Saskatchewan Roughriders and Calgary Stampeders history. On a rain soaked Sunday, September 14, 1962, the Roughriders and the Stampeders battled to an epic 4-4 tie!

As we look back on the halcyon days of the CFL, it was truly a different era. The lunch special at The Coach Room in the Hotel Saskatchewan was just $0.95, the Rams knocked off the Hilltops that weekend 15-3 courtesy of a Neil Robinson 65-yard pick-six and flight prices were just as absurd as they are today. A return flight to Toronto was a whopping $150.00, with inflation, that’s $1,368 today.

As we dip into the Leader-Post archives, it was one of the best sports writers in Canada providing the clip. John Robertson (the man who coined the term Rider Pride) said of this game, “Hard to believe, eh? Four first downs, four points, one tie.” Those eleven words precisely sum up this game.

18,000 folks braved the rain and made the trip to McMahon Stadium in Calgary to watch this beauty. 

The Riders were short-handed with Ron Lancaster at home because of an injury and they had to rely on the duo of Lee Grosscup and Bob Ptacek. They combined to go 2-12 for just 16 yards in what has to be the worst passing day in modern Saskatchewan Roughriders history. They were harassed by future Hall of Fame linebacker Wayne Harris and the rest of the Stampeders defence to the tune of six sacks. 

The Saskatchewan running game was very pedestrian as well. Without leading rusher Billy Gray, George Reed was not his usual self with 38 yards on 11 carries. The Riders were instead led by Ray Purdin. He carried the rock 16 times for 54 yards.

Calgary’s aerial attack was grounded as well with Eagle Day completing 7-17 passes for 88 yards. Their ground attack though was flying high with 185 yards rushing led by Earl Lunsford’s 114 yards on 27 attempts. 

Much like today, the Riders relied on the big play and forced six Stampeders turnovers to the tune of five fumbles and one interception. 

The star of the game was Rider punter Martin Fabi. The Romanian born punter set and still holds the CFL record for most punts in a game with 18 and total punting yards with 814. His 45 yard average with just one single was the only reason the Green and White were in this game. 

There were 30 punts in total in this ugly baby game that only their parents would love. 

One more weird quirk, the Stampeders didn’t commit an infraction in this game. If you out pace your opponent 373 yards to 73 and don’t commit a penalty, one would expect to win, but if you are the Stampeders on that day all you could do was go home with a tie.

Calgary would get revenge in the two-game total point semi-final with the Riders 43-7 only to lose to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a best-of-three 2-1.

There were also four ties in the 1962 season that ended with the Bombers winning the title in the infamous fog bowl. 

Maybe we should revisit 1962, it looks like one of the goofiest seasons in CFL history.

(RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF/PHOTO: STAMPEDERS.COM)