A Toronto Argonauts Historian

I was born and raised in Toronto and still live in the Toronto area. My earliest sports memories are of watching the Argos on TV or when the games were blacked out, listening to them on the radio.

I remember as a young boy being glued to the TV watching the 1971 Grey Cup as Toronto and Calgary floundered in a torrential downpour. I couldn't believe the amount of water on the field and how players were slipping and sliding all over the artificial turf. Late in the game the Argos trailed 14 to 11 and I felt it was over. The Toronto offence had done nothing.

Then Dick Thornton intercepted a Jerry Keeling pass and ran it back 54-yards to the Calgary 11-yard line and my heart skipped a beat. I was off the couch screaming and yelling and was convinced the Grey Cup was coming back to Toronto . Two plays later Leon McQuay fumbled and it was game over for the "Double Blue Gladiators". I was left speechless.

As I grew up in the 1970's every summer and fall the Argo were a big part of my life. Schedules were arranged in order to ensure I could watch or hear the game. When I played football with my friends, my team was always the Argonauts. This was a tough sell, as once Leo Cahill was fired after the 1972 season the Argos were horrific.

My high school days in the early 1980's saw the Argos finally turn things around for good. In 1983 they had a high powered team that finished the season at 12-4 and beat Hamilton in a thrilling come from behind victory in the Eastern final. The Grey Cup was next but I had a problem. I worked noon to midnight every Saturday and Sunday as a security guard in a plant in south Etobicoke (a western suburb of Toronto .) I needed to work but considering my life seemed to depend on an Argo victory in this game...well I also had to watch the game.

Luckily a friend lent me a small portable black and white television that I smuggled into work and set up on my desk. The security patrols came to halt after the opening kick-off! I remember watching 'transfixed' as Cedric Minter hauled in a Joe Barnes pass late in the game to give Toronto a 18-17 victory over a very tough B.C. Lions squad. They had actually done it! The Toronto Argonauts had finally won a Grey Cup after 31 long years of frustration. As I resumed my patrols that night I wondered if my life would change. After all every summer I had been alive I had either wondered; could Toronto turn things around, or going back to the early 1970's could Leo Cahill and his Argos stay ahead of the jinx that seemed to be stalking the team. Now they had won the Grey Cup. What was I to do?

Life of course goes on. After high school I attended the University of Western Ontario and graduated with a degree in history. I also developed a passion for the Western Mustangs football team which is strong today although nowhere near my love for the Argos. I met my future wife Bridget in 1988 and we became engaged in 1991. Our engagement party was scheduled around the 1991 Grey Cup so I could watch the Argos beat Calgary on a frozen tundra in Winnipeg.

Today I live in Oakville, Ontario which is a town just west of Toronto . I am married and we have two daughters: Emily, who was born in 1994 and Erin, who was born in 1999. I am a Human Resources Manager for a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak. When I am not at work I am a long distance runner, and I play in a touch football league. I also write for the Argos . The team refers to me as the "Argo Historian." I write biographies of former Argo stars and I wrote the history section for the 2004 Media Guide, all of which can be viewed on the Argonauts web site. My book, A Slip in the Rain, is a game-by-game history of the Toronto Argonauts from 1967 to 1972 and can be purchased from Lulu.com.