Brian Snelgrove
CFL.ca
He was without question one of the best, if not the best, quarterbacks to ever play in the Canadian Football League.
Ron Lancaster (1963-78) spent 16 seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and is the all-time team leader in every major passing category for the Green and White.
A gold-plated football legend, Lancaster landed in the CFL by way of tiny Wittenberg College in 1960. He was an integral part of the league as a player, coach and administrator for nearly 50 years. A shade under 5’ 10” tall, “The Little General” is generally regarded as one of the finest signal-callers in CFL history.
He holds career marks for most attempts (5,834), most completions (3,186), most yards (46,710) and most touchdown passes (299) by a Saskatchewan quarterback.
He was a four-time CFL all-star in the ‘70s (1970, ’73, ’75 and ’76) and was named the league’s Most Outstanding Player in 1970 and again in 1976. He was the only player to win the award twice in the decade.
In 16 years with Saskatchewan, Lancaster led the ‘Riders to the playoffs 14 times. Lancaster’s #23 was retired by the club and he was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1982.
Counting his three years with Ottawa, Lancaster is second in CFL history to Damon Allen with 50,535 yards passing, second in both attempts with 6,233 and completions with 3,384. His 333 touchdown passes ranks first on the all-time list.
He led the Roughriders to a pair of Grey Cup appearances in the ‘70s. In 1972 the ‘Riders took to the hostile turf at Ivor Wynne Stadium to face the hometown Tiger-Cats. Lancaster and mates saw a Grey Cup ring slip away as Ian Sunter’s last play field goal split the uprights and won the game for Hamilton. Lancaster completed 20 of 29 passes in the game with one touchdown toss.
In ‘76 Tony Gabriel caught a Tom Clements pass in the final 20 seconds to steal the game for the Ottawa Rough Riders, in a thrilling come-from-behind 23-20 victory. Lancaster had a pair of TD passes in the game.
It was Lancaster’s final chance as a player to win another championship. The CFL legend had led Saskatchewan to their first ever Grey Cup win in 1966.
In his final two seasons, 1977 and ’78, Lancaster was a player/coach with the ‘Riders.
Following his playing days he joined CBC Television in 1980 as a colour commentator. He stayed with CBC for 11 years before returning to the field as head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos in 1991. He coached the Esks until 1997.
The following year he joined the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and was at the helm until 2003. He rejoined the Tiger-Cats in 2006. After a courageous battle, Lancaster passed away in September 2008, shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer. At the time he was the Tiger-Cats Senior Director of Football Operations. Lancaster was posthumously awarded the Commissioner’s Award for outstanding contribution to the CFL in November of the same year.
“The best way to describe Ron Lancaster,” says former Roughrider Alan Ford (1965-76) who played his entire 12 year career with Lancaster, “is that he made everybody else around him better. And that is the ultimate compliment that an athlete can give to another athlete. He made everybody better. He had a drive to win. He expected that of everybody else. You used to have coaches like that but when a player does it, it instills confidence in the team. We were a close-knit group on and off the field and Ron was always at the centre. He was a great guy who loved to talk football and loved to talk life.”
Ford was a versatile player who played slotback, wide receiver, running back, defensive back and punter for the Western ‘Riders. With 1,041 punts to his credit, he is second in team history behind Paul McCallum (1,116). He also has the third longest punt in club history, an 89 yarder against Calgary in 1967 and still holds the Grey Cup record for longest punt, an 87 yard effort against Hamilton in the ’67 game.
“I think I just looked at the success of the Riders and it was important for me to play with them,” says Ford. “I went to many games at Taylor Field as a kid and was fortunate to come up at a time when I was given a chance to make the team. In those days if you had a good group of guys they stuck together, and that is what we did.”
“The ’76 game was the toughest because I didn’t get to play because of an injury and I knew it was my last game,” he recalls. “In ’72 we had the ball around our own 40 and couldn’t get one more first down. I played offence that game and was upset that we couldn’t move the ball. One more first down and would have done it.”
Ford mentions Ray Nettles, Jim Young, Garney Henley, “just such a smart player” and Marv Luster, “he lit up a lot of people” as defenders who gave him the most trouble.
After his playing days Ford became the Roughriders General Manager for 11 years (1989-99) and was a key component of the ‘Riders thrilling 43-40 over the Tiger-Cats in the 1989 Grey Cup. He was the interim GM for Hamilton in 2003 and has served as a scout for the Montreal Alouettes for the past few seasons.
Married with three children, Ford resides in Regina. In addition to scouting for the Als he works with Intergold, a promotional items and jewellery based company. He recently completed a contract with Hockey Canada and is actively involved in various community and charity events in Saskatchewan.
