Annis Stukus left his mark, in B.C. and throughout the CFL
By Lyndon Little,
Vancouver Sun
Since 1961, the Canadian Football League has proudly presented the Annis Stukus Trophy to its coach of the year.
One year, in the 1980s, en route to the annual coach of the year dinner in Edmonton, this writer shared a taxi with Stukus from the airport into town.
At one point during the trip, a sportscaster came on the radio and announced they would be awarding the “Annis Stukus Memorial Trophy” that evening.
Big Stuke fixed me with a quizzical stare and asked: “Do you know something I don’t?”
Sadly, two decades later, it is time to rename the award the Annis Stukus Memorial Coach of the Year Trophy.
The winner of two Grey Cups as a player — and the first coach of both the reborn Edmonton Eskimos and the B.C. Lions — died on the Victoria Day weekend at the age of 91, in a care facility near his home at the Bow River Senior Citizens Lodge in Canmore, Alta.
Nicknamed the Loquacious Lithuanian, Stukus was one of three football playing brothers — Bill and Frank were the others — who collectively were known in Toronto sports circles as “The Stukii.”
All three were excellent athletes, but it was Annis, also known as Big Stukus, who went on to enjoy a lengthy playing career, which included Grey Cups with the Toronto Argonauts in 1937 and ’38.
That he came to excel in the sport was quite an accomplishment, given that his father, a weightlifter in his native Lithuania, considered football a frivolous game. As a youngster, Stukus had to hide his uniform at a friend’s house and devise excuses for his frequent absences from the household.
His love for the game was certainly unquestioned. After his playing days with the Argos, Stukus confided with famed sportswriter and columnist Jim Coleman how he eventually mustered up the courage to ask Argo management for his first paycheque as a player, the princely sum of $500 a season.
“I would have asked for dough before that,” confessed Stukus. “But I was afraid they wouldn’t let me play football. What would I have done if they wouldn’t let me play football?”
The Argo coach at the time, Lew Hayman, recalled greeting Stukus for his first practice and asking the big, raw-boned youngster from Central Tech high school what position he played.
“Any position you want,” said a confident Stukus, who was indeed a versatile performer. He was officially listed as a quarterback, but eventually wound up playing all the positions on the line, as well as outside wing and halfback.
During his playing days for a variety of Eastern teams, Stukus also did double duty as a freelance sportswriter for various Toronto newspapers. As the late Toronto Sun columnist Jim Hunt once wryly noted: “In his reports, Stuke never played a bad game.”
It was Stukus’s eventual experience as coach and GM of the resurrected Edmonton Eskimos franchise from 1949-51 that attracted the eye of the Lions’ original board of directors, who ended up hiring him to put together the team for its debut in the Western Interprovincial Football Union in 1954. It was a stroke of genius, as the talkative Stukus turned out to be the ideal guy to stir up football interest on the West Coast.
Hired during the 1953 Easter weekend, Stukus’s first task was to organize the Vancouver Cubs senior amateur team that played a series of exhibition games prior to the Lions’ debut. But most of his time was spent pressing the flesh and pushing season tickets.
“Stuke would give as many as three speeches a day to any group that would listen to him,” marvels former Vancouver Sun columnist Denny Boyd. “He also shocked the board of directors when he asked them for an additional $40,000 for halftime shows for the inaugural Lions season. But Stuke knew full well there weren’t going to be many wins that first year and he wanted to make sure the fans were well entertained.”
Stukus was right about the lack of victories. After the Lions put together back-to-back seasons of 1-15 and 5-11, the board fired their first coach. It was a controversial move that led to several grass-roots protest meetings.
It was later revealed that the vote to dismiss Stukus — officially announced as nearly unanimous — was actually as close as 13-10, with five directors deciding not to attend the meeting.
After leaving the Lions, Stukus worked as a sportswriter, broadcaster and GM of the pre-NHL Canucks for a year in 1966. He was also the first GM of the Winnipeg Jets and played a leading role in the Jets luring superstar Bobby Hull away from the Chicago Blackhawks, the WHA’s first major coup against the rival NHL.
Stukus later returned to Vancouver, where he worked for radio station CFUN as executive sports editor and goodwill ambassador, as well as hosting “Stuke’s Den” before Lions’ home games.
First and foremost, however, Stukus was a football coach. With his commanding presence and square jaw, he fit the part to a tee.
“If they hadn’t had Pat O’Brien to play Knute Rockne in the movie, Stuke would have been perfect for the role,” laughs former Vancouver Sun sports columnist and football writer Jim Taylor.
“I don’t think Stuke ever had a down day in his life,” adds Boyd. “He was a lovable con man. In the nicest sense of the word.”
Stukus is survived by Doris, his wife of 67 years, and daughters Suzanne, Sally and Mary, as well as two grandsons and a great granddaughter. He’s a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame (1991), the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1974), the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame (1998), the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (1992) and the B.C. Lions’ Wall of Fame.
