Josh Bell-Webster
CFL.ca
A day following the death of one former Hamilton Tiger-Cats general manager, three CFL icons were on hand as the club announced that Bob O’Billovich is taking over that same position with the team.
O’Billovich, Ron Lancaster and Angelo Mosca were all central figures in the league when Jake Gaudaur was first president and GM of the Ticats in the 1950s and 1960s, then commissioner of the CFL from 1968 until 1984. Gaudaur died Tuesday from cancer at the age of 87.
Mosca had to deal directly with Gaudaur when it came to negotiating contracts during his playing days with the Ticats. The Hall of Fame defensive tackle played in Hamilton in 1958 and 1959, then again in 1962 through 1972. Negotiating may be a loose term, as players didn’t have a lot of leverage as it was a time before the advent of free agency which CFL players enjoy today.
“Jake was a real smooth negotiator, and if you didn’t sign, you didn’t play, so it was your loss,” explained Mosca. “But he was a good guy. He really was. He was a gentleman and a scholar. He never yelled and scream and raised his voice.”
“But I used to, because I didn’t get enough money.”
Mosca holds Gaudaur and his successor Doug Mitchell in high regard when it came to being commissioner of the CFL. Both had many challenges, including threats from the World Football League in the 1970s and the United States Football League in the 1980s.
“I think Jake and Doug Mitchell were the best two commissioners this league has ever seen. I wish they could go back and study how these guys monopolized this league and made it go the way it went. Jake was very important, and so was Doug Mitchell. We were lucky we had (Gaudaur) in the beginning. He really saved this league, and Doug Mitchell pounced on it and kept it going.”
“Jake was a good man. We’re going to miss him.”
Lancaster, a star quarterback as well as a head coach for a brief period with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the 1960s and 1970s, did not had any direct dealings with Gaudaur but respected him nevertheless.
“I just think his style of leadership; he was very quiet but yet strong,” reflected Lancaster. “I think the reason for the league being so successful at that time was the kind of guy he was. He’d been around the league as a player and everything so he understood it and I think he did a great job.”
“It’s kind of a sad day when those things happen because he was kind of an icon in the Canadian Football League and you don’t want to lose those people.”
O’Billovich had many connections with Gaudaur, through his relationship with his son-in-law Tony Gabriel back in their days with the Ottawa Rough Riders, and through Ralph Sazio, who hired Obie as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in the early 1980s. Sazio had long been associated with the Ticats when Gaudaur was with the club.
“Jake was very helpful and I’d always admired him as a true leader of our league,” said O’Billovich.
