Members of Vanier Cup championship team get together to mark unlikely turnaround, national title run
By Randy Phillips,
Montreal Gazette
It’s been two decades since the McGill Redmen wrote a stunning chapter in Canadian university football history with an unexpected Vanier Cup victory, but the memories of that amazing 1987 championship season are still vivid.
“We had a good feeling at the beginning of the season,” said Wayne McRae, a middle-linebacker and co-captain of the team. “Would we have bet the house we’d win the Vanier Cup? No.”
McRae recalled a key moment in the season after McGill had lost to Bishop’s for the second time early in the season. Quarterback Bryan Fuller was standing in the middle of the dressing room while his teammates were showering.
“He was frustrated, mad and everything else, and said: ‘Mark my words, this team will not lose another game this year.’ “
His words proved to be prophetic and the Redmen would go on to cap their remarkable ’87 campaign by crushing the top-ranked University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 47-11 on a bitterly cold day at Toronto’s Varsity Stadium. A crowd of 14,326 witnessed the upset on Nov. 21.
More than 30 of the 57 players on the roster, plus members of a coaching staff, led by head coach Charlie Baillie, reunited this weekend to mark the 20th anniversary of their triumph and attend McGill’s annual football awards gala last night.
There was a lot to reminisce about:
After losing two of their first three games, the Redmen reeled off four consecutive wins to complete their Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference season. They then won three playoff games en route to the Vanier Cup game. The first was a 27-24 come-from-behind win over Queen’s. McGill then defeated Bishop’s
32-16 in Lennoxville in the conference final to avenge 38-31 and 28-18 losses to the Gaiters in the regular season. Next, the Redmen outlasted the Saint Mary’s Huskies 30-29 in the Atlantic Bowl on Chuck Petitpas’s 46-yard field goal on the final play.
“We had a monkey on our back just to get through Queen’s because I don’t think McGill had won a playoff game against them in something like 85 years,” McRae said. “Then we went into Bishop’s, which was supposed to mop us up, and we beat them soundly.”
McRae’s 67-yard interception return for a TD in the fourth quarter against the heavily favoured T-Birds was the longest in Vanier Cup history and one of 10 records McGill set or tied in the national final.
McRae is now a financial adviser at Wood Gundy in Montreal and a business partner with Michael Soles, who was the game’s MVP. The fullback’s contribution consisted of racking up 203 yards on 25 carries and a pair of touchdowns.
Soles, a two-time All-Canadian and the heart and soul of the Redmen, ended his university career as the best running back in McGill history. He was the first Canadian player taken in the 1989 CFL draft and played 11 seasons with the Edmonton Eskimos – where he won a Grey Cup in 1993 – and the Alouettes.
“Luck was on our side, but we also became a better team throughout the season, and we meshed at the right time,” Soles recalled. “A team of destiny? Obviously.”
The Vanier Cup win was the greatest sporting experience of his life, Soles said.
“It took a day for it to sink in.”
Ex-pivot Fuller is now an actor, “living a dream in Hollywood.” He has appeared in several TV shows and movies, and stars with Winona Ryder and Simon Baker in the soon-to-be-released Sex and Death 101.
He won’t forget the 1987 season for several reasons, including suffering a third-degree separation to his throwing shoulder in the third quarter of the conference semifinal against Queen’s. The Redmen were trailing 24-14 and the injured Fuller had to decide whether to continue playing.
“The doctor said: ‘We can freeze it (with a pain-killer injection) or you’re done.’ I said: ‘Let’s go.’
“I played the next 31/2 games (injured) and never got touched in 31/2 games. With my offensive line, no one touched me.”
Fuller completed 13 of 14 passes to spark the second-half rally, while tailback Gerry Ifill, now director of the Asian Bond Desk for Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, rushed for 122 yards and two majors, tying the Vanier Cup record for most TDs in a game with three.
“We had such a group of characters on that team,” said Fuller, who referred to his O-line as “the Crazy Dogs” and kept them primed on Milk-Bone dog biscuits.
Connell and Hetherington feted: Quarterback Matt Connell and receiver Greg Hetherington captured major honours at McGill’s 23rd annual football awards presentation last night. Connell was named team MVP for the second time in three years. Hetherington was named the most outstanding offensive player, most dedicated player and best team player. Co-captain Ben Walsh was chosen most sportsmanlike player and most outstanding lineman. Other awards went to Jean-Nicolas Carriere (outstanding defensive player), Anthony Lukca (most improved player), Charles-Antoine Sinotte (rookie of the year) and Schuyler O’Brien (special teams player of the year).
