Hall of Fame Profiles

Born August 7, 1919 – Died January 12, 1974

PLAYING CAREER:

WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS .1950 – 1954
AWARDS AND HONOURS
ALL-WESTERN QUARTERBACK 1950, 1952
JEFF NICKLIN MEMORIAL TROPHY 1952
GREY CUP PARTICIPATION 1950, 1953

He is also enshrined in the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977, and Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 2004.

Jacobs was a versatile offensive star who alternated between the quarterback and halfback positions Jacobs was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma and played high school football at Muskogee High School. He was popularly known as “Indian Jack” because of his ethnic background, as a Creek Indian, at a time when the use of such terminology was not seen as offensive.

Jacobs played college football at the University of Oklahoma. He proved his worth as and versatility early on as averaged 47.84 yards per kick in 1940 (which remains an OU record) along with a with a career average of 42.10. Among other records he holds at OU, he accumulated the most offense yardage in 1940/1941 (junior & senior years). Even on the defensive side of the ball, he excelled and is currently tied with seven other players
for the record number of interceptions in a game (3) (1941 OU v. Marquette).

Prior to his arrival in the CFL, Jacobs was drawn to the NFL after being drafted in the second round of the 1942 NFL Draft. He played quarterback, defensive back, halfback and punter with the Cleveland Rams (1942–1945), the Washington Redskins (1946) and the Green Bay Packers (1947–1949). He led the league in punting in 1947.

As his NFL career was winding down, he joined the WIFU as a quarterback for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1950–1954. His efforts were ultimately rewarded when he won the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy in 1952.
The most notorious aspect of his career was the fact that Jacobs he is widely credited with making the forward pass an integral part of professional football. That unique talent that had rarely been seen anywhere else drew an excess capacity of fans to Blue Bombers games and was directly responsible for the city to build a larger stadium, Winnipeg Stadium (now called Canad Inns Stadium). Longtime Bomber fans call it the house that
Jack built.

Among his statistical records and milestones, Jacobs completed 709 of 1,330 passes for 11,094 yards and at that time the all-time leading passer for the WIFU, which was the forerunner for the CFL's West Division. In 1951, he became the first professional football player to throw for 3,000 yards in a season with 3,248. Also that season he was first player to throw for more than 30 touchdowns with 33. The next season Jacobs threw 34
touchdowns and totaled 2,586 passing yards. In the early years of the passing game in pro football, most quarterbacks registered more interceptions than touchdowns. Jacobs' proficiency is underlined by his 104 touchdown passes to only 53 interceptions. He led the western conference in passing from 1951-53.

In his career with the Bombers, he had a record of 46 wins, 27 losses and three ties. He was the losing quarterback in the 1950 and 1953 Grey Cup games.

Following his playing career, he remained involved with Canadian Football. In 1955, Jacobs was a scout for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and later, was a coach for the London Lords of the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) for two seasons. He also worked as an assistant coach for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Montreal Alouettes and the Edmonton Eskimos.

When people refer to the CFL as primarily a pass oriented league, Jack Jacobs should correctly be credited as the quarterback who turned the league in that direction, during the course of his career.

Born May 20, 1930, Died August 29, 2009

Class of 1969 – Career highlights and awards:

1954 – Schenley Most Outstanding Player
1954, 1958 – Jeff Russell Memorial Trophy
1953-57, 1960 – East Division All-Star

Among his single game exploits, Etcheverry set a single-game passing record of 586 yards in 1954 that stood for 39 years until the 1993 season. He also passed for a record 508 yards in the 1955 Grey Cup game, albeit in a losing effort.

In 1954, he led the Als to an 82-14 blowout win over Hamilton, a point total that is still the most for a single game over 50 years later.
His offensive prowess was underlined by leading the Als in becoming the first team to average more than 30 points per game over an entire schedule in the 1955 season.

By the end of his career, Etcheverry had rewritten many quarterback records in Alouettes history.  He finished with 30,303 passing yards and 186 touchdowns and is still regarded as one of the all-time greats in franchise history.  As a testament of his dominance and value to the franchise, his number 92 has been retired by the Montreal football club.

After an aborted trade to the Hamilton Tiger Cats and a two year stint in the NFL, Etcheverry returned to Canada to coach the Quebec Rifles of the United Football League.  This league folded at the end of the season and Etcheverry remained out of coaching until 1967 when he became an assistant at Loyola College in Montreal.

His legacy is underscored by the fact that he recorded outstanding passing yardage totals in an era where football was still predominantly a game based on the running attack.  He routinely topped the 3000 yard mark for passing yards in a season, with a high water mark of 4723 yards in 1956. That 1956 total marked the first time any CFL quarterback passed for more than 4000 yards in a single season.

It is worth noting that the Als floundered immediately prior to, as well as following, his career. Perhaps that underscores his value to the Montreal franchise more than any other fact.

On December 9, 1969, Etcheverry was hired to coach the Alouettes. In his first season, he led the Als to victory in the 58th Grey Cup Game.  He resigned at the end of the 1972 season, having compiled an overall record is 14–24–1.  Though historically not many great players have ever enjoyed any successee Als to victory in the fall classic. His fever mirrored that of the Montreal fan base, serving as a rallying cry which focused his team in their pursuit of the ultimate goal.

For the outstanding achievements in his career, as a player and coach, Sam Etcheverry goes down in CFL history for revolutionizing the quarterback position and for his loyalty to football in Montreal.

Born May 24, 1900 – Died May 26, 1954

Class of 1963

Conacher was nicknamed “The Big Train” as well as earning the rare distinction of Canada’s top all-around athlete of the half-century, covering the period from 1900-1950.

He was a noted star in Ice hockey, lacrosse, baseball, boxing, lacrosse as well as Canadian Football. In his post-playing days, he turned to politics and earned election to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and later the Canadian House of Commons.  Perhaps his competitive spirit was the result of being part of a family of ten children.  He was compelled to forego any education beyond the eighth grade because he was better able to help support his family by finding work in his teen years. His affinity for sports
was something he soon discovered that might also help lift his family out of poverty.

In his Football career, he also displayed a rare versatility, playing halfback and handling the kicking duties for the Toronto Capitals (ORFU), Toronto Rugby Union and the Toronto Argonauts.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of his football career was his MVP performance in the 1921 Grey Cup game, where he scored 15 points in the Argos 23-0 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos.
There is a further testament in that game’s story that amplifies Conacher’s talent and commitment.  With the game seemingly well in hand for Toronto, Conacher left the field at the beginning of the fourth quarter, in order to play hockey with his Toronto Aura Lee team.

That’s a stunning sidebar to the recap of the first ever Grey Cup contested between a teams from Eastern and Western Canada.

He only played two years with the Argos, but helped them to a remarkable 15-1-1 record.  He is the record book for recording 33 singles in a season, at a time when teams only played six games.  Despite the modern-day expanded schedule, he still holds this mark.

While excelling in football, he developed his athletic skills to the point where he was a professional in four other sports.  This eventually precluded continued participation in Canadian Football, which at that time, was still an exclusively amateur domain.

Undeterred, Conacher set out to organize what would become the first professional football league in the country. He played for Toronto Crosse and Blackwell Chefs in 1933. In 1934, his last year as a football player, he played for the Wrigkey Aromints.

Almost fittingly, he passed away in the aftermath of a heart attack that he suffered after legging out a triple in a softball game, played between MPs and members of the Parliamentary press gallery. .
He is also enshrined in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Born January 1 , 1932, Died, November 7, 2006

Class of 1971 – Career Highlights:
Grey Cup Champion – 1954-1956
Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy (MOP Western Conference) – 1954. 1956-1961
Dave Driburgh Memorial Trophy (top scorer, Western Conference) – 1959, 1961
CFL MOP – 1957, 1958, 1960
Edmonton Eskimos Wall of Honour – 1983
US College Hall of Fame – 1976
Canadian Sports Hall of Fame – 1987

He began his career by playing on both the defensive and offensive side of the ball, but earned most of his acclaim for his versatile offensive abilities. Most of his team success came during his time with the Edmonton Eskimos, with whom he played from 1954-1962.

He also had stops in Toronto (1963-1965) and B C Lions (1966-1968), before he turned to a coaching career. He led the B C Lions for the 1969 and 1970 seasons, before assuming the role of General Manager until 1975. He returned to the coaching ranks in Edmonton in 1983 and held that post until early in the 1987 season, when health reasons forced him to retire.

The versatile star excelled at the halfback, quarterback and wide receiver positions making him a difficult player to defend throughout his career. To underline that commonly-stated opinion, he produced 5,210 rushing yards, 2,308 yards on pass receptions and completed 1,089 passes for 16,476 yards. These numbers just begin to tell justify his recognition as the CFL’s athlete of the quarter century.

He is most well-known for one of the greatest plays in Grey Cup history, when he raced 90 yards with a fumble recovery to help the Eskimos to an upset win in the 1954 championship game.

Parker was also a very good place kicker and at the time of his retirement, he was the league’s all-time scoring leader with 750 points.  In 1974, the CFL honoured his career by creating the Jackie Parker Trophy, which is awarded annually to the most outstanding rookie of the Western Division.

Born July 28, 1936

Class of 1973 – Career Highlights

Grey Cup Champion 1960, 1968, 1969
CFL All-Star – 1966, 1968, 1969
Jeff Russell Memorial Trophy – 1958, 1969
Most Outstanding Canadian – 1959, 1963, 1966, 1969
CFL MOP – 1963, 1966, 1969
Grey Cup MVP – 1969
Lou Marsh Trophy – 1969
Lionel Conacher Trophy 1969
Order of Canada – 1970
Canadian Sports Hall of Fame – 1975

In the Annals of Canadian Football, Russ Jackson has set the unattainable standard for Canadian-born Quarterbacks since his career ended after the 1969 season. He earned the highest ranking (8th) of any Canadian-born player in history when the CFL released their list of the top 50 players in league history.

His career statistical totals ranked him among the top five quarterbacks in history in each major category for all quarterbacks in the history of the game at the time of his retirement.

He completed 1356 of 2530 pass attempts (53.6%) for a total of 24592 yards.
He threw 185 touchdown passes while tossing only 125 interceptions.  All of these numbers added up to an impressive 91.0 passer rating for his great career.  When he ran with the ball, he highly another impressive skill set as he covered 5045 yards on 738 carries (6.8 yard average) and scored 54 touchdowns.  He was a model of consistency and a great team leader who led his Ottawa team to the playoffs in every season of his 12 year career.

He was a leader in the world of academics as he was a principal of a number of different schools after his professional football career.As a fitting tribute to his playing career and his contribution to academics, the CIS and its 26 member university teams decided in 1986 to create the Russ Jackson Award which is presented to the CIS player ‘who exhibits athletic ability, academic achievement and
devoted citizenship’.

Born December 18, 1910 – Died September
28, 1981

Class of 1966 – Career Achievements:

Four time All-Star , 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939
Imperial Oil Trophy, as outstanding player in the ORFU, 1938

Ferraro was a noted multi-position player who played as a Punter, Place-kicker, Quarterback, Fullback as well as a defensive player.  He went on to coach in Hamilton and Montreal from 1934 through the early 1940’s.  His excellence and versatility earned him selection to the All-Canadian Team of that era.

Prior to his Canadian Football exploits, Ferraro was a prolific running back at Cornell, where he earned honorable mention status in All-American voting from 1931-1933. In 1934, he was his college team’s captain.  He was also a great college basketball player and captained that team as well. He would be recognized for his sporting talents as an honoured member in the inaugural season of Cornell’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1978.

In 1934, Ferraro joined the Hamilton Tigers, where he played a variety of skill positions, before he moved on to Montreal for the next four seasons of his career.  Following his playing days he went on to become known as a coach whose methods and tactics made him very popular with his players.

To amplify his prowess as a player, he earned all-star recognition both as a flying wing (comparable to the modern-day flanker/split end position) and as a halfback. These aptitudes speak to his dominance as an offensive force and they make him stand out in the annals of the game as one of the few Hall of Famers who earned this type of recognition as an All Star at more than one position.

Born May 21, 1911

Class of 1966, Player –  Playing Career: 

WINNIPEG RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB/WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS 1933 – 1940
PLAYER/COACH, VANCOUVER GRIZZLIES   1941
AWARDS AND HONOURS
ALL-WESTERN FLYING WING  1938
ALL-WESTERN GUARD  1939
ALL-WESTERN QUARTERBACK  1940
GREY CUP PARTICIPATION  1935, 1937, 1938, 1939
GREY CUP WINNING TEAMS  1935 , 1939

Kabat was a bit of an anomaly in that he was among the first crop of American-born players who ventured across the border to try to make a name for himself in the Canadian version of football.  He was the first player in Wisconsin College History to earn three first team All-Big Ten selections, from 1930-1932.

In a strange twist, he was charged with teaching offensive line play despite the fact that he was primarily a running back as a player.
One of his other unprecedented claims to fame was that he was credited as an intelligent player who could play and understand the requirements of many different positions. He was also a member Winnipeg Grey Cup champs of 1935 – the first Western-based club to win the Canadian Championship.

He also was on the 1939 championship, a game he had to play with the burden of a broken toe.  Typical of many Canadian-based football players, Kabat also worked as a teacher and coach of high school teams while continuing with his own career.

He became so adept at his various positions through his playing career that he parlayed all of that knowledge into a coaching assignment with the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1941.

His legacy to the Canadian game is as a pioneer whose success, after arriving in Canada and learning the nuances that separated the Canadian game from its US counterpart, paved the way for thousands of imports to seek fame and fortune or extend their careers north of the border.

Born October 31, 1935

Class of 1976 – Career Highlights:

CFL All-Star – 11 times

CFL East Division All-Star -12 times

Grey Cup Champion 1957, 1963, 1965, 1967

He provided an early indication of his aptitudes when he played a central role on both the offensive and defensive lines of the Florida Gator teams of the mid-1950s. During his tenure there he was a first-team All-Southeast Conference pick, a consensus first-team All-American and was appointed as Florida’s team captain in 1956.

Despite being a fifth round draft pick of the Detroit Lions in 1957, Barrow opted to sign with the Hamilton Tiger Cats, where he starred from 1957 to 1970.

He was so dominant along the line, throughout his time with the Tiger Cats that he was voted the CFL lineman of the century in 1967. His Hamilton teams qualified for nine Grey Cup games in an 11-year span, largely on the strength of the defense in which he was a key component and leader.

Despite the focus on his defensive skills and perennial Defensive All-Star recognition, he was also a four-time East Division All-Star as an Offensive Tackle (1957-1960).

In the TSN vote for the 50 all-time greatest players in league history, he placed 17^th, a further indication of his greatness, particularly when noting that he was the second highest ranked lineman in history on that list.

He attributed much of his success to a 12 month commitment to the game, where he worked constantly to maintain top level of physical conditioning.

When his playing days came to an end, he immediately moved down the highway to become the General Manager of the Toronto Argonauts from 1971-1975.

In terms of personifying toughness in the history of the Canadian Football landscape, John Barrow has to be considered a key part of that conversation.

Born February 4, 1933

Class of 1973 – Career Highlights:

 CFL West Division All-Star – 1955, 1958, 1960-1962

CFL All-Star – 1962

Winnipeg Football Hall of Fame -1984

5-time winner of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Outstanding Player Honours

During his US College career, Lewis showed off his outstanding rushing ability as he established school records for touchdowns in a season (22), touchdowns in a career (64), rushing yards in a season (1,239) and career rushing yards (4,457). In the process, he earned the nickname of the Lincoln Locomotive. He was enshrined in the US College Hall of Fame in 2005.

Though he was drafted in the 6^th round of the 1955 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Colts, he opted to try to make a bigger splash with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

In 11 years with the Bombers, he enjoyed team success, playing on 4 Grey Cup Winners as well as considerable personal success.

The larger open field certainly played into his outstanding running ability as he carried the ball 1351 times for 8861 yards and an improbable 6.6 per rushing attempt. He was adept at pass receiving as well, hauling in 234 passes for 4251 yards. He proved to be an additional threat on the Bombers kickoff return team, where he averaged over 29 yards per return. All of these numbers are remarkable on their own, but are made more impressive when we note that he missed the 1956 season with a serious ankle injury-a critical, and possibly career event, for a running back.

At the time of his retirement, he ranked third on the CFL’s All-Time rushing list and was fourth in kickoff return yardage. He also scored 75 touchdowns during his career.

With those numbers, it was no surprise when he earned the vote to place 29^th in the poll of All-Time CFL players.

Perhaps the most impressive accolade that he earned during his outstanding career was the assessment of longtime CFL and NFL Coach Bud Grant, who called him the best player he ever coached.

Class of 1982

Born  October 14, 1938   Died September 18, 2008

Career Achievements

Playing Career

Ottawa 1960-1962

Saskatchewan 1963-1978

All-Western Quarterback 1966, 1968-1970, 1973, 1975-1976

All Canadian Quarterback 1970, 1973, 1975-1976

Schenly Most Outastanding Player 1970, 1976

Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy 1966, 1968-1970, 1976

Grey Cup participation 1960-1966-1967, 1969, 1972, 1976

Grey Cup Wins 1960-1966

The “Little General” devoted 46 years of his life to Canadian Football, including Hall of Fame stints as a player (1960-1978), television analyst (1980-1991) and Head Coach (1979-1980 and 1991-2006).

He earned his nickname, in his playing days, because he overcame a lack of physical stature (at 5’5”), due to an intense desire to succeed  and prove that he was such a student of the game. He would use his analytical and physical abilities to find many ways to exploit the opposition during his long tenure as a quarterback.

His big break came when he joined Saskatchewan after beginning his career with three seasons with Ottawa. The passing statistics which he accumulated during his career speak for themselves as he ranks among the league’s all-time leaders in each major passing category.

Consider 3,384 completions out of 6,233 attempts, which went for 50,535 yards and 333 touchdowns and it’s easy to see why he ranks among the best quarterbacks in CFL History.

As a Head Coach, he added to his legacy with a 142-137-1 regular season record in stints with Saskatchewan (player coach -1979-80), Edmonton (1991-1997) and Hamilton (1998-2006). His playoff coaching record was 11-9 and included Grey Cup wins in 1993 and 1999.