Ron Lancaster

Ron Lancaster

No. 16, 23
Nickname(s)	The Little General
Date of birth	October 14, 1938
Place of birth	Fairchance, Pennsylvania
Date of death	September 18, 2008 (aged 69)
Place of death	Hamilton, Ontario
Career information
CFL status	National
Position(s)	QB
Height	5 ft 5 in (165 cm)
Weight	185 lb (84 kg)
College	Wittenberg
Career history
As coach
1979–1980	Saskatchewan Roughriders
1991–1997	Edmonton Eskimos
1998–2003	Hamilton Tiger-Cats
2006	Hamilton Tiger-Cats
As player
1960–1962	Ottawa Rough Riders
1963–1978	Saskatchewan Roughriders
Career highlights and awards
Grey Cup champion (1960, 1966, 1993, 1999)
CFL All-Star	1970, 1973, 1975, 1976
CFL West All-Star	1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1976
Awards	1970 - CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award 1976 - CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award 1977 - Tom Pate Memorial Award 1996 Annis Stukus Trophy 1998 Annis Stukus Trophy 2008 CFL Commissioner's Award
Career stats
Canadian Football Hall of Fame, 1982

Ronald "Ron" Lancaster (October 14, 1938 – September 18, 2008) was a Canadian Football League quarterback. after his retirement as a player, he was also coach and general manager in the same league, and a sports announcer for CBC Television. At the time of his death, he was the Senior Director of Football Operations of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He is enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1982), the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1985) and the Wittenberg University Athletic Hall of Honour (1985).

Early life

Lancaster was born in the Pittsburgh area industrial town of Fairchance, Pennsylvania but moved to nearby Clairton, Pennsylvania as a young boy. At the time of his death, his mother still resided in Clairton.

Playing career

Lancaster was a talented quarterback by the time he graduated from Clairton High School, but due to his small 5′5″ (165 cm) stature,^[1][2] he was ignored by most college scouts. He attended tiny Wittenberg University and again showed talent, but no NFL scouts showed any interest; however, a scout for the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League liked his on-field leadership, and Lancaster was signed by Ottawa.^[3]

During his rookie season with Ottawa in 1960, while he shared the quarterbacking duties with another future Hall of Famer, Russ Jackson, Ottawa won the Grey Cup. He spent two more years with Ottawa, but after a losing season in 1962 (6–7–1), Lancaster was traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. (He would have a losing record only one other time in his career, in his last season as a player.)^[4]

It was with Saskatchewan that "The Little General" found his stride. In 16 seasons with Saskatchewan (1963–1978), he led the team into the playoffs 14 consecutive times, and made it to the CFL's Western Football Conference final 12 times. During that period, Saskatchewan represented the West in the Grey Cup five times (1966, 1967, 1969, 1972, and 1976); however the Roughriders won the big game only once, in 1966, when they defeated the Ottawa Rough Riders 29–14.

Over Lancaster's 16 seasons with the Roughriders, they won 170 games with him at quarterback,^[4] and had only one losing record, 4–11–1 in 1978, which was Lancaster's final season as a quarterback.

He was the first quarterback in CFL history to reach 50,000 career passing yards, was a finalist for the Schenley Award as most outstanding player in 1966, 1970 and 1976, (winning in 1970 and 1976), was an All-Canadian in 1970, 1973, 1975 and 1976 and a Western all-star in 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1975 and 1976.^[4]

He was so dominant as a quarterback, that on the day that he died, which was 30 years after he retired from playing, he was still ranked in the top 3 in career stats in a number of categories:

• second in touchdown passes (333, surpassed only by Damon Allen) [Eight months after Lancaster's death, Anthony Calvillo moved past Lancaster into second place.]
• third in pass completions (3,384)
• third in pass attempts (6,233)
• third in yards passing (50,535)

In November 2006, the Canadian sports network TSN listed Lancaster in 7th place on their Top 50 players of the CFL's modern era.

Career statistics

			Passing								Rushing
Year	Team		Att	Comp	Pct	Yards	TD	Int	Rating		Att	Yards	Avg	Long	TD
1960	OTT		201	101	50.2	1,843	16	18	71.4		19	134	7.1	40	0
1961	OTT		100	49	49.0	966	9	8	79.8		17	122	7.2	23	1
1962	OTT		98	48	49.0	1,016	9	12	65.7		10	76	7.6	22	0
1963	SSK		226	106	46.9	1,727	11	19	54.2		34	139	4.1	15	2
1964	SSK		263	144	54.8	2,256	16	13	83.1		26	152	5.8	28	3
1965	SSK		305	160	52.5	2,586	17	26	64.2		33	84	2.5	20	3
1966	SSK		303	182	60.1	2,976	28	20	96.4		29	91	3.1	24	1
1967	SSK		330	169	51.2	2,809	16	24	66.1		29	131	4.5	25	2
1968	SSK		358	181	50.6	2,969	12	17	70.2		25	197	7.9	24	2
1969	SSK		354	188	53.1	3,104	25	28	73.5		22	115	5.2	48	3
1970	SSK		330	175	53.0	2,779	16	22	69.7		21	71	3.4	20	2
1971	SSK		375	192	51.2	2,759	16	23	64.1		5	0	0.0	2	0
1972	SSK		357	208	58.3	2,942	23	20	83.1		7	12	1.7	15	0
1973	SSK		464	263	56.7	3,767	22	27	74.7		8	17	2.1	13	1
1974	SSK		395	222	56.2	2,873	20	20	75.0		8	15	1.9	12	1
1975	SSK		441	239	54.2	3,545	23	27	72.6		14	11	0.8	10	0
1976	SSK		494	297	60.1	3,869	25	25	80.6		5	5	1.0	2	2
1977	SSK		449	255	56.8	3,072	14	20	69.8		14	48	3.4	9	3
1978	SSK		390	205	52.6	2,677	15	27	58.5		10	8	0.8	2	3
OTT totals			399	198	49.6	3,825	34	38	72.1		46	332	7.2	40	1
SSK totals			5,834	3,186	54.6	46,710	299	358	72.4		290	1,096	3.8	48	28
CFL totals			6,233	3,384	54.3	50,535	333	396	72.4		336	1,428	4.3	48	29

Coaching career

Lancaster was a player-coach in the 1977 and 1978 seasons, serving as Saskatchewan's offensive co-ordinator.

Lancaster became Saskatchewan's head coach immediately after his 1978 playing season but found "the glorious fifties and sixties were over, and he was the first Roughrider coach in sixteen years who did not have Ron Lancaster at quarterback."^[5] The Green Riders finished 2–14 in consecutive seasons and Lancaster would not coach again for 11 years.

After serving as a colour commentator for The CFL on CBC from 1981-1990, he returned to the coaching ranks when he was named 12th head coach in Edmonton Eskimos history on February 4, 1991. He coached the Eskimos from 1991–1997, amassing an 83–42 regular season record and a Grey Cup win in 1993. He passed Hugh Campbell for first place on the Eskimos' list for coaching wins October 27, 1996.

Lancaster became the 17th head coach in Hamilton Tiger-Cat history on November 26, 1997. He coached the Tiger-Cats from 1998–2003. He took the team to the Grey Cup twice (1998, 1999) winning it in 1999. On July 10, 2006, Ron Lancaster was re-hired as the teams head coach on an interim basis after the firing of coach Greg Marshall.

Lancaster’s 142 career regular-season wins place him fourth on the CFL’s career regular season wins list.^[6]

CFL coaching record

Team	Year	Regular Season					Post Season
		Won	Lost	Ties	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Result
SSK	1979	2	14	0	.125	5th in West Conference	–	–	Missed Playoffs
SSK	1980	2	14	0	.125	5th in West Conference	–	–	Missed Playoffs
SSK Total		4	28	0	.125	0 West Division Championships	-	-	0 Grey Cups
EDM	1991	12	6	0	.667	1st in West Division	0	1	Lost in Division Finals
EDM	1992	10	8	0	.556	2nd in West Division	1	1	Lost in Division Finals
EDM	1993	12	6	0	.667	2nd in West Division	3	0	Won Grey Cup
EDM	1994	13	5	0	.722	2nd in West Division	0	1	Lost in Division Semi-Finals
EDM	1995	13	5	0	.722	2nd in North Division	1	1	Lost in Division Finals
EDM	1996	11	7	0	.611	2nd in West Division	2	1	Lost in Grey Cup
EDM	1997	12	6	0	.667	1st in West Division	0	1	Lost in Division Finals
EDM Total		83	43	0	.659	2 West Division Championships	7	6	1 Grey Cup
HAM	1998	12	5	1	.694	1st in East Division	1	1	Lost in Grey Cup
HAM	1999	11	7	0	.611	2nd in East Division	3	0	Won Grey Cup
HAM	2000	9	9	0	.500	2nd in East Division	0	1	Lost in Division Semi-Finals
HAM	2001	11	7	0	.611	2nd in East Division	1	1	Lost in Division Finals
HAM	2002	7	11	0	.389	3rd in East Division	–	–	Missed Playoffs
HAM	2003	1	17	0	.056	4th in East Division	–	–	Missed Playoffs
HAM	2006	4	10	0	.286	4th in East Division	–	–	Missed Playoffs
HAM Total		55	66	1	.455	1 East Division Championship	4	3	1 Grey Cup
Total		142	137	1	.509	2 West Division Championships 1 East Division Championship	11	9	2 Grey Cups

Broadcasting career

CBC Television invited Lancaster to become a colour commentator on CFL broadcasts in 1980. He was part of a trio that included Don Wittman doing the play-by-play and former Argonaut head coach Leo Cahill doing colour commentary along with Lancaster. He was with the CBC from 1980–1991 and was a member of the CBC team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea as the play-by-play broadcaster for basketball.

Illness and death

In 2004, Lancaster was diagnosed with bladder cancer, but appeared to have beaten it after treatment. In 2008, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and immediately started treatment. Lancaster was positive in his outlook, stating "Five years ago, I survived a battle with cancer, and now we have another battle on our hands. The goal is to get this taken care of and move forward just like I did five years ago. We will approach this the same way as then and I thank you all in advance for your kindness as I am on my path to recovery."^[7] Six weeks later, on September 18, 2008, Lancaster died of a heart attack.^[8][9]

He was survived by his wife, Bev and his three children Lana, Ron, and Bob, and four grandchildren.^[10][11]

At the 2008 CFL season Awards ceremony on November 20, 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Commissioner's Award for outstanding contribution to the CFL by Commissioner Mark Cohon .^[12]

See also

• List of gridiron football quarterbacks passing statistics

References

Notes

1. "The Little General: The Life and Times of Ron Lancaster". CBC-TV. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
2. Henshaw, Jim (November 20, 2007). "The Legion of Decency: Rider Pride". Retrieved December 4, 2008.
3. "Life and Times: Ron Lancaster". CBC News. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
4. "Ron Lancaster". Front Office Team. Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved September 18, 2008.
5. Mullick, Rajeev. CFL Legends: Ron Lancaster. Retrieved January 17, 2006.
6. 2009 Canadian Football League Facts, Figures & Records, Canadian Football League Properties/Publications, Toronto, Ontario, ISBN 978-0-9739425-4-5, p.234
7. Masters, Mark (August 6, 2008). "Lancaster facing another fight with cancer". National Post (Canada). Archived from the original on August 13, 2008. Retrieved September 18, 2008.
8. Maki, Allan (August 19, 2008). "Lancaster cast a long shadow in the CFL as a Hall of Fame player, coach, GM and broadcaster". Globe and Mail (Canada). Retrieved September 19, 2008.
9. "CFL fans remember Ron Lancaster". CBC Sports. September 19, 2008. Retrieved September 25, 2008.
10. "CFL icon Lancaster dies at 69". CBC Sports. September 18, 2008. Retrieved September 18, 2008.
11. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=249878&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main
12. "Als' Calvillo, Argonauts' Dorsey take CFL honours". Toronto Star. November 20, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2008.

Sources

• CFL Facts, Figures and Records 2007.
• Official WFC, EFC and CFL statistics 1960 to 1978.
• The Canadian Encyclopedia