The End of an Era

Well, folks, Ron Lancaster, aka "The Little General", aka "The Wizard of Wittenberg", aka "The Greatest Roughrider" has passed on. Everybody who follows the CFL has a memory of Ronnie. While I never saw him play, I was witness to him patrolling the sidelines as a CFL head coach. It was great entertainment watching him as the game progressed, whether he was rolling up his sleeves when he got annoyed by his team's play, or lifting his hat to run a hand through his hair and put the hat back on before a big play, or yammering at the officials, Ronnie never disappointed. I remember a story my cousin told me about seeing Ron before a game at Taylor Field. He was signing autographs, as the head coach of Hamilton at the time, and my cousin said to him, "Don't beat us too bad," to which Lancaster laughed and replied, "We're only here for two points."

It always seemed like he was forever intertwined with the Roughriders. Their greatest era was when he was their quarterback, two of their most disastrous seasons had him as head coach, his last game as Eskimo head coach was in the '97 West final when the Riders won, and in 2003, as head coach of Hamilton, their only win that season came at the expense of, you guessed it, the Roughriders.

Now, I know TSN had this little list of the 50 greatest CFL players a couple of years ago and named Doug "I'm too important to be tackled" Flutie, but as far as I'm concerned, Lancaster should have been #1. To borrow a line from Bret Hart, Ron Lancaster could be described as "The best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be."