Hal Patterson 1932-2011

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sj-roc
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Another CFL obituary to report, former Alouette and Ti-Cat Hal Patterson passed away yesterday, on the same day as Herb Capozzi, at the age of 79.

He retired in 1967 as the league's single season and all-time reception yardage record holder (1,914 and 9,473 yards respectively, both of which have since been surpassed several times) and still holds the single game record with 338 yards (only two other players have surpassed 300 since).

His mark of eleven 100 reception yardage games in a single season, the first of four players to achieve this (in 1956), stood as a league record until Jamel Richardson surpassed him just this year with 12 in 18 games, although perhaps more impressively, Patterson's mark was achieved in a consecutive streak under a 14 game schedule.

I'm much too young to have ever seen him play but he must have been quite the spectacle in an era that placed far greater emphasis on the ground game.

http://en.montrealalouettes.com/article ... -passes-on
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Blue In BC
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My condolences to his family and friends. He was a true legend and I did get to see him play when I first started watching the CFL in the late 50's.

A sad day .
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Toppy Vann
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I had his classic pass catching photo from The Star Weekly on my wall as a teen. They used to have a full one pager of the CFL greats of the day every week. A great player.

As a kid playing football you cheered the Lions but in those years they weren't consistently winning but you also followed and admired the greats of the CFL. Fans today are more team specific I think than in those days but come Grey Cup westerners would only cheer for the West it seemed.

The photo was the typical receiver photo - leg near the camera high and a straight arm with no helmet on.

Patterson had some pretty fine QBs tossing the ball to him - Sam The Rifle Etcheverry and then probably the Ti-cats Bernie Faloney. He was also a very classy person if the media were to be believed.
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WestCoastJoe
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Never saw him play. But I know they called him Prince Hal.

I gather he was a very graceful athlete. Played DB too.

Condolences to his loved ones.
TheLionKing
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Too many members of the CFL family have passed away this year
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Sir Purrcival
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Last 3 years actually. It has just been a steady stream.
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Robbie
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RIP to Dr. Stephen Mendryk as well. He won three Grey Cups with the Edmonton Eskimos in the mid-1950s, has died after a lengthy illness at the age of 83.
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Bosco
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Hal Patterson and Sam Etcheverry in the 50's were to Alouettes fans what Beliveau and Richard were to Habs fans. Prince Hal had a stellar CFL carrear, and the league has sadly lost another legend.
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