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[Dave Dickenson will] enter the [Canadian Football] Hall [of Fame] next season in a class of 2015 that includes former Saskatchewan offensive lineman Gene Makowsky, Calgary and Saskatchewan defensive back Eddie Davis and U of Toronto (and CFL) defensive lineman Leroy Blugh in the players’ category, with former star player, coach, GM and player personnel man Bob O’Billovich, Montreal Alouettes owner Bob Wetenhall and amateur coach and administrator Larry Reda as builders.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
I am proudest though of North Vancouver's home grown boy - Larry Reda - making to the HOF!
I had the great fortune to play for Larry in minor football for some years and he was a coach I greatly admired and in a number of ways emulated over the years.
When he moved to the majors and left behind us younger guys with his assistant taking over, he selected us at the draft when he made it to the majors.
I'm not a big guy but Larry was one coach who looked only at ability and everyone loved playing for this guy. When it came to getting guys down under the weight limit they'd be moving to his mom's house (he hadn't married the love of his life yet but was dating his now wife) where he could control their intake.
Our parents loved this guy as we were practicing in summer and after a hard work out even without pads as teens we'd be tired after that to get into trouble.
When it came time to play HS ball every guy on our team stayed with Larry. I don't remember anyone of us even giving the HS team a second thought. But one night after practice the HS coach came into our dressing room and started screaming about guys not being on his team and pointing out guys from the HS. I was changing just by the door so scrambled behind it as this guy was also my BC Geog. teacher but he closed the door and I got it too.
Larry said if anyone wanted to go he'd understand. No one left. When I told my parents they flatly were clear that I was not going to be forced to leave his team as that is where they wanted me to play as Larry was loyal to me.
Backups always played - a lot.
We had a super large number of plays that no other teams had but execution was what he preached. He'd send a QB sneak or draw in on first down with the line 'tell them it's going all the way.'
He always had great assistant coaches who you respected and who did a great job too but Larry ran rhe offense.
When he was OC for a rival HS we went to our HC to tell him what plays they'd run and he said there was no way that the HC - a conservative would run that type of offense. We did our best to try and get guys in the game to see what they were running and we ended up losing the game despite we had better talent.
Larry was big in HS football for years and during the dog years kept HS football going in BC.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
