Page 5 of 11

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 11:28 pm
by David
This one's from my personal collection. It's by Bill "Rembrandt" Cunningham, the team photographer.

This was taken on October 30, 1971 the last game of the season, when the Leos took down the heavily favoured future Grey Cup champs, 31-7.

Late season acquisition Dickie Lyons is the ball carrier (wearing Paul Brothers' old #10, who was released a couple of months earlier). Jim Young looks on in the foreground, Ken Sugarman in the background, and #62 Ross Boise to the far right.

Image



DH :cool:

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:22 pm
by Robbie
In light of the recent conversation about the 1990 season on this thread viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17772, here is some simple information on a QB Lion who never played a single game and retired just after he Lions got his rights. In other threads, I've stated that the March 1990 trade of Matt Dunigan to the Toronto Argonauts for six essentially useless players was one of the worst trades the Lions have made in franchise history. One of six players received was this guy:

Image

Rick Johnson played four seasons for the Calgary Stampeders with only a mediocre performance despite his selection as the 1986 QB All-star selection and he eventually lost the starting job to Rick Worman. He moved on to the Argonauts for the 1989 season where he was also relegated as third string QB behind Gilbert Renfroe and John Congemi. Then in the 1990 6 for 1 trade for Matt Dunigan, the Lions acquired Rick Johnson. Using an apples to apples comparison, that's got to be one of the worst QB to QB trades ever. :bang: To add insult to injury to the Lions, Rick Johnson decided to retire shortly after to become an actor.

Then GM Joe Kapp certainly wasn't a good negotiator in acquiring Rick Johnson as he knew full well that there was enough QB's already competing for the starting job for the 1990 season - Joe Paopao, Doug Flutie, Rickey Foggie, and Major Harris. Talk about a huge wasted trade, and the five other players received from the Dunigan trade to the Argonauts only had very minimal impact and none of them seemed to last longer than one season. :puke:

It's debatable whether Rick Johnson did better as a professional football player or a professional actor as most of his roles have been very minor, with very small roles in films Jerry Maguire and Mulholland Falls and TV series Law & Order, Malibu Shores, Dallas, Silk Stalkings.

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2017 3:00 pm
by Robbie
David wrote:
Sat Apr 08, 2017 11:55 pm
It was the Leos roared out 8-4 record in '74 beind a very good O-line (particularly Curtis Wester at guard
Curtis Wester (May 7, 1951 – May 8, 1995) played for the Lions for three seasons as Offensive Guard from 1973-75. He was selected as a CFL All-Star in 1974 where he was the runner up for the Offensive Lineman of the year.
Image

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 3:14 pm
by Robbie
Defensive Back Keith Gooch who played for the Lions from 1984-89.

Image

Upon his retirement from playing, he went back to Fresno where he did his college and served as an assistant coach in 2002 in the ArenaFootball2 league:
http://www.arenafan.com/news/?page=pres ... ticle=1706

Now he is a corrections officer and two years ago he supported his younger brother who was in need of kidney transplant, and Keith became a kidney donor as well:
http://kmph.com/archive/kidney-donor-fr ... iting-list

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 8:57 pm
by Robbie
One of the more disappointments in Lions defence would be Stewart Hill - not so much because of his performance per se but rather, his inevitable comparisons to two other members that the Lions lost through free agency. After the 1990 season, two quality defensive players were lost to the Alberta rivals - Alondra Johnson the Stampeders and Willie Pless to the Eskimos where both players turned out to be long-term all-stars for their respective teams. :roll:

Image

In an attempt for redemption, the Lions signed Stewart Hill from the Eskimos and high expectations were immediately given to him given that he was an all-star for them and was the runner-up for the most outstanding defensive player for 1990. Unfortunately, Hill was no replacement for Johnson or Pless in that he was part of the terrible and pathetic Lions defence of 1991 and 1992 and the Lions let him go through free agency after two bad season. :puke:

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:09 pm
by Robbie
I've noticed that an extremely memorable game doesn't necessarily make all the players associated with that game just as memorable even if that player made a scoring play. Despite any personal biases, I think the most memorable Lions home playoff game would be the 2004 WDF and the most memorable players from that game would be Duncan O'Mahony who in a rare positive performance scored the game-tying field goal and then the game-winning field goal in overtime, maybe Dave Dickenson coming in relief of the league MOP Casey Printers which may have caused the eternal argument and debate as to whether he should have started the following Grey Cup or not, and of course Paul McCallum who missed a chip shot in overtime. Henry Burris passed for 416 yards and three TDs in a losing cause for the Roughriders.

That said, do you remember who else scored for the Lions? Specifically, after the Lions scored a quick TD the Roughriders scored two touchdowns to lead 14-7, who scored the Lions second touchdown to tie the game 14-14?

A wide receiver who will never be considered a Lions legend and who is almost totally forgotten by now - Chris Brazzell.

ImageImage

An older article on him in 2008:
http://www.alicetx.com/sports/article_2 ... 3619a.html

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 2:09 pm
by David
I never saw him play, but in 1961 the Leos signed Tom Brown, an All-American Outland Trophy winner (top lineman in US college football). He was one of the club's biggest signings to that point. Tom was a formidable force for us at linebacker and played until 1967. He was elected to the CFL Hall of Fame in 1984.

Next to Solly, he was the best linebacker to play for the Leos, although I was also partial to Ray Nettles. Some could make a case for Norm Fieldgate and Glen Jackson.

DH :cool:

Image

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 2:35 pm
by WestCoastJoe
David wrote:
Thu Oct 19, 2017 2:09 pm
I never saw him play, but in 1961 the Leos signed Tom Brown, an All-American Outland Trophy winner (top lineman in US college football). He was one of the club's biggest signings to that point. Tom was a formidable force for us at linebacker and played until 1967. He was elected to the CFL Hall of Fame in 1984.

Next to Solly, he was the best linebacker to play for the Leos, although I was also partial to Ray Nettles. Some could make a case for Norm Fieldgate and Glen Jackson.

DH :cool:

Image
Yes. Outstanding player for us.

A few years back he, Willie Fleming and Norm Fieldgate were at the game to sign cards. I keep those cards in a safe place, easily accessible.

Tom Brown

Ray Nettles

Solomon Elimimian

At TC one time, I was astonished to see how fluidly Ray Nettles moved sideways, side-stepping smoothly over the bags laid out for the drill. A small thing, but when you saw him move, one could visualize him doing the drill from high school to college to the pros. Nettles could really scrape to the ball.

I did get to see Tom Brown play. :thup: And Ray Nettles. :thup: Solomon Elimimian is part of a great tradition. :thup:

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 3:01 pm
by KnowItAll
David wrote:
Thu Oct 19, 2017 2:09 pm
I never saw him play, but in 1961 the Leos signed Tom Brown, an All-American Outland Trophy winner (top lineman in US college football). He was one of the club's biggest signings to that point. Tom was a formidable force for us at linebacker and played until 1967. He was elected to the CFL Hall of Fame in 1984.

Next to Solly, he was the best linebacker to play for the Leos, although I was also partial to Ray Nettles. Some could make a case for Norm Fieldgate and Glen Jackson.

DH :cool:
how about

O.J. Brigance
Alondra Johnson
James West
Tyrone Jones
Kevin Konar
Carl Weathers :wink:

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 3:10 pm
by TheLionKing
I was fortunately enough to see Tom Brown play. One of the greatest linebackers to wear a Lions jersey IMO

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 3:32 pm
by David
Okay, how about this then? Tom Brown was the greatest linebacker to wear the best uniform the Leos have ever sported? :wink:

How can you argue with that gorgeous burnt orange and black combination? The above uniform was their home uni in those days, but home or away they looked classy, finished off with black helmets and a "white, orange, white stripe" down the middle and a burnt orange paw on each side. :thup:


DH :cool:

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 7:05 pm
by Sir Purrcival
I was able to give Tom Brown one of the all time Dream Team posters via a friend a few years back. He wasn't in very good health as I understand it but he signed one of my posters and I gave him an extra I had in gratitude.

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 9:01 pm
by TheLionKing
David wrote:
Thu Oct 19, 2017 3:32 pm
Okay, how about this then? Tom Brown was the greatest linebacker to wear the best uniform the Leos have ever sported? :wink:

How can you argue with that gorgeous burnt orange and black combination? The above uniform was their home uni in those days, but home or away they looked classy, finished off with black helmets and a "white, orange, white stripe" down the middle and a burnt orange paw on each side. :thup:


DH :cool:
Totally agree David. Best uniform EVER

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 12:55 pm
by Robbie
And the big man.....Danny Barrett!

Image
ImageImage

At the start of the 1992 season when the Lions would do their annual commercial campaign in which the theme would the Thunder and Lightning, the original commercial introduced three Lions players who won individual awards from 1991 and show their player cards: Jon Volpe......Jim Mills.....and league outstanding player Doug Flutie. But when Doug Flutie was lost the free agency to Calgary and then after the terrible trade to the Stampeders for Barrett, the final line was changed to: ......and the big man Danny Barrett.

First, while at 5'11" Barrett certainly was not a small man, to call him the big man might be an overstatement or at least not the most effective and descriptive term for him.

Second, he had huge shoes to fill for the team and was expected to replace the outgoing league MOP. And I remember then-owner Murray Pezim boldly stating that the 1992 season would be a fantastic one for the team. But alas, Pezim was dead wrong and Barrett was no good replacement as he and his team had a terrible 3-15 season. Despite winning the Tom Pate Memorial Award, it's the performance on the field and not off the field is what the fans want. He improved slightly in 1993 and briefly set a CFL record of 601-yards in a game but the team still had to settle for a fourth place finish in the west and an immediate playoff loss in the WDSF in Calgary in which the offence could only put up 9 points in the form of 3 field goals.

As such, when it comes to memorable BC Lions quarterbacks, Danny Barrett is certainly not one of them and I stated personally that the I feel the trade in the off-season after the 1993 is considered one of the best BC Lions trades ever.

Re: Throwback Thursday

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 3:28 pm
by KnowItAll
I was a Danny Barrett before 92. I respected that he was willing to play receiver for a while. I cheered for him to become a successful QB, even if it had to be in Calgary. Was a real disappointment when he didn't have the same success with the Lions, sigh