Lionbackers.com

1996
It was a season of change and instability for the Lions. Former quarterback and fan favourite Joe Paopao returned to the Lions from the Edmonton Eskimos as the new Head Coach, replacing Dave Ritchie. The biggest change came on March 11th. That was the day owner Bill Comrie announced that the club had been sold to a group of 10 local businessmen headed by Nelson Skalbania and Michael Jensen. The Lions held training camp at UBC with over a hundred players invited. Mike McCarthy arrived in Vancouver to become the new Lions' President. On the field, the BC Lions started the season with 18 new faces in the line-up. Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware was the new starting quarterback. The club went 0-4 to start the season. Damon Allen was signed to become the new QB. Once more the club lost, this time at home against Hamilton, but won in Hamilton the following week. Generally, it was a season of turmoil. August 31 marked the end of Nelson Skalbania and his group as owners of BC Lions. The team went into receivership. The bright spot of the season was an incredible against-all-odds 35-11 victory over Doug Flutie and the Toronto Argonauts, in September. On October 31st, Hamilton Businessman David Braley announced his intention to buy the football team. November 2nd marked the end of the season as the Lions defeated Ottawa 35-24 in what was the Rough Riders' final game in club history. December came and the Lions announced Glen Ringdal as the new team President. A season ticket campaign was started with the need to increase awareness and revenue for the franchise.

West Division Team GP W L T PF PA Pts
Calgary Stampeders 18 13 5 0 608 375 26
Edmonton Eskimos 18 11 7 0 459 354 22
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 18 9 9 0 421 495 18
Saskatchewan Roughriders 18 5 13 0 360 498 10
British Columbia Lions 18 5 13 0 410 483 10

East Division Team GP W L T PF PA Pts
Toronto Argonauts 18 15 3 0 556 359 30
Montreal Alouettes 18 12 6 0 536 467 24
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 18 8 10 0 426 576 16
Ottawa Rough Riders 18 3 15 0 352 524 6

Semi-Finals - Edmonton 68 - Winnipeg 7
Semi-Finals - Montreal 22 - Hamilton 11

Finals - Edmonton 15 - Calgary 12
Finals - Toronto 43 - Montreal 7

Grey Cup - Toronto 43 - Edmonton 37

BC 22 at Winnipeg 25
[video][/video]
Andre Ware was given the starting QB job - unsuccessful

Hamilton 28 at BC 24
[video][/video]
Damon Allen's first ever game as a BC Lion. Who would have thought that he would stay with the Lions for seven years! That said, can he be considered one of the best ever free agent signings?

BC 27 at Montreal 28
[video][/video]

Robbie wrote:Hamilton 28 at BC 24
[video][/video]
Damon Allen's first ever game as a BC Lion.

Don't know about anyone else here but I was at this game on Sat Jul 27, 1996: one of only 12,761, which set a record for the Lions' worst-ever attendance at BCP. That record was "bested" two years later on Sat Sep 26, 1998 when 12,256 appeared for another Hamilton visit (Hamilton has ALWAYS been our worst draw!).

I'm pretty sure it was in one of these two very funereal games, I can't remember which, where a fan blew a whistle from the stands just as a play was about to start. Some players on both sides thought the play was blown dead by the officials while others on both sides played on. The officials decided to nullify the play and have the fan escorted from the building. The optics simply could not have been any uglier: kicking a fan out when you've drawn your smallest crowd, ever.

Watch from about 2:10 of this clip and check how empty the stands were, along the sideline near and behind the goal line at what was then the video board side of the field. As much as we lament today's crowds and how much bigger they could be, it's pretty sobering to realise the way things used to be around here. To think that this was among the first handful of games I saw as a regular at BCP and I've somehow managed to stay on for the whole ride ever since.

sj-roc wrote:

Robbie wrote:Hamilton 28 at BC 24
[video][/video]
Damon Allen's first ever game as a BC Lion.

Don't know about anyone else here but I was at this game on Sat Jul 27, 1996: one of only 12,761, which set a record for the Lions' worst-ever attendance at BCP. That record was "bested" two years later on Sat Sep 26, 1998 when 12,256 appeared for another Hamilton visit (Hamilton has ALWAYS been our worst draw!).

What a way to welcome Damon Allen as a Lion despite his previous accomplishments in the league as a two-time Grey Cup MVP with the low attendance. There are some players who will never become all that popular despite well they perform. I'm sure most Eskimos fans wouldn't consider Allen as their favourite QB despite guiding the team to two Grey Cups with his MVP performance and instead, may have better memories with Warren Moon, Tom Wilkinson, and maybe even Matt Dunigan and Ricky Ray. And the same thing with Argonauts fans despite taking the team to their last Grey Cup in 2004 with his MVP performance and his 2005 MOP performance and they may have better memories of Joe Barnes, Condredge Holloway, and Doug Flutie.

I've indicated before that it's fair to say that the 1996 to 2002 seasons were considered the Dark Ages for the Lions, and I've never called Damon Allen with his initials DA but others have and I just realized something:

DA = Damon Allen = Dark Ages

The 1996 EDF in its entirety:


At 3:02:51, you can see maybe why the CFL division trophies were eventually redesigned in 2004 to allow more fairness to both of the finalists. The east division winners of the James S. Dixon trophy (Eastern Cup) can sip champagne out of that trophy. But the west division winners cannot do the same thing with their Neil J. Piffles Taylor trophy as it's not in the form of a cup. So unjust and unfair.