Old BC Lions AP articles courtesy of St. Petersburg Times

[Robbie]

It is very hard and difficult these days to find newspapers that still provide free archived articles, especially those that have been around since 1901. But the St. Petersburg Times is one of those articles. If you want to see Associated Press articles on the BC Lions and other CFL news 1901, go to this page:

http://www.tampabay.com/google_archive/search.php

Click on the Google Newspaper Archives radio button, the type in a keyword in the Search text box. Obviously, typing in British Columbia Lions and BC Lions can get you lots of old articles. It’s nice of a Florida newspaper to include Canadian AP stories, including the CFL. Here are some of the articles that caught my eye:

October 19, 1957 – Lions end Dan Edwards is lost for the rest of the season for pneumonia.

November 30, 1963 – BC Lions were the favourite to win the upcoming 1963 Grey Cup.

August 15, 1973 – An unknown Johnny Musso runs for two TD to beat Edmonton 30-11.

January 29, 1975 – Two BC Lions, Harold Nunsperger and Francis Magrum, must pay for $19,700 for damages from fights in hotels. That would be a lot of money back in those days.

November 21, 1983 – Highlights of both the EDF and WDF. The Argonauts barely won the EDF when Cedric Minter scored a TD with 27 second left.

February 15, 1984 – Lions draft pick, bypassing Ian Sinclair and taking Frank Balkovec No. 1 overall.

November 12, 1984 – Winnipeg beat BC 31-14 in the 1984 WDF. Tom Clements was injured early in the second half with a shoulder injury after a hit by Nelson Martin, but was able to throw three TD passes before he left. Lions QB Tim Cowan threw two interceptions.

April 21, 1995 – news on former Lion Deatrich Wise.

November 11, 2002 – after the Lions lose 30-3 to Winnipeg in the WDSF, Eric Carter and Carl Kidd get into an altercation with a fan.

You are probably thinking why I’m not posting pictures, links, and articles. Well it looks like the web page doesn’t allow me so.

Of course, you can type in Grey Cup for such articles such as the 1962 fog bowl, 1966, 1967, 1976, and the exciting 1987 and 1989 and the routes in 1990 and 1997. In the 1987 GC article, it says that after Kauric kicked his 49-yard FG, there was still 1:10 remaining so it wasn’t the last play of the game contrary to what others remember. And since he’s a local from Florida who attended the Florida State University, there are a lot of articles on Lion fan favourite Danny McManus especially during his college years.

[sj-roc]

It is very hard and difficult these days to find newspapers that still provide free archived articles, especially those that have been around since 1901.

Easy if you have a VPL library card (or perhaps any public library card). Or at least it was last time I tried a few years ago.

[Hambone]

Kinda gotta chuckle at a couple of them.

"Unknown" Johnny Musso. Tell that to anyone from Alabama where the "Italian Stallion" was a Crimson Tide legend. Landing Musso was a bit of a coup for the Lions as he was expected to be a very high NFL draft pick that year.

Harold Nunsperger and Francis Magrum....... aka Garrett Hunsperger and Bud Magrum. When I'm back home in Prince George this weekend I'll have to ask the boys which PG bar it was they busted up.

[David]

Garrett Hunsperger and Bud Magrum. When I'm back home in Prince George this weekend I'll have to ask the boys which PG bar it was they busted up.

We actually had a couple of Garrett Hunsperger threads here a few years ago. Thanks for this Robbie as many of us were trying to get to the bottom of what really happened at the time. We were aware of that he and Bud ran afoul of the law, but didn't know any of the facts.

Garrett Hunsberger discussion

Sadly, Garrett and Bud are no longer with us. Garrett succumbed to cancer about 3-4 years ago, and Bud died tragically in a auto accident in Reno in 1991. Garrett remained friends with Wayne Matherne who is now living back home in Louisiana.

Hunsperger was one of the strongest men in all of pro football. Al Wilson told me the other week at the Orange Helmet Awards that he would bench press 500lbs! I've been in touch with his daughter-in-law (sending the family pictures and such from my collection). She had this to say in one of her emails some time ago:

Garrett talked about Vancouver a lot! He truly loved that city and I think if he hadn't gotten sick he would eventually moved back there to retire. He kept up with the local news and the weather there every day. I have to be honest he talked about the city more than the football. He truly loved playing football and always regretted that his knees didn't hold up because he would have loved to play it longer. He had to kind of make amends with himself years ago that his body just wouldn't let him do it. And the constant pain he was always was in from those years helped him remember why he had to stop in the first place! He didn't complain though he earned every single one of those pains and he took them with pride.

I know Garrett was an avid outdoorsman. It's nice to hear that playing football in this part of the world left such a big impression on the big man from Missouri.

DH

[hunsperger]

[quote="Hambone"]Harold Nunsperger and Francis Magrum....... aka Garrett Hunsperger and Bud Magrum. When I'm back home in Prince George this weekend I'll have to ask the boys which PG bar it was they busted up.[/quote]

Inn of the North...the other incident with Magrum took place in Campbell River at the Discovery Inn...