KENAZ 'S BLOG: Hamilton Tiger Cats

Hamilton's Man of steel, Ralph Sazio

Sazio was a strict disciplinarian who brought high-spirited Angelo Mosca into line when Big Ang came from stints with Ottawa and Montreal.

"He said 'One slip and you're gone.' And Ang was fine."

Mosca laughed when remembering his relationship with his friend, he still had some mischief left in him, but he loved playing for Sazio. Still, the two often locked horns.

"I remember I had a great 1963 season playing both ways, and when I sat down to negotiate a contract, Ralph handed me the phone and said 'See what kind of deal you can get (elsewhere). I threw the phone at the wall. He picked it up and threw it back at me."

But Mosca stressed Sazio had a very caring side and helped many community efforts.

Ralph Sazio, who died suddenly at his home Thursday at 86, was the irresistible force that moved every object in his way no matter how immovable they thought they where. Another Hamilton hero's passing that caught everyone off guard.

"He was fine except for some back problems from the ravages of football," son Mark Sazio said.

Sazio's passing falls closely on the heels of Ron Lancaster's death a week ago Thursday. And the executive Sazio first worked for in Hamilton, former Canadian Football League commissioner Jake Gaudaur, also died in the past year.

1922 - Born in Avellino, New Jersey
1950 - Came to Hamilton to play for the Tiger-Cats
1953 - Became an assistant coach with the team
1963 - Became head coach of the Ticats
1964 - Won the Annis Stukus Trophy as top CFL coach
1967 - Won his third Grey Cup in five seasons
1968 - Became the Tiger-Cat general manager
1978 - Became Ticat president
1981 - Became Toronto Argonauts president
1983 - Engineered first Argo Grey Cup in 31 years
1988 - Inducted into Canadian Football Hall of Fame
1990 - Retired as Argo president
Sept. 25, 2008 - Passed away

Ralph Sazio came to Hamilton after serving in the Second World War and graduating with an arts degree from New York's Columbia University. The family settled in Burlington's Aldershot area, when it still was mostly fruit trees.

The big lineman was smart as a player, coach, manager and businessman. During his final year as coach, Sazio's Tabbies lost in the regular season to Lancaster's Saskatchewan Roughriders.

With a beat me once, never twice attitude, the Cats simply punished the league thereafter. No team could score a touchdown on Hamilton after that - they won seven games in a row, including a 24-1 pasting of the Roughriders in the Grey Cup game.

Oskie-Wee-Wee!!!
Kenaz

Paul Newman, cold hand of fate no match for Cool Hand

Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as "Hud,'' ``Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money" – followed by a second act as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario – has died. He was 83. Newman died Friday at his farmhouse near Westport following a long battle with cancer.

As an actor, Newman got his start in theater and on television during the 1950s, and went on to become one of the world's most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers. He was nominated for Academy Awards 10 times, winning one Oscar and two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures, including "Exodus,'' "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,'' "The Verdict,'' "The Sting" and "Absence of Malice.''

Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting.''

He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages. "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?'' Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray. They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in "The Long Hot Summer." Newman also directed her in several films, including "Rachel, Rachel" and "The Glass Menagerie.''

In 1982, Newman and his Westport neighbor, writer A.E. Hotchner, started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the company's profits are donated to charities. By 2007, the company had donated more than $175 million, according to its Web site.

R.I.P,

film bio and life story

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Remembering "The Little General"

Ron Lancaster's story is the history of almost half a century of the Canadian
Football League. He's done it all - from quarterback and head coach, to
general manager and broadcaster. An American export turned Canadian hero,
his was a triumph of skill and brains over brawn and bravado. An underdog
who rose to glory in an underdog league, the "Little General" battled the
odds to become a football legend.

Ron Lancaster
Lancaster's roots run deep in the blue collar steel town of
Clairton, Pennsylvania, where football was a religion. A standout high school
quarterback, he lacked one major attribute - size. A mere 5'5'' tall, Lancaster
was shunned by the big U.S. colleges. Instead he played for Ohio's tiny
Wittenburg University, where he gained a reputation for his great throwing
arm and strong leadership. Overlooked by the NFL, he was scouted by a team
he'd barely heard of - the Ottawa Roughriders. And the rest is CFL history.

Dramatic football footage illustrates a rollercoaster career. From "the
Miracle Game" of 1963, when "the little General" lead underdog Saskatchewan
to last minute victory over Calgary, to losing streaks and Grey Cup glory
- this is the story of a man with an indomitable will. A who's who of football
greats shared anecdotes and memories after his passing- including Russ Jackson,

"Ron and I first crossed paths in 1960 in Ottawa," said Russ Jackson, the legendary former Riders quarterback. "We sat beside each other in the locker-room but it was never a situation where 'I hate you, I don't want you to do well.' I think that was because of our personalities and that we both appreciated each other's ability and understanding of the game."

Despite being rivals, Jackson said he and Lancaster always wanted to help each other out.

"If the team did well, then we all did well," said Jackson. "In those days, you played with many of the same players for years and developed relationships with them. Later on, Ron and I became very close friends when he was coaching the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and I was working on the radio broadcasts because we'd spend a lot of time talking about football."

Hugh Campbell

Campbell said as a player Lancaster was a stickler for detail and demanded that his team practise hard because it would carry over to the football field. It's those qualities, Campbell added, that made Lancaster a great coach.

"It was just the smoothest and greatest of situations because he had a good idea of what to do and what he wanted to do and had a way of demanding it," he said. "At the same time all the players knew that he loved them and was on their side.

"As a player he was the toughest mentally. He made sure in practice you hustled as hard as you did in a game so that he could get the feel for what it would be like in the game. As a coach, his players had a great feel for him, the fans had a great feel for him because they had confidence he knew what he was doing."

On the sidelines, Lancaster earned a reputation of being a player's coach. He'd often give his troops the freedom to have fun, but demanded discipline and dedication on the field.

"Ron was a person people gravitated to," said former punter Sean Flemming, who played for Lancaster in Edmonton. "Loyal to his players almost to a fault, genuine to those he didn't know.

"Ron always said that the biggest compliment you could give a football player was to call him just that, a player. Someone who went out and did their job without any other reason but for the love of the game and for those around him. Ron was all that and more: He was a player, he was a coach, but most of all he was a great man."

and George Reed.

"We'd always have to grab him by the neck and put him on the bus, otherwise we would've been sitting there for three years (talking to people)," said George Reed, the Riders' legendary fullback. "He had that way of really mingling with the people and giving them his time and talking to them.

"He just had a way with people and people loved to talk to him. He always had time."

Ron Lancaster Sons Ron jr.
and Bob both played quarterback and coached, and grandson Marc is the high school quarterback.

more tributes from other CFL ledgends

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Labels: Hamilton Tiger Cats, Ron Lancaster

Sunday, August 03, 2008

A big Tiger Cat roar for Leif Petterson

O S K I E - W E E - W E E ! ! !

Leif Pettersen died this week at only 57, the victim of an apparent heart attack. What a shocker. He appeared to be in very good shape. Pettersen joined TSN as a game analyst for the CFL in 1986, the first year the network began televising CFL games.

A former CFL receiver, Pettersen was drafted by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1974 and played in the CFL for eight seasons. In 1976, Pettersen's Roughriders lost one of the most memorable Grey Cups when Ottawa's Tony Gabriel caught a long touchdown pass in the last minute to give the Rough Riders the win. However, even in a losing cause, that game was still a career highlight as Pettersen caught seven passes that day and received the game ball from then CFL Commissioner Jake Gaudaur.

Traded to the Tiger-Cats in 1978, Pettersen played four more seasons in Hamilton and had another Grey Cup appearance in 1980. Pettersen had his most productive year in 1979, when he led the Eastern Conference in pass receptions, was an All-Star, and was runner up for the Schenley Award as Most Outstanding Canadian.

In addition to his role at TSN, Pettersen worked at RBC Sports Professionals & Private Client Group as Director of Business Development, managing banking and investments for more than 800 athletes, coaches and sports executives across North America. Pettersen, a Toronto native, was a founding Governor of the Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame.

Rest in Peace

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Thanks again Cats!...For another stinker of a season

Thank god smell-o-vision hasn't been invented. If it was, the Hamilton Tiger Cats would have to be fined by the CRTC for causing an environmental heath hazard. Anyone passing by the stadium yesterday, oblivious to how bad our football team is, would wonder if 28,600 zombies had indeed invaded.

I was not one of them attending this game, nor any game for the last five years, or in fact no games until an owner plans to stop treating fans like complete morons. 'Sideshow' Bob Young spent money on increasing the number of beer concessions and food stands, I guess hoping that if he fills the peons who attend the games with enough overpriced booze, msg dogs and cheese wiz nachos it will dull their senses to the absolute overpriced talentless crap he put on the field. Jesse Lumsden excluded, the tailback is Hamilton's only star.

Unfortunately, Jesse was injured for this game. That meant many who where at home or in their favourite watering hole watching this Labour Day Clunker against Toronto were treated to Tommy Chang completing only 5-15 passes, before mercifully being replaced by Maas in the second half. A Maas to Brock Ralph 88-yard pass and run was the only time I cheered all game. 8-15, and how much do we pay Maas that that fine performance? way to much!

The Cats got spanked 32-14 by the Toronto Argonauts and Tommy Chang showed his maturity by taking it for the team and admitted they where bad. Too bad the coaching staff and management aren't as mature. They immediately try to spin this awful performance into another game of learning. Look Bob, we are 1-8! and out of the playoffs for the fifth time in six years! And all you can tell fans is by a lame "We're Restless" shirt. Enough of the PT Barnum managerial philosophy, it will be a cold day in He double hockey sticks, before I put my butt onto a piece of plank up in the stands again unless the quality of play improves drastically and now.

Hamiltonian's love their Cats, but we deserve more than a two bit shell game being played on us.

Later,
Kenaz

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

One last Oskie-Wee-Wee for two Tiger Cat ledgends

It was inevitable that some day Hamilton Tiger Cat fans would no longer hear the names of two of their all time favourite players being called out over the loud speaker. Yesterday was that sad day, the Cats announced the release of linebacker Rob Hitchcock and wide receiver Mike Morreale. It wasn't a big shock, it was obvious that the best playing days where behind both players and it was best for both players to go while they where on top.

Like any loss of this calibre though, it will be extremely tough to fill the void left by these Canadian hero's. Hitchcock played 12 seasons, all with Hamilton, in 200 games he cemented his eventual place on the Ticats wall of fame by becoming the all-time leader in defensive tackles (482) as well as special teams tackles (122) and also recorded the third most interceptions in team history (36).

Hamilton's "Iron Man", Morreale played eight seasons in Hamilton, 12 in the CFL, and remarkably never missed a single game in that entire span. In 216 career games, Morreale recorded 509 receptions for 6,649 yards and 24 touchdowns. He captured two Grey Cups, one with Toronto in 1996 and one with Hamilton in which he was named the championship's Most Outstanding Canadian in 1999.

Cheers guys and thanks for the memories.

Later,
Kenaz

KENAZ 'S BLOG

Sunday, August 08, 2010

What the hell is democracy!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Saying thanks and goodbye to a local gridiron giant and a Hollywood beheamouth