By Mick Holien
Prompted to clamor for the satellite remote because of the first half doldrums in the Seahawk-Niners game I turn the channel to the scene of a full-scale blizzard Ottawa where players from a pair of prominent Canadian cities are about to determine their National Championship.
And square in the midst of the 105th Grey Cup is Montana’s in Dave Dickenson who has extended his ’95 Grizzly reputation as Legend of the Fall” north of the border to Canada.
But while Dickie has claimed his share of CFL accolades as a quarterback for British Columbia he now wears the mantle of Calgary’s head coach where for the second consecutive year he has taken the Roughriders to the chipper.
And at his signal calling helm is Eastern Washington’s Bo Levi Mitchell joined across the line by record setting former Sacramento State signal caller Ricky Ray.
Three-plus hour later in the midst of a well documented finish Ray became the first CFL quarterback to win a quartet of national titles.
You might remember in 2000 Ray was poised to led the Hornets to a first ever win over Montana and the sophomore had scampered for a pair of TDs to lead Sac to a 20-0 halftime lead.
The Grizzlies responded to crawl within three with two and a half to go setting the stage for Ray who had scored on a 44-yard first half un.
Running in front of the Hornet bench Ray unexplainably on his way o the ground flipped the ball to an unsuspecting Damon Parker who returned the miscue 40 yards for a win clinching Grizzly TD.
But here’s with a nod to Paul the Rest of the Story.
Grizzly hoop was playing an exhibition in Calgary a few years ago and I was chatting with The Argos heads coach and happened to repeat the story.
Maybe sipping a good scotch he yelled into the hotel lobby for Ray to come into the lounge so I could repeat the story to him.
A multi-year All-Pro who has passed for more than 60,000 professional yards was not pleased to relive the malady leading to one of Montana’s 13 straight wins on the way to the title game.
