So close, and yet so far

GREY CUP DEFEATS STILL HAUNT RUNNERS-UP MANY YEARS LATER

Four decades have elapsed since Tony Gabriel’s finest football moment, but some things do not change over time.

A Trudeau is the prime minister of Canada, and Gabriel is still asked about his Grey Cupwinning catch.

Gabriel caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Tom Clements on Nov. 28, 1976 — 40 years ago on Monday — to give the Ottawa Rough Riders a 2320 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

The last-minute major was publicly celebrated as recently as July 31, when 21 members of the 1976 Rough Riders gathered at TD Place in Ottawa. Gabriel carried the Grey Cup on to the field as part of a ceremony in which the CFL’s 2017 championship game was awarded to Ottawa, home of the Redblacks.

“They did a halftime show where they showed (a video of) the Grey Cup coming from the prime minister’s office,” Gabriel says. “The mounted police handed it off and I carried the trophy to midfield, so it was kind of special.

“It was emotional to hold the Cup up high ... and I didn’t drop it.”

On the final day of July, Gabriel displayed a trophy during a production that included a video message from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. His father, Pierre Trudeau, was in power and in attendance when Ottawa defeated the favoured Saskatchewan side.

It was the most heartbreaking loss in franchise history until Nov. 29, 2009, when the Montreal Alouettes posted a 28-27 Grey Cup victory over Saskatchewan due to the infamous “13th man” unravelling. Gabriel was in the crowd, as he was when Saskatchewan celebrated Grey Cup victories in 1989, 2007 and 2013.

He had earlier played an integral role in two Grey Cup losses by Saskatchewan. In 1972, he caught three passes on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ final possession to set up a last-play, game-winning field goal by 19-year-old rookie Ian Sunter, who gave his team a 13-10 victory. Four years later, the future Hall of Fame tight end settled matters with only 20 seconds remaining.

The mere mention of Gabriel’s good name is enough to evoke excruciating flashbacks for any seasoned Roughriders fan. Yet, he has always been treated respectfully during visits to Saskatchewan, such as a 2013 trip to Moose Jaw for a sports dinner.

“The truth is that the great western fans treated me so well and were appreciative of an individual who was a Canadian and was a good football player,” Gabriel says. “In the end, I can apologize for whatever, but I think they forgave me after the 13th man in 2009.”

Jim Hopson is asked what Grey Cup memory is more painful: 1976 or 2009?

“Nobody’s ever asked me that before,” he says, “so I have to think about it for a moment.”

The 1976 Grey Cup game marked the end of Hopson’s four-year playing career with Saskatchewan. In 2009, he was in the midst of his successful tenure as the Roughriders’ president-CEO. As a player and a president, he swallowed a devastating Grey Cup defeat.

“At this moment, I would probably say ’09 (was worse), because in ’76 I thought there were going to be more opportunities as a player,” says Hopson, Ottawa Rough Riders receiver Tony Gabriel, seen with Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Moody Jackson after a 1977 game, is well remembered for his big Grey Cup catch in 1976. Saskatchewan reached the Grey Cup four times in the 10 years Jim Hopson served as team president and CEO. I have to say, though, that winning a Cup will kind of ease the pain. If that hadn’t have happened, I think I would tend to dwell on it more.”

Like Hopson, the Roughriders’ Rhett Dawson completed his playing career on Nov. 28, 1976.

Dawson remembers that day as if were a week ago. The game still gnaws at him, but ...

“Not as much as it once did,’’ the Plaza of Honor pass-catcher says from Austin, Texas. “For a while, it would just pop up all the time. You’d feel the dismay and disbelief and ‘How did that happen?’ and ‘Really?’

“But there were two good teams on the field that day. How appropriate, if you’re an Ottawa fan, for Tony Gabriel to catch a winning touchdown pass in the last 20 seconds of the Grey Cup when he’s the leading receiver year after year. They had a great team. We had a great team. Either team could have won that day.”

Dawson and Gabriel led their respective divisions in receiving in 1976. In the regular-season finale, Dawson caught a Ron Lancaster touchdown pass on the final play to give Saskatchewan a 33-31 victory over the host Calgary Stampeders — and first place in the Western Conference.

That conquest gave Saskatchewan a bye into the conference final against the Edmonton Eskimos, who had defeated the visiting Roughriders in the 1973, 1974 and 1975 Western finals.

Lancaster, Dawson, Hopson and friends exacted a measure of revenge on Nov. 20, 1976, defeating the Eskimos 23-13 at Taylor Field in the conference final. Steve Molnar led the Roughriders with 144 rushing yards, Molly McGee chipped in with 100 along the ground, and Bob Richardson added a 25-yard, one-handed TD catch in the fourth quarter.

“It’s where I’ve kind of hung my hat after all these years,” Dawson says of that game. “We had a fabulous year and we beat Edmonton (in the playoffs). We also beat them twice in the regular season. It wasn’t like they didn’t have a good team that year. We beat them and, in a way, it felt like the Grey Cup because we had lost to them in the previous years.

“We got to go to the Grey Cup and fought our asses off and we got beat by a good team. It’s just the way it happens sometimes. This might sound weird, but losing becomes just as important as winning because you find out what you’re made of. A little humility never hurts anyone and it causes you to go sharpen your pencil and put in that extra effort late in the year. When you feel like you’ve got everything working right, you can always make it a little bit better.

“Losing is important. If you played football from the sixth grade on and you never lost a game, what kind of experience would that be? You’d be like a spoiled brat.”

That said, Dawson knows that Ottawa spoiled Saskatchewan’s Grey Cup party. All these years later, various twists and turns in the game still come to mind.

“If Molly McGee hadn’t gone down with broken ribs ... and a frog wouldn’t bump his ass if he had wings,” Dawson concludes. “If, if, if ...”