Is Hall door opening for Austin?
Kent Austin will finally get his chance to make the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Executive director Mark DeNobile confirmed Friday that Austin has been nominated by an anonymous member of the public and therefore will be considered by the hall’s selection committee this year. It doesn’t guarantee he’ll be enshrined — the three-stage process by which players are selected is truly Byzantine — but at least he’ll have an opportunity to get in.
He’s got a strong case. Austin, who spent 10 years with Saskatchewan, B.C., Toronto and Winnipeg, is currently 12th alltime in career passing yards with 36,030. Every player above Austin on that list is either already in the Hall of Fame (Anthony Calvillo, Damon Allen, Ron Lancaster) or likely on the way there (Ricky Ray, Henry Burris.)
There are also several players already in the hall that have lesser passing totals than Austin, including Dieter Brock, Condredge Holloway, Russ Jackson, Bernie Faloney, Dave Dickenson and Warren Moon.
While career passing yards aren’t the only measure, Austin has some other strong numbers: the second-highest yardage total in a season (and the ninth) as well as the fifth-highest per game passing yard average. He won two Grey Cup titles as a player.
So, what’s Austin missing? Personal accolades like Most Outstanding Player awards and all-star nods, which are also taken into account. During Austin’s four of five best seasons from 1990 to 1994, he was bested for those honours by fellow quarterback Doug Flutie, considered one of the best players in the history of the game.
With Austin set to get his shot, here are three other players with
Ticat ties who deserve consideration.
Joe Zuger
Often cited as one the of the hall’s most glaring oversights, Zuger played 10 years with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats from 1962 to 1971, winning three Grey Cups (he was the MVP in 1967).
Primarily a quarterback — he holds the record for most touchdown passes in a game with eight — Zuger also played defensive back and led the CFL in punting average five times in his career. Like Austin, Zuger didn’t win a bunch of individual awards but is considered one of the best players in team history.
Jesse Lumsden
The Canadian Football Hall of Fame incorporates players from the amateur ranks as well as the pros, so while Lumsden’s CFL career was cut short due to injury he deserves consideration as one of the most dynamic university football players of alltime.
Lumsden spent his first two seasons at McMaster splitting time in the backfield but once he became the Marauders’ primary threat in his third year, Lumsden exploded for 3,313 rushing yards and 41 touchdowns on just 356 carries — an astonishing 9.3 yards per carry — in his final two collegiate seasons.
Lumsden is fifth all-time in rushing (4,138), achieving that mark despite having played just four seasons of university football (and only starting for two).
Cookie Gilchrist
Carlton Chester (Cookie) Gilchrist played just six CFL seasons but was a divisional all-star at running back five consecutive years from 1956 to 1960 and was also an Eastern All-Star at linebacker in 1960.
His CFL career numbers: 82 games played, 35 touchdowns, 4,911 rushing yards, 1,068 receiving yards, 12 interceptions. He would go on to have a number of successful seasons with the Buffalo Bills of the AFL.
But what Gilchrist is best known for is turning down induction into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1983, citing racism on the part of a few CFL managers as the reason. It was a decision he would look back on with remorse.
“The two regrets I have in my life is that I didn’t go to college and I turned down the Canadian Football Hall of Fame,” Gilchrist told The Spectator in 2007. He died in 2011.
It’s time for the hall to right that wrong.
The 2018 induction class was just announced in March and will be enshrined this summer, so the Hall will have plenty have time — almost a year — to consider all of the candidates.
— with files from John Hodge, 3DownNation.com