Lotta love for Flutie 20 years after glory
Sixteen minutes before kickoff, Argonauts great Doug Flutie strode to midfield wearing light blue jeans and his familiar No. 2 Argos jersey, flanked by a handful of club officials and alumni.
The Argos designated Monday’s game against the Ottawa Redblacks as an occasion to honour the squads that won Grey Cup titles in 1996 and 1997, but the focal point was Flutie, who was officially enshrined as an all-time Argo and set several club records while guiding the team to those titles.
In his two seasons with the Argos, Flutie set single-season franchise bests in completions (434), passing yards (5,720), and touchdowns (47), winning 30 of his 36 starts.
More important, Flutie said Monday night, his Toronto years served as a turning point in a 21-year career that saw him suit up for eight teams across three leagues.
“I have such a great affection for the city of Toronto and those Argo teams,” said the 54-year-old Flutie during a pre-game ceremony. “Thank you guys for reigniting a career that brought me back to the NFL as well. It was a memorable time and the most fun I’ve ever had playing football.”
The pre-game ceremony included a short highlight reel that underscored why Flutie came to mean so much to the franchise and its fans.
As the highest-profile player on a dominant Argos club, Flutie inspired an enduring loyalty among fans. As for Argos gear spotted in the concourse and stands Monday night, Flutie jerseys outnumbered those of his Grey Cup teammates and current players.
One man sported a No. 7 Buffalo Bills Flutie jersey, while Belleville resident Dustin Lappan stood on the north-end concourse cradling his son in one arm and a Flutie bobblehead in the other, while wearing San Diego Chargers Flutie jersey.
Lappan still owns a box of Flutie Flakes, the eponymous cereal that hit the market during Flutie’s years with the Bills, capitalizing on his popularity there.
Lappan can’t shake the magic of the 1997 season, when he and his dad routinely drove from Kingston to Toronto and back just to watch Flutie shred CFL defences.
“He’s small, he’s underrated, he’s only five-foot-10, but he still rocked the CFL,” Lappan said. “I’d come home with my dad at, like, three in the morning just to come down here and watch him play.”
Argos fan Euclid Leduc’s fondest Flutie memory is of the 1996 Grey Cup game in Hamilton, where Flutie was the game’s MVP in steady snowfall.
Twenty-one seasons have passed since then, and other Argo quarterbacks have won Grey Cups here. But for Leduc, who attended Monday’s game in a signed Flutie jersey he bought at auction, there’s only room for one favourite. “He calls his own plays, and you always could depend on him to win a game for us,” Leduc said. “(Ricky) Ray is good, but he’s not Doug Flutie.”