For the first time in 41 years, teams representing Ottawa and Saskatchewan are set to meet in a CFL playoff game.
Steve Mazurak can’t believe it has been that long — and he also can’t believe the memories that the matchup has evoked.
“The storylines are pretty cool when you think about them,” says Mazurak, a participant in the previous contest who now is the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ vice-president of sales and partnerships. “I’m sure there will be interviews with (former Ottawa Rough Riders Bill) Hatanaka and Tony Gabriel. They’ll be chatting about it.
“There may be some fisticuffs in Ottawa.”
Mazurak is joking, of course. But the fact remains that Sunday’s East Division semifinal between the Roughriders and host Ottawa Redblacks will be the first time since Nov. 28, 1976, that teams from Saskatchewan and Ottawa have tangled in the CFL post-season.
The nation’s capital is on its third team since that day — the Rough Riders folded in 1996 and the Renegades operated from 2002 through ’06 before the Redblacks were created in 2014 — so the opportunities for Saskatchewan-Ottawa playoff games have been limited over the years.
Even so, the 1976 Grey Cup game between the Roughriders and Rough Riders — a contest that Ottawa won 23-20 thanks to a Gabriel touchdown catch with 20 seconds left in regulation time — remains in the memory banks of Mazurak and his former teammates.
“I don’t replay it very often,” says Mazurak, who had two catches for 32 yards and a touchdown and one punt return for 20 yards for the Roughriders that day. “But lots of folks out there my age, a great part of the Rider Nation, if I’m doing dinners or whatever, there’s always someone in the crowd who remembers that game and we’ll share a tear and a story.
“We were so, so close,” he adds. “The ring, the extra money — that stuff stays with you for weeks and months, but I wouldn’t say it stays with you for years. They’re all fun memories when you talk about it.
“At the end of the day, it’s a game. Yes, it wasn’t the finish that we wanted, but you don’t beat yourself up about it too much.”
Former Roughriders linebacker Cleveland Vann, who was named the top defensive player in the ’76 Grey Cup game, admits he doesn’t think as much about that contest as he used to.
The reason why it has faded, he explains, is that other high-profile events in the history of the CFL’s championship game — including the 13th man incident that cost Saskatchewan the 2009 Grey Cup title — have softened the blow of the 1976 game for him.
Even so …
“It’s always there — and it really comes to the forefront when it’s playoff time,” Vann says. “You see the replay on the TV, of course, and you relive that moment as if it just occurred yesterday even though it has been so many years.
“It’s a constant reminder of getting so close and not winning. A lot of guys look forward to participating in a Grey Cup game and getting a Grey Cup ring and we were so close but fell short. Throughout the rest of my career, I never got close again. That was an opportunity missed.”
Saskatchewan led the Rough Riders 20-13 after three quarters at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium before surrendering a field goal midway through the fourth quarter.
The Roughriders held their 20-16 lead into the final minute, when Ottawa quarterback Tom Clements found Gabriel in the end zone for what proved to be the game-winning TD.
“That play will stick with me for the longest time,” says Vann, 66. “As the play developed, I dropped back into pass coverage, I looked at Tommy as he released the ball, I looked at the flight of the ball, I looked at Tony and all I could think was, ‘Oh, no.’ To this day, I still can’t believe it happened.
“Tony made a great catch and Tommy threw a heck of a ball, but my opinion to this day is that the best team didn’t win. We just ran out of time.”
Mazurak maintains that the Roughriders should have tried to slow down Gabriel at the line of scrimmage. But that didn’t happen and the Ottawa tight end was able to get open in the end zone while safety Ted Provost and corner Ray Odums vainly tried to close in.
“I was sad for my roommate Ted because he knew he would be caught on camera as sort of the last guy there,” recalls Mazurak, 66. “I’ll never forget going up to my room and he’s sitting in a corner, it’s dark and we’ve both got tears in our eyes. The impact on people’s careers and livelihoods was there.
“In a big game like that, the national pastime in November, it was truly tragic. But you’ve got to hand it to (Ottawa). Everybody in the free world knew that ball was going to Tony and somehow, some way, we didn’t take his knees out or do something.”
Both Mazurak and Vann remember the atmosphere surrounding the ’76 contest and the excitement they felt as it approached. But the sting of the outcome remains 41 years later as a different group of Roughriders prepare to face another team from Ottawa.
“It was just a tremendous experience for me and I’m grateful that I was given the opportunity,” Vann says. “But I’m kind of sad that I never got a chance to repeat it and win a Grey Cup ring.”
“It’s all part of the shtick,” adds Mazurak. “We know what we’re getting into in this sport — and they ain’t always going to be wins.”
