Gluey Hughie wasn’t quite sure how long he would stick around.
With that in mind, Hugh Campbell and his wife, Louise, travelled light for their introductory journey to Saskatchewan, back in September of 1963.
“We packed just enough stuff that we could kind of get by for a few weeks,” the legendary Roughriders receiver recalls from his home near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
“We were going to be taking over the apartment of somebody who had left. The one thing my wife and I remember really well is we even packed a couple of plates and things, because we were going to have our own kitchen and the apartment was unfurnished.
“We packed the minimum, but we somehow included in that a couple of plates so we would have something to eat off of.”
Very soon, he would feast upon opposing defences, in collaboration with iconic quarterback Ron Lancaster.
Their on-field association began on Sept. 21, 1963 — 60 years ago today — when the Roughriders eked out an 8-7 Canadian Football League victory over Edmonton at Taylor Field.
Lancaster, who had joined the Roughriders in late July of 1963 after a trade with the Ottawa Rough Riders, engineered a 16-play, 109-yard drive that culminated in an eight-yard, game-tying touchdown pass to Dale West with 1:35 remaining in the fourth quarter. Reg Whitehouse added what proved to be the game-winning convert.
“New end Hugh Campbell also blocked well and ran his sideline pass patterns almost to perfection,” John Robertson wrote in the Sept. 23, 1963 edition of the Regina Leader-Post. “His play Saturday indicated that the Roughriders’ end problems may be solved once and for all.”
Campbell had joined the Roughriders only four days earlier after being released by the San Francisco 49ers, who had selected him in the fourth round (50th overall) of the 1963 National Football League Draft.
Born in Saratoga, Calif., Campbell turned pro after performing spectacularly at Washington State University, where his teammates included three other future Roughriders standouts — fullback George Reed, defensive lineman/linebacker Garner Ekstran and linebacker Wally Dempsey.
In 1960, Campbell led the NCAA in catches (66), receiving yards (881) and aerial touchdowns (10). He followed up in 1961 with 53 catches, a total that again paced the nation.
So when he became available, Reed and Ekstran recommended the polished pass-catcher to the Roughriders’ football brain trust — General Manager Ken Preston and Head Coach Bob Shaw.
“Garner and George said to me, ‘You’ll have a field day here. The field’s big and there’s lots of room. And once they find out you can catch, they’ll throw you the ball,’ ” recalls Campbell, 82.
“It was interesting. In those days, the salaries weren’t different from the NFL, so it was a way to make a living.”
Upon arriving in Regina, Hugh and Louise Campbell moved into the Queen City Apartments, located on Rose Street, one block south of Victoria Avenue.
“When we arrived there, the weather was fine, but it was approaching winter as time moved on,” he says.
“It was a new era for us.”
Photo credit: Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame
And for the Roughriders, who added four foundational players — Campbell, Reed, Lancaster and breakaway back Ed Buchanan — in 1963.
Campbell was five games into his CFL career when he caught his first touchdown pass from Lancaster, in a 33-33 tie with the visiting Calgary Stampeders on Oct. 19, 1963.
Over seven regular-season games as a CFL rookie, he caught 30 passes for 426 yards and three TDs.
That was a prelude to a five-season run in which he made 291 catches for 4,999 yards and 57 scores.
The breakout season was in 1964, when he caught 65 passes for 1,000 yards and 11 TDs.
In 1965, he posted career-best totals in catches (73) and receiving yards (1,329) while scoring 10 more TDs.
Then came 1966 — a magical year for Campbell and the Roughriders.
He caught 66 passes for 1,109 yards and 17 touchdowns. The latter figure, then a Western Football Conference record, endures as a Roughriders single-season standard.
All of that was a lead-up to Nov. 26, 1966, when the Roughriders became a Grey Cup champion for the first time since their inception as the Regina Rugby Club in 1910.
The winning touchdown was scored on the opening play of the fourth quarter, when Lancaster threaded the needle to Campbell — who found an opening even through three Ottawa defensive players were in the vicinity — for a five-yard score that snapped a 14-14 tie. Saskatchewan went on to win 29-14 at Empire Stadium in Vancouver.
The Roughriders returned to the Grey Cup game in 1967, losing 24-1 to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats after posting 12 regular-season victories (a franchise record at the time).
Then came the announcement in February of 1968 that Campbell, not yet 27, had joined the coaching staff at Washington State.
After a one-year hiatus from pass-catching, he rejoined the Roughriders for the 1969 season. He caught 11 TD passes, reaching double digits in that category for the fourth time as a CFLer, and earned his fourth divisional All-Star berth.
In 1969, the Roughriders established another high-water mark in victories (13) and advanced to the Grey Cup game, won 29-11 by Ottawa.
The 1969 championship game turned out to be the farewell to football for Campbell in a playing capacity.
On May 16, 1970, he was named the head football coach at Whitworth College (now Whitworth University) in Spokane, Wash. He signed off in Saskatchewan as the team’s career leader in catches (321), receiving yards (5,425) and TDs (60).
Campbell spent seven seasons at Whitworth, where one of his players was Regina-born Brian O’Hara.
O’Hara, coincidentally enough, caught the final pass of Lancaster’s illustrious quarterbacking career — on Oct. 29, 1978, when the Roughriders visited Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
The opposing head coach: Hugh Campbell, who within a month would guide Edmonton to its first of an unprecedented five consecutive Grey Cup championships.
Campbell subsequently coached in the United States Football League (with the Los Angeles Express in 1983) and National Football League (Houston Oilers, 1984-85) before returning to Edmonton.
He was the team’s GM from 1986 to 1997 before serving as the president-CEO for nine seasons.
Along the way, he was inducted into the SaskTel Plaza of Honour (1988) and Canadian Football Hall of Fame (2000).
Another highlight occurred on Feb. 4, 1991, when Campbell hired Lancaster to coach the Edmonton football team.
The Little General and Gluey Hughie were together, again, for seven seasons.
Over that period, Edmonton boasted an 83-43 regular-season record — a winning percentage of 65.9 — and one Grey Cup victory (in 1993).
Campbell celebrated a final championship (his 10th) in 2005, when Edmonton posted a 38-35 overtime victory over the Montreal Alouettes at BC Place Stadium.
It was a full-circle experience for Campbell, who had become a first-time champion when the Roughriders won in Vancouver back in 1966.
By then, Lancaster and Campbell were the closest of friends — as connected off the field as they were while playing pitch-and-catch at stadiums across the CFL.
“We came from completely different backgrounds but got to about the same place — not just literally, but emotionally and everything,” Campbell reflects.
“He came from a different life. He was raised in the coal mines (of Pennsylvania) and I was raised in California. His manner of speech and the background of his stories was, to me, so fascinating and so cool.
“Being as smart as he is and everything, he was a good ally to have as a friend. We did everything from play golf to play cards, with our kids growing up as friends.
“I think we matched up as well as far as showing each other some other angles of what life could be like and acceptance of all kinds of people with all kinds of jobs and income levels and expectations.”
It is still hard to believe that Campbell and Lancaster were introduced 60 years ago, during a season that is best remembered for the events of Nov. 11, 1963.
Two days earlier, Campbell had scored the Roughriders’ lone touchdown when they lost 35-9 in Calgary to open the two-game, total-points Western Conference semi-final.
Ergo the seemingly impossible challenge of having to win Game 2 by at least 27 points.
Sure enough, Saskatchewan prevailed by precisely that margin — 39-12 — in what came to be known as The Little Miracle of Taylor Field.
On the final play, Calgary’s Larry Robinson attempted a game-winning field goal, but the kick was errant. The Roughriders and Stampeders then booted the football in and out of the end zone, with a series-tying rouge at play.
“I remember that last play,” Campbell says. “Our guy punted it out of the end zone and their guy ran around for a while and then he punted it. It went out of bounds without going in the end zone.
“All this time, I was just standing next to (33-year-old Roughriders receiver) Jack Gotta and if he clapped, I clapped. I thought Jack Gotta was the oldest man playing football in history, because he had played nine years or something.
“He kind of took me under his wing for the first few weeks. If he was happy, I was happy. If he was worried, I was worried.
“At the end of that game, everybody was cheering, so I figured we had won it.”
There was more to celebrate in the months ahead.
“When I got to Saskatchewan, it was dark down at the end of the dressing room where I was, and it was a dirt floor,” Campbell says. “Because of that game and the way the season ended, they built a whole new locker room for us. I was in that (old) locker room the last time it was used.
“I was embarrassed when I was in that locker room. I never told anybody about that locker room when I got home for a few years, and then I became proud of it.
“Before that, it had light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. It was very humble, I’ll just say that.”
From those humble beginnings, 60 years ago, Canadian football royalty was born.
