YORKTON – As a proud Canadian sports fan my fandom skews almost entirely toward sports teams based in this country.
So when it comes to football it’s the CFL or turn the channel for me.
I also happen to be a rather avid reader, often turning to sports books, which at times are covered in this space.
Sadly, rare is the book on the CFL. The two most recent I’ve read would be the 2020 release The Baltimore Stallions: The Brief, Brilliant History of the CFL Champion Franchise by Rin Snyder and 2021’s Year of the Rocket: John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a Crooked Tycoon, and the Craziest Season in Football History by Paul Woods.
It has been a drought – at least in terms of me finding one – since then in terms of a book in the CFL, at least until now.
Howie Mooney recently released An Unlikely Story: How the 1981 Ottawa Rough Riders Just Missed a Miracle.
In a telephone interview with the author, Mooney admitted he didn’t write the book with thoughts of mass sales.
“It is more something from the heart,” he said, adding he grew up a CFL fan in Ottawa living through the times of greatness with the likes of Russ Jackson, or the Tony Gabreil Grey Cup-winning catch against Saskatchewan in 1976.
“I’ve always loved football in Ottawa.”
From 1960 to 1976, the team appeared in six Grey Cup games, winning five.
And then the down times, the Rough Riders folding in 1996. The Renegades emerging and going, (2002-2008).
Sandwiched in there was the 1981 season where it looked like Ottawa might put it all together.
“’81 was like the last shining moment of football in Ottawa. I was 21,” related Mooney.
Of course now the Redblacks are in Ottawa winning the Cup in 2016, but still having had more off seasons than on.
That 40 year period between Grey Cups was filled with a few ups and many downs.
Before 2016, the only sniff Ottawa football fans had of a national championship was in 1981, and Mooney has encapsulated that season in his book.
Ottawa would defeat the favoured Montreal Alouettes in the East semi-final and then they went into Hamilton for the East final. Ottawa was a huge underdog. Remarkably, they beat the Tiger-Cats and advanced to the Grey Cup against the three-time champion and 22 1/2 point favourite Edmonton Eskimos.
Mooney said he has remained somewhat enthralled by the “roller coaster of that game,” where the Riders came so close to the most improbable victory, but he added “I really hadn’t thought of writing a book on it.”
But over time some articles were written and “they became the bones of a book,” said Mooney.
Now he’s glad he made the effort because the book has been well-received.
“The feedback I’ve gotten is more than I could have ever hoped. . . Way more positive than I ever hoped,” said Mooney.
This is one of those books which is ultimately worth reading because it chronicles our Canadian league – at least a team in the league – when far too few books are written.
A worthy effort indeed, and it can be found through the usual sources for books.
