June 16, 1999

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Kids pouring out of the Scarborough high school that day glanced toward the football field and stopped dead in their tracks.

There, in full practice, were the Edmonton Eskimos. In a modern context, it would be something like Beal students emerging from class to find the Dallas Cowboys on their field. In those days, the CFL was the marquee equal of the National Hockey League, so when the gods of the gridiron descended, when Jackie Parker and Bernie Faloney and all the rest ended up at your high school because of a practice field foul-up in Grey Cup week, it was electric.

We got close enough to watch the rookie Faloney, understudy to the great Parker, flick warm-up passes effortlessly to an array of receivers. It was Parker who'd lead the Esks over the Montreal Alouettes in an epic Grey Cup a few days later, but Faloney would eventually join him among the greats of Canadian sport.

Faloney died yesterday of colon cancer at the age of 67 and with him passed a part of sports history. He was from the heyday of Canadian football, when team rosters remained static and players were recognizable. In his case, unforgettable.

Sports history lives through deeds, not cold statistics. The defining play or heroic game will illuminate well beyond a mere number. Faloney had a few but none like what his old coach recently called "the greatest run in football history."

He would be Jim Trimble, like Faloney from the coal-producing area of Pennsylvania and another large name from a game when it was big. Trimble once promised his Ticats would "waffle 'em" before taking on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 1958 Grey Cup. "We're gonna put lumps on them, front and back," he explained.

That they didn't doesn't matter now. The comment before the big east-west clash made headlines across a nation fixated on the game. No modern coach would dare it. And few people would pay attention any more.

Trimble could incite fans like no other, particularly Toronto fans, but his nastiest act (aside from heaving a sports writer into Toronto Harbour) was acquiring Faloney from Edmonton. They went to the Grey Cup five times in their six years together and often victimized the Argos en route. But never as in the two-game, total-point Eastern final of 1961.

The Argos, with Tobin Rote at quarterback, Cookie Gilchrist at fullback and Dick Shatto and Dave Mann at running back, ripped through Hamilton to win the first game 25-7. All Toronto had to do was avoid losing the second game by more than 18 points.

The Steeltown defence, with John Barrow, Ralph Goldston and Zeno Karcz leading the way, shut down the Argos while Faloney and the elegant receiver Hal Patterson dissected their defence. After 45 minutes, the Ticats had scored 17 points and Toronto rarely got past midfield.

Hamilton's Don Sutherin kicked a field goal early in the fourth quarter to give the 'Cats a 27-25 lead on the series. Mann kicked two singles to tie it and the Faloney show began.

It started rather negatively, when Toronto intercepted to take the ball to the Hamilton 27. Rote went offside, then a draw to Bobby Kuntz was stopped. The Argos had the ball, plus a down and 20 seconds left when Mann lined up to attempt the winning single.

Back were Faloney and Sutherin. Mann got off a 40-yarder eight yards deep into the end-zone and Sutherin, dodging a mob of Argos, hammered it back out. It came right to Mann and in what started to look like a tennis match, he hoofed it back in.

This time, it came to Faloney and he ran it out. And ran and ran, 111 yards in all, across the Argo goal line. It was called back on a penalty to the Hamilton 46-yard-line, but it was the run that killed the Double Blue. In the 30-minute overtime, Faloney directed the 'Cats to four unanswered touchdowns to win the game 48-2 and the series 57-27.

Faloney played in nine Grey Cups, winning four. Like many CFLers of that era, he settled in Canada. He eventually bought the heavy equipment company for which he and Trimble worked.

He will be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame Oct. 6.

By JIM KERNAGHAN
London Free Press