Gridiron legend set to enter football shrine
Courtesy Monty Mosher, The Chronicle Herald
A giant from this region's football past will be honoured one more time tonight.
The late Don Loney, synonymous with St. Francis Xavier X-Men gridiron greatness and a force in the development of university football regionally and nationally, will be enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame at a ceremony tonight in Edmonton.
Loney, already a member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame along with the Nova Scotia, Canadian Forces and St. F.X. sport shrines, joins Saint Mary's quarterback Chris Flynn and Mount Allison running back Eric Lapointe as players and coaches to enter the Canadian football hall for their work largely in the Atlantic football ranks.
A former CFL player for eight seasons, and the 1950 East MVP, Loney won two Grey Cups before he guided the X-Men from 1957 until 1973.
A centre in his playing days, the Ottawa native was the picture of the gruff football coach — intense, loud and aggressive — but universally respected by his players.
Terry Dolan, the quarterback of the first X-Men team to go to the College Bowl in 1966, said players didn't perform for Loney because they feared him, but because they didn't want to let him down.
"Through my own time, and the time before me and time after, he was the most dominant name in Atlantic football, for sure," said Dolan, who lives in Calgary but recently returned to Antigonish for the school's celebration of 60 years of football.
"By then he'd even extended his own influence right across the CIAU (now CIS). He and a bunch of veterans at the time had a huge influence on getting the national picture in football developed."
In his 17 seasons, Loney's teams went 133-31-2. The X-Men won nine regional banners (some from the pre-AUAA era), six conference titles, four Atlantic Bowl championships and a 40-14 win over Waterloo Lutheran in the College Bowl, now the Vanier Cup.
Dolan said the College Bowl win helped St. F.X. grow.
"It was a great opportunity for us," he said. "It helped St. F.X. a lot in terms of getting the athletic part of the university's name out nationally. And Atlantic football, as well, I think it had a big effect. People started to look at it at least."
He said Loney was a hard-nosed as they came and placed great demands on his players between the lines.
"He could be hard on people," Dolan said. "But once you got to know the man you realized he was just trying to get out of us what he saw in us. He had that tremendous ability to see what just about everyone of us had in us."
Loney's work in developing Canadian university football may have rivalled his coaching achievements.
In 1960, he was the force behind the creation of the Atlantic Bowl, which became a national semifinal in 1967. It is now the Uteck Bowl.
He also pushed for the College Bowl, which made its debut in 1965.
Dolan said Loney's players didn't resent the hard times because he asked as much of himself as he did them.
He recalls the 1966 title game in Toronto as one of Loney's finest hours.
"It was a hectic week. There was an airline strike on and we had to go up by train. The whole week was just absolute chaos for us getting up there.
"But he just seemed to have everything perfectly timed. By the time we got up there and got ready for the game, he just had us so well prepared. He knew when to ease off on the way up and when to turn it back on.
"He was the real true hero of that (College Bowl). We went up blind, but we were so prepared for what we were going to face. That was typical of Don."
Loney's name still dots the AUS football landscape. The AUS title game is the Loney Bowl and the MVP of the game receives the Loney Trophy.
He died in 2004 at the age of 80.
Other inductees this year are former University of Alberta receiver Brian Fryer, ex-CFL players Dan Ferrone, Miles Gorrell and Earl Winfield and former CFL official Jake Ireland.