Ron Lancaster

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Ron Lancaster
Date of birth	October 14, 1938 (1938-10-14) (age 69)
Place of birth	Fairchance, Pennsylvania
Position(s)	Quarterback Head coach
College	Wittenberg
CFL All-Star	1970, 1975, 1976
Team(s) as a player
1960-1962 1963-1978	Ottawa Rough Riders Saskatchewan Roughriders
Team(s) as a coach/administrator
1979-1980 1991-1997 1998-2003, 2006	Saskatchewan Roughriders Edmonton Eskimos Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Canadian Football Hall of Fame

Ronald "Ron" Lancaster (Born October 14, 1938, in Fairchance, Pennsylvania) is a former Canadian football quarterback, coach and general manager in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and sports announcer for CBC Television. He is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1982), the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1985) and the Wittenberg University Athletic Hall of Honour (1985). He is currently the Senior Director of Football Operations of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team in the Canadian Football League.

He and his wife, Bev, have three children Lana, Ron, and Bob.

[edit] Playing career

Lancaster started his professional playing career as a quarterback with the Ottawa Rough Riders (1960-1962). Ottawa won the Grey Cup in his rookie season in 1960, and he spent two more years with Ottawa, sharing the quarterback's role with another future Hall of Famer, Russ Jackson. Lancaster was traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1963.

Lancaster played 16 seasons with Saskatchewan (1963-1978); he led the team into the playoffs for the next 14 consecutive seasons and to the CFL's Western Football Conference final 12 times, representing the west in the Grey Cup in 1966, 1967, 1969, 1972, and 1976. However the Roughriders won once, that being in 1966 when they defeated the Ottawa Rough Riders 29-14.

The Roughriders won 170 games with Lancaster at quarterback before he retired after 19 seasons as a player. In all of seasons with the Roughriders, the team had only one losing record, 4-11-1 in 1978, which was Lancaster's final season as a quarterback. In fact of his 19 seasons he had only one other losing record, that in 1962 with the Ottawa Rough Riders at 6-7-1.

He is now third all-time on the CFL's career list with 3,384 pass completions, 6,233 pass attempts and 50,535 yards passing and fell to second all-time with 333 touchdown passes in 2003, when Toronto’s Damon Allen surpassed Lancaster’s mark. Since then Danny McManus moved into second place all-time with passing yards with 53,165. Lancaster won the Schenley Award as most outstanding player in 1970 and 1976 and was a finalist for the award in 1966. He was an All-Canadian in 1970, 1973, 1975 and 1976 and a Western all-star in 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1975 and 1976. In November, 2006, Lancaster was voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#7) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network The Sports Network/TSN.

[edit] Coaching career

Lancaster was a player-coach in the 1977 and 1978 seasons, serving as Saskatchewan's offensive co-ordinator.

Lancaster became Saskatchewan's head coach immediately after his 1978 playing season but found "the glorious fifties and sixties were over, and he was the first Roughrider coach in sixteen years who did not have Ron Lancaster at quarterback." ^[1] The Green Riders finished 2-14 in consecutive seasons and Lancaster would not coach again for 11 years.

After serving as a colour commentator for The CFL on CBC for several years, he returned to the coaching ranks when he was named 12th head coach in Edmonton Eskimos history on February 4, 1991. He coached the Eskimos from 1991-1997, amassing an 83-42 regular season record and a Grey Cup win in 1993. He passed Hugh Campbell for first place on the Eskimos' list for coaching wins October 27th, 1996.

Lancaster became the 17th head coach in Hamilton Tiger-Cat history on November 26, 1997. He coached the Tiger-Cats from 1998-2003. He took the team to the Grey Cup twice (1998, 1999) winning it in 1999. On July 10, 2006 Ron Lancaster was re-hired as the teams head coach on an interim basis after the firing of coach Greg Marshall.

Lancaster’s 142 career regular-season wins, place him fifth on the CFL’s career regular season wins list. ^[2]

[edit] Season by season results

[edit] Broadcasting career

CBC Television invited Lancaster to become a colour commentator on CFL broadcasts in 1980. He was part of a trio that included Don Wittman doing the play-by-play and former Argonaut head coach Leo Cahill doing colour commentary along with Lancaster. He was with the CBC from 1980-1991 and was a member of the CBC team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea as the play-by-play broadcaster for basketball.

[edit] References

1. ^  Mullick, Rajeev. CFL Legends: Ron Lancaster. Retrieved January 17, 2006.
2. ^  Official Biography on Hamilton Tiger-cats website. Retrieved January 17, 2006.
3. ^  All-time CFL coaching wins. Retrieved October 25, 2006.
4. CFL Facts, Figures and Records 2007.
5. Official WFC, EFC and CFL statistics 1960 to 1978.

• The Canadian Encyclopedia