Four decades later, Sask. welcomes Gabriel
The doors to Saskatchewan are not, as rumoured, closed to him. No suspicious border guards checking identification. No APBs. No police sketches of a man 37 years after the fact. A statute of limitations goes, it seems, for even for the most heinous footballing crimes perpetrated against the province. Even for a wrathful Rider Nation.
“No, no,” laughs Tony Gabriel. “I was actually back for a charity event in May, in Moose Jaw. “I got in and out, no problem. “Everybody treated me firstclass. Couldn’t have been nicer.
“I even had a couple of people come and over and say ‘We forgive you.’ ”
Those 20 seconds remain seared indelibly into the memory banks of flatlanders everywhere: A crowd of 53,467 wedged into Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium. The Ottawa Rough Riders perched at the Saskatchewan 24-yard-line, down 20-16 to their Western namesake. Quarterback Tom Clements waiving off a playcall from the bench, accepting the snap and dropping back in the pocket. Gabriel faking a post pattern and then turning to the corner, Saskatchewan DB Ted Provost biting on the fake. And ...
A moment caught and frozen in infamy.
An entire province, left weeping.
“Well, you know the rest,” says Gabriel, now 64. “When I was at that banquet in May, I told them ‘Sorry, I was just doing my job. I wouldn’t be here if I’d dropped that pass.’ ” He pondered that a moment. “Well, now that I think about it, actually I might’ve been invited back sooner.
“I also told them ‘If you keep watching the replay of that ’76 catch, and the point where the ball’s coming down? One of these days I’ll drop it for you.’ ”
So lifetime banishment is not, in point of fact, the reason Tony Gabriel won’t be in attendance for Thursday’s Gibson’s Finest Awards ceremony in Regina. But he plans watching on TV with a more than casual interest in the silverware being doled out.
In 1978, Gabriel became the last man to walk off the stage carting both the Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian awards. Until now. At the Conexus Arts Centre ($150 a pop top-ticket), Calgary Stampeders’ ace tailback Jon Cornish is a prohibitive favourite to accomplish what has come to be known as the Tony Gabriel Double.
“He’d be very, very deserving,” says the man himself. “Obviously.
“Jon carried the team through a lot of injuries this season. Statistically, every time he ran for 100 yards, they’d win, which shows how important he was to Calgary’s offence.
“… I was impressed watching his serious disposition to get the job done. Very professional. No antics. More mature. All business.”
Cornish’s competition for the evening’s big bauble, of course, is the ageless Happy Camp, Calif., Toronto Argonaut gunslinger Ricky Ray, marking the first MOP finalist bid of his Hall of Famecalibre career. Ray’s stats were indisputably sensational in 2013, but injuries limited him to 10 starts. Impossible to see anybody, however accomplished, beating Jon Cornish on the strength of a little more than half a season’s work.
“Ricky Ray,” says Gabriel, “had a superlative year for the games he played. A 77 per cent (77.2) completion percentage? That’s crazy. The best in the league, ever. Pretty impressive. (Zach) Collaros did an admirable job filling in when Ray was hurt, but without Ricky, the Argos wouldn’t have finished first in the East. One game I watched, I think he hit 22 passes in a row. Who does that? From what I saw in the East, I don’t think there’s anybody I could consider.”
Unlike a year ago when he finished runner-up to the versatile Chad Owens of Toronto, Cornish is the favourite to win this time, 35 years after Gabriel did the double.
“I remember the night I won,” he reminisces, “I had my losing speech all prepared, in my pocket. Truthfully, I didn’t think I’d beat Wilkie (Tom Wilkinson). In the tribute I got from the audience on my big night, my moment in time, I don’t think people cared what my nationality was.
“… It’s a very emotional time. My mother raised 12 of us, seven brothers and four sisters. I remember bending down in my tux and giving her the biggest hug. What a moment. I was so thankful. And I know Jon has talked so much about his mom, how much she meant to him.”
Having started his career in Steeltown and spent four seasons in Ticats colours, Tony Gabriel’s rooting interest Sunday is pretty obvious.
Besides, he admits to always cheering for the Eastern representative in the big game.
The MOP debate is something he’s reluctant to wade into, however.
“I don’t have a vote. So I’ll leave that for the voters to decide.
“LET me say that it’s just phenomenal to see what Jon has accomplished. And he’s just reaching his peak.
“He’s very deserving of the double nomination and if he does win both, it’ll be very special, a night he’ll remember forever.”