Ron Lancaster

{{Short description|Canadian football player and coach (1938–2008)}}

{{Infobox CFL biography

|image=CFL Lancaster.JPG

|name=Ron Lancaster

|birth_date={{birth date|mf=yes|1938|10|14}}

|birth_place= Fairchance, Pennsylvania, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|mf=yes|2008|09|18|1938|10|14}}

|death_place= Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

|position1=Quarterback

|import=no

|Height_ft=5

|Height_in=10

|Weight_lbs=185

|number=23

|nickname=The Little General

|College=Wittenberg

|Record=

|DraftedYear=

|DraftedRound=

|PFRCoach=

|DatabaseFootballCoach=

|PFR=

|DatabaseFootball=

|playing_years1={{CFL Year|1960}}–{{CFL Year|1962}}

|playing_team1=Ottawa Rough Riders

|playing_years2={{CFL Year|1963}}–{{CFL Year|1978}}

|playing_team2=Saskatchewan Roughriders

|coaching_years1={{CFL Year|1979}}–{{CFL Year|1980}}

|coaching_team1=Saskatchewan Roughriders

|coaching_years2={{CFL Year|1991}}–{{CFL Year|1997}}

|coaching_team2=Edmonton Eskimos

|coaching_years3={{CFL Year|1998}}–{{CFL Year|2003}}

|coaching_team3=Hamilton Tiger-Cats

|coaching_years4={{CFL Year|2006}}

|coaching_team4=Hamilton Tiger-Cats

|career_highlights=

4× Grey Cup champion (1960, 1966, 1993, 1999)
2× CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award (1970, 1976)
5× Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy (1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1976)
Tom Pate Memorial Award (1977)
2× Annis Stukus Trophy (1996, 1998)
CFL Commissioner's Award (2008)
Saskatchewan Roughriders No. 23 retired

|Awards=

|CFLAllStar={{CFL Year|1970}}, {{CFL Year|1973}}, {{CFL Year|1975}}, {{CFL Year|1976}}

|CFLWestAllStar={{CFL Year|1966}}, {{CFL Year|1968}}, {{CFL Year|1969}}, {{CFL Year|1970}}, {{CFL Year|1973}}, {{CFL Year|1975}}, {{CFL Year|1976}}

| CFHOF = ron-lancaster

|CFHOFYear=1982

}}

Ronald Lancaster (October 14, 1938 – September 18, 2008) was an American-Canadian professional football player and coach in the Canadian Football League (CFL). As the starting quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders for 16 seasons, he led the team to its first Grey Cup championship in 1966 and is the franchise's all-time leader in passing yards, attempts, completions, touchdowns, and interceptions.{{Cite web|url=http://www.riderville.com/media-guide/|title=Saskatchewan Roughriders Media Guide|website=Riderville.com|access-date=October 28, 2021}} At the time of his retirement, he was the CFL's career leader in passing yards and still ranks sixth overall as of 2016. After his retirement as a player, he served as a head coach and general manager in the CFL; he led his teams to two Grey Cups and currently ranks fourth all-time with 142 regular season wins. He was also a colour commentator on the CFL on CBC from 1981 to 1990. At the time of his death, he was the Senior Director of Football Operations of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1982), Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1985) and the Wittenberg University Athletic Hall of Honour (1985).

Early life

Lancaster was born in the Pittsburgh area industrial town of Fairchance, Pennsylvania and moved to nearby Clairton as a young boy. At the time of his death, his mother still resided in Clairton.

Playing career

Lancaster was a talented quarterback by the time he graduated from Clairton High School, but because he was 5′5″ (165 cm),{{cite news | title = The Little General: The Life and Times of Ron Lancaster | publisher = CBC-TV | url = http://www.cbc.ca/lifeandtimes/lancaster.html | access-date =December 4, 2008}}{{cite web | last = Henshaw | first = Jim | title = The Legion of Decency: Rider Pride | date = November 20, 2007 | url = http://the-legion-of-decency.blogspot.com/2007/11/rider-pride.html | access-date =December 4, 2008}} he was ignored by most college scouts. He attended tiny Wittenberg University and led its team to a 25-8-1 record between 1956 and 1959,{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/sports/2008/09/18/tributes_pour_in_for_mr_cfl_legendary_ron_lancaster.html|title=Tributes pour in for 'Mr. CFL,' legendary Ron Lancaster {{!}} Toronto Star|website=thestar.com|date=September 18, 2008|access-date=2017-03-12}} and two Ohio Athletic Conference championships in 1957 and 1958.

By the time he graduated from Wittenberg he had grown to 5’10". His college coach had a friend with the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian Football League (CFL), and Lancaster signed with them. During his rookie season in 1960, Lancaster shared the quarterbacking duties with another future Hall of Famer, Russ Jackson, and also played defensive back. The Ottawa Rough Riders won the Grey Cup that season.

In 1963 Lancaster's playing rights were sold to the Saskatchewan Roughriders for $500 with the stipulation that if Saskatchewan ever wanted to trade him, Ottawa would have the first right of refusal.

It was with Saskatchewan that "The Little General" found his stride. In 16 seasons with the Roughriders (1963–1978), he led the team into the playoffs 14 consecutive years and made it to the CFL's Western Football Conference final 12 times. During that period, Saskatchewan played for the Grey Cup five times (1966, 1967, 1969, 1972, and 1976) and won it once, in 1966, when they defeated Lancaster's former team, the Ottawa Rough Riders, 29–14.

In Lancaster's career with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, he won 170 games as quarterback,{{cite web|url=http://www.ticats.ca/page/ron-lancaster |title=Ron Lancaster |work=Front Office Team |publisher=Hamilton Tiger-Cats |access-date=September 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329145725/http://www.ticats.ca/page/ron-lancaster |archive-date=March 29, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy }} and had only one losing record, 4–11–1 in 1978, his last season as a player.

He was the first quarterback in CFL history to reach 50,000 career passing yards, won the Schenley Award as most outstanding player in 1970 and 1976, 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, the Canadian sports network TSN ranked Lancaster seventh on its list of Top 50 Players of the CFL's modern era.

At the time of his death, thirty years after his retirement as a player, he was still ranked in the top three in career statistics in a number of categories:

second in touchdown passes (333, surpassed at the time only by Damon Allen) [Eight months after Lancaster's death, Anthony Calvillo moved past Lancaster into second place.]
third in pass completions (3,384)
third in pass attempts (6,233)
third in yards passing (50,535)

Career statistics

BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="0" width="65%" style="text-align:center"

bgcolor="#e0e0e0"

! colspan="2" |

! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" |

! colspan="7" | Passing

! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" |

! colspan="6" | Rushing

bgcolor="#e0e0e0"

! Year

! Team

! Att

! Comp

! Pct

! Yards

! TD

! Int

! Rating

! Att

! Yards

! Avg

! Long

! TD

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1960

| OTT

| 201

| 101

| 50.2

| 1,843

| 16

| 18

| 71.4

| 19

| 134

| 7.1

| 40

| 0

ALIGN="center"

| 1961

| OTT

| 100

| 49

| 49.0

| 966

| 9

| 8

| 79.8

| 17

| 122

| 7.2

| 23

| 1

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1962

| OTT

| 98

| 48

| 49.0

| 1,016

| 9

| 12

| 65.7

| 10

| 76

| 7.6

| 22

| 0

ALIGN="center"

| 1963

| SSK

| 226

| 106

| 46.9

| 1,727

| 11

| 19

| 54.2

| 34

| 139

| 4.1

| 15

| 2

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1964

| SSK

| 263

| 144

| 54.8

| 2,256

| 16

| 13

| 83.1

| 26

| 152

| 5.8

| 28

| 3

ALIGN="center"

| 1965

| SSK

| 305

| 160

| 52.5

| 2,586

| 17

| 26

| 64.2

| 33

| 84

| 2.5

| 20

| 3

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1966

| SSK

| 303

| 182

| 60.1

| 2,976

| 28

| 20

| 96.4

| 29

| 91

| 3.1

| 24

| 1

ALIGN="center"

| 1967

| SSK

| 330

| 169

| 51.2

| 2,809

| 16

| 24

| 66.1

| 29

| 131

| 4.5

| 25

| 2

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1968

| SSK

| 358

| 181

| 50.6

| 2,969

| 12

| 17

| 70.2

| 25

| 197

| 7.9

| 24

| 2

ALIGN="center"

| 1969

| SSK

| 354

| 188

| 53.1

| 3,104

| 25

| 28

| 73.5

| 22

| 115

| 5.2

| 48

| 3

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1970

| SSK

| 330

| 175

| 53.0

| 2,779

| 16

| 22

| 69.7

| 21

| 71

| 3.4

| 20

| 2

ALIGN="center"

| 1971

| SSK

| 375

| 192

| 51.2

| 2,759

| 16

| 23

| 64.1

| 5

| 0

| 0.0

| 2

| 0

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1972

| SSK

| 357

| 208

| 58.3

| 2,942

| 23

| 20

| 83.1

| 7

| 12

| 1.7

| 15

| 0

ALIGN="center"

| 1973

| SSK

| 464

| 263

| 56.7

| 3,767

| 22

| 27

| 74.7

| 8

| 17

| 2.1

| 13

| 1

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1974

| SSK

| 395

| 222

| 56.2

| 2,873

| 20

| 75.0

| 8

| 15

| 1.9

| 12

| 1

ALIGN="center"

| 1975

| SSK

| 441

| 239

| 54.2

| 3,545

| 23

| 27

| 72.6

| 14

| 11

| 0.8

| 10

| 0

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1976

| SSK

| 494

| 297

| 60.1

| 3,869

| 25

| 80.6

| 5

| 1.0

| 2

ALIGN="center"

| 1977

| SSK

| 449

| 255

| 56.8

| 3,072

| 14

| 20

| 69.8

| 14

| 48

| 3.4

| 9

| 3

ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"

| 1978

| SSK

| 390

| 205

| 52.6

| 2,677

| 15

| 27

| 58.5

| 10

| 8

| 0.8

| 2

| 3

bgcolor="#e0e0e0"

! colspan="2" | OTT totals

! 399

! 198

! 49.6

! 3,825

! 34

! 38

! 72.1

! 46

! 332

! 7.2

! 40

! 1

bgcolor="#e0e0e0"

! colspan="2" | SSK totals

! 5,834

! 3,186

! 54.6

! 46,710

! 299

! 358

! 72.4

! 290

! 1,096

! 3.8

! 48

! 28

bgcolor="#e0e0e0"

! colspan="2" | CFL totals

! 6,233

! 3,384

! 54.3

! 50,535

! 333

! 396

! 72.4

! 336

! 1,428

! 4.3

! 48

! 29

Coaching career

Lancaster was a player-coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the 1977 and 1978 seasons and also served as Saskatchewan's offensive co-ordinator.

He became Saskatchewan's head coach in 1979 but found, as one writer put it, that "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."Mullick, Rajeev. [https://www.cfl.ca/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=40 CFL Legends: Ron Lancaster]. Retrieved January 17, 2006. The Roughriders finished 2–14 in 1979 and 2-14 in 1980. Lancaster would not coach again for eleven years.

After serving as a colour commentator for The CFL on CBC from 1981 to 1990, he became head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos on February 4, 1991. From 1991 to 1997, he had a record of 83–42 in the regular season and a Grey Cup win in 1993. He passed Hugh Campbell's team record for wins on October 27, 1996.

Lancaster signed on to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as head coach on November 26, 1997. Between 1998 and 2003, he took the team to the Grey Cup twice (1998 and 1999), winning it in 1999. On July 10, 2006, Lancaster was re-hired as the team's head coach on an interim basis after the firing of Greg Marshall.

At the time of his death, Lancaster’s 142 career regular-season wins placed him fourth on the CFL’s career regular season wins list.2009 Canadian Football League Facts, Figures & Records, Canadian Football League Properties/Publications, Toronto, Ontario, {{ISBN|978-0-9739425-4-5}}, p.234

=CFL coaching record=

class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center;"
rowspan="2"\|Team	rowspan="2"\|Year	colspan="5"\|Regular Season	colspan="4"\|Post Season
Won	Lost	Ties	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Result
SSK\|\|1979 \|\|2\|\|14\|\|0\|\|.125\|\|5th in West Conference\|\| – \|\| – \|\| Missed Playoffs
SSK\|\|1980 \|\|2\|\|14\|\|0\|\|.125\|\|5th in West Conference\|\| – \|\| – \|\| Missed Playoffs
colspan="2"\|SSK Total \|\|4\|\|28\|\|0\|\|.125\|\|0 West Division Championships\|\|-\|\|-\|\|0 Grey Cups
EDM\|\|1991 \|\|12\|\|6\|\|0\|\|.667\|\|1st in West Division\|\| 0 \|\| 1 \|\| Lost in Division Finals
EDM\|\|1992 \|\|10\|\|8\|\|0\|\|.556\|\|2nd in West Division\|\| 1 \|\| 1 \|\| Lost in Division Finals
EDM\|\|1993 \|\|12\|\|6\|\|0\|\|.667\|\|2nd in West Division\|\| 3 \|\| 0 \|\| Won Grey Cup
EDM\|\|1994 \|\|13\|\|5\|\|0\|\|.722\|\|2nd in West Division\|\| 0 \|\| 1 \|\| Lost in Division Semi-Finals
EDM\|\|1995 \|\|13\|\|5\|\|0\|\|.722\|\|2nd in North Division\|\| 1 \|\| 1 \|\| Lost in Division Finals
EDM\|\|1996 \|\|11\|\|7\|\|0\|\|.611\|\|2nd in West Division\|\| 2 \|\| 1 \|\| Lost in Grey Cup
EDM\|\|1997 \|\|12\|\|6\|\|0\|\|.667\|\|1st in West Division\|\| 0 \|\| 1 \|\| Lost in Division Finals
colspan="2"\|EDM Total \|\|83\|\|43\|\|0\|\|.659\|\|2 West Division Championships\|\|7\|\|6\|\|1 Grey Cup
HAM\|\|1998 \|\|12\|\|5\|\|1\|\|.694\|\|1st in East Division\|\| 1 \|\| 1 \|\| Lost in Grey Cup
HAM\|\|1999 \|\|11\|\|7\|\|0\|\|.611\|\|2nd in East Division\|\| 3 \|\| 0 \|\| Won Grey Cup
HAM\|\|2000 \|\|9\|\|9\|\|0\|\|.500\|\|2nd in East Division\|\| 0 \|\| 1 \|\| Lost in Division Semi-Finals
HAM\|\|2001 \|\|11\|\|7\|\|0\|\|.611\|\|2nd in East Division\|\| 1 \|\| 1 \|\| Lost in Division Finals
HAM\|\|2002 \|\|7\|\|11\|\|0\|\|.389\|\|3rd in East Division\|\| – \|\| – \|\| Missed Playoffs
HAM\|\|2003 \|\|1\|\|17\|\|0\|\|.056\|\|4th in East Division\|\| – \|\| – \|\| Missed Playoffs
HAM\|\|2006 \|\|4\|\|10\|\|0\|\|.286\|\|4th in East Division\|\| – \|\| – \|\| Missed Playoffs
colspan="2"\|HAM Total \|\|55\|\|66\|\|1\|\|.455\|\|1 East Division Championship\|\|5\|\|3\|\|1 Grey Cup
colspan="2"\|Total \|\|142\|\|137\|\|1\|\|.509\|\|2 West Division Championships 1 East Division Championship\|\|12\|\|9\|\|2 Grey Cups

class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center;"

rowspan="2"|Team

rowspan="2"|Year

colspan="5"|Regular Season

colspan="4"|Post Season

Won

Lost

Ties

Win %

Finish

Won

Lost

Result

SSK||1979

||2||14||0||.125||5th in West Conference|| – || – || Missed Playoffs

SSK||1980

||2||14||0||.125||5th in West Conference|| – || – || Missed Playoffs

colspan="2"|SSK Total

||4||28||0||.125||0 West Division
Championships||-||-||0 Grey Cups

EDM||1991

||12||6||0||.667||1st in West Division|| 0 || 1 || Lost in Division Finals

EDM||1992

||10||8||0||.556||2nd in West Division|| 1 || 1 || Lost in Division Finals

EDM||1993

||12||6||0||.667||2nd in West Division|| 3 || 0 || Won Grey Cup

EDM||1994

||13||5||0||.722||2nd in West Division|| 0 || 1 || Lost in Division Semi-Finals

EDM||1995

||13||5||0||.722||2nd in North Division|| 1 || 1 || Lost in Division Finals

EDM||1996

||11||7||0||.611||2nd in West Division|| 2 || 1 || Lost in Grey Cup

EDM||1997

||12||6||0||.667||1st in West Division|| 0 || 1 || Lost in Division Finals

colspan="2"|EDM Total

||83||43||0||.659||2 West Division
Championships||7||6||1 Grey Cup

HAM||1998

||12||5||1||.694||1st in East Division|| 1 || 1 || Lost in Grey Cup

HAM||1999

||11||7||0||.611||2nd in East Division|| 3 || 0 || Won Grey Cup

HAM||2000

||9||9||0||.500||2nd in East Division|| 0 || 1 || Lost in Division Semi-Finals

HAM||2001

||11||7||0||.611||2nd in East Division|| 1 || 1 || Lost in Division Finals

HAM||2002

||7||11||0||.389||3rd in East Division|| – || – || Missed Playoffs

HAM||2003

||1||17||0||.056||4th in East Division|| – || – || Missed Playoffs

HAM||2006

||4||10||0||.286||4th in East Division|| – || – || Missed Playoffs

colspan="2"|HAM Total

||55||66||1||.455||1 East Division
Championship||5||3||1 Grey Cup

colspan="2"|Total

||142||137||1||.509||2 West Division
Championships
1 East Division
Championship||12||9||2 Grey Cups

Broadcasting career

CBC Television signed Lancaster as 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 (Cahill left after the 1985 season). He was with the CBC from 1981 to 1990 and was a member of the CBC team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea as the play-by-play broadcaster for basketball.

Illness and death

In 2004, Lancaster was diagnosed with bladder cancer, but appeared to have beaten it after treatment. In 2008, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and immediately started treatment. Lancaster was positive in his outlook, saying, "Five years ago, I survived a battle with cancer, and now we have another battle on our hands. The goal is to get this taken care of and move forward just like I did five years ago. We will approach this the same way as then and I thank you all in advance for your kindness as I am on my path to recovery."{{cite news|url=https://nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=705066 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20080807205245/http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=705066 |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 7, 2008 |title=Lancaster facing another fight with cancer |last=Masters |first=Mark |date=August 6, 2008 |work=National Post |location=Canada |access-date=September 18, 2008 }} Six weeks later, on September 18, 2008, Lancaster died of a heart attack.{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/GAM.20080919.LANCASTER19/TPStory/TPComment|title=Lancaster cast a long shadow in the CFL as a Hall of Fame player, coach, GM and broadcaster|last=Maki|first=Allan|date=August 19, 2008|work=Globe and Mail |location=Canada |access-date=September 19, 2008}}{{cite news | title = CFL fans remember Ron Lancaster | publisher = CBC Sports | date = September 19, 2008 | url = https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl-fans-remember-ron-lancaster-1.698618 | access-date =September 25, 2008}} He was survived by his wife, Bev, his three children Lana, Ron, and Bob, and four grandchildren.{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl-icon-lancaster-dies-at-69-1.698620|title=CFL icon Lancaster dies at 69|date=September 18, 2008|publisher=CBC Sports|access-date=September 18, 2008}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=249878&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main |title=CFL mourns passing of Ron Lancaster |access-date=December 7, 2017 |archive-date=October 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020055112/http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=249878&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main |url-status=dead }}

At the 2008 CFL season Awards ceremony on November 20, 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Commissioner's Award for outstanding contribution to the CFL by Commissioner Mark Cohon.{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/540819|title=Als' Calvillo, Argonauts' Dorsey take CFL honours|date=November 20, 2008|work=Toronto Star|access-date=November 21, 2008}}

References

;Notes

;Sources

CFL Facts, Figures and Records 2007.
Official WFC, EFC and CFL statistics 1960 to 1978.
[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ronald-lancaster "Ronald Lancaster"]. The Canadian Encyclopedia

{{succession box | title=Grey Cup winning Head Coach | before=Wally Buono
Wally Buono| years=87th Grey Cup, 1999
81st Grey Cup, 1993| after=Steve Buratto
Dave Ritchie}}