Ron Lancaster

No. 23
Position	Quarterback
Personal information
Born	(1938-10-14)October 14, 1938 Fairchance, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	September 18, 2008(2008-09-18) (aged 69) Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
College	Wittenberg
Career history
Playing
1960–1962	Ottawa Rough Riders
1963–1978	Saskatchewan Roughriders
Coaching
1979–1980	Saskatchewan Roughriders
1991–1997	Edmonton Eskimos
1998–2003	Hamilton Tiger-Cats
2006	Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Awards and 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) 4× CFL All-Star (1970,1973,1975,1976) 7×CFL West All-Star (1966,1968,1969,1970,1973,1975,1976) CFL Commissioner's Award (2008) Saskatchewan Roughriders No. 23 retired
Canadian Football Hall of Fame (Class of 1982)

Ronald Lancaster (October 14, 1938 – September 18, 2008) was an American-Canadian professional football player and coach in theCanadian Football League (CFL). As the starting quarterback for theSaskatchewan Roughriders for 16 seasons, he led the team to its firstGrey Cup championship in1966 and is the franchise's all-time leader in passing yards, attempts, completions, touchdowns, and interceptions.^[1] At the time of his retirement, he was the CFL's career leader in passing yards and still rankssixth overall as of 2016. After his retirement as a player, he served as a head coach andgeneral manager in the CFL; he led his teams to two Grey Cups and currently ranksfourth all-time with 142 regular season wins. He was also acolour commentator on theCFL on CBC from 1981 to 1990. At the time of his death, he was the Senior Director of Football Operations of theHamilton Tiger-Cats. He is a member of theCanadian Football Hall of Fame (1982),Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1985) and theWittenberg University Athletic Hall of Honour (1985).

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

Lancaster was a talented quarterback by the time he graduated from Clairton High School, but because he was 5′5″ (165 cm),^[2][3] he was ignored by most college scouts. He attended tinyWittenberg University and led its team to a 25-8-1 record between 1956 and 1959,^[4] and twoOhio 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 theCanadian 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 theGrey 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'sWestern Football Conference final 12 times. During that period, Saskatchewan played for theGrey 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,^[5] 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 theSchenley 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.^[5]

In November 2006, the Canadian sports networkTSN ranked Lancaster seventh on its list ofTop 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 byDamon 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)

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."^[6] 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 forTheCFL on CBC from 1981 to 1990, he became head coach of theEdmonton 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 passedHugh Campbell's team record for wins on October 27, 1996.

Lancaster signed on to theHamilton 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 ofGreg 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.^[7]

CBC Television signed Lancaster as a colour commentator on CFL broadcasts in 1980. He was part of a trio that includedDon Wittman doing the play-by-play and former Argonaut head coachLeo 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.

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."^[8] Six weeks later, on September 18, 2008, Lancaster died of a heart attack.^[9][10] He was survived by his wife, Bev, his three children Lana,Ron, and Bob, and four grandchildren.^[11][12]

At the2008 CFL season Awards ceremony on November 20, 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Commissioner's Award for outstanding contribution to the CFL by CommissionerMark Cohon.^[13]

• List of gridiron football quarterbacks passing statistics
• List of Canadian Football League head coaches by wins

Notes

Sources

• CFL Facts, Figures and Records 2007.
• Official WFC, EFC and CFL statistics 1960 to 1978.
• "Ronald Lancaster".The Canadian Encyclopedia

• 1938 births
• 2008 deaths
• American color commentators
• American emigrants to Canada
• American football quarterbacks
• American television sports commentators
• Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
• Canadian Football League announcers
• Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners
• Canadian football quarterbacks
• Canadian television sportscasters
• Deaths from lung cancer in Canada
• Edmonton Elks coaches
• Hamilton Tiger-Cats coaches
• Hamilton Tiger-Cats general managers
• Olympic Games broadcasters
• Ottawa Rough Riders players
• People from Clairton, Pennsylvania
• Players of American football from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
• Players of Canadian football from Pennsylvania
• Saskatchewan Roughriders players
• Canadian football people from Hamilton, Ontario
• Wittenberg Tigers football players

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