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Edmonton Eskimos say goodbye to Saskatchewan's Taylor Field, Canada’s Fenway Park

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Ever since they opened it 80 years ago in 1936 and named it after ex-Roughrider Piffles Taylor, it has been Canada’s Fenway Park.

 

Today the Edmonton Eskimos say goodbye to old Taylor Field in Regina for a lot of alumni and all those transplanted stubble jumpers who live among us, the occasion makes memories flood back.

As I started to write this, I had an odd thought.

I wonder if the lady in the blue dress is still alive?

I called Gluey Hughie Campbell to tell me the story about the lady in the blue dress again in advance of the Eskimos final game in the funkiest field in pro football. And he offered a wealth of stories about the place that almost made you wish the Roughriders weren’t going to be moving into their gorgeous new Mosaic Stadium on the other side of the parking lot.

Old Taylor Field, the wonderfully quirky stadium, to me has always been the Fenway Park of the Canadian Football League. There’s no green monster at old Taylor Field. But there used to be a fence right at the back of the end zone where the lady in the blue dress watched a game one Sunday afternoon.

“We used that fence for all it was worth. It was hazardous to be back there to be honest. It was kind of a double fence. There was the fence at the end line that was just barely more than waist high and topped by a board that was a 4 x 4 and turned so it was diamond shape so it was very sharp and strong. Immediately behind it was another fence that was way higher and that fence was to keep the fans from getting near the lower fence, which, crazily, was in play.

“On one occasion I hit that fence at full speed jumping and hit it right at my waist. Pride makes my have to add that I did catch the ball for a touchdown.

“I hit the fence and did a full spin over the fence and cut my helmet open on the second fence where they used a wire to attach it to the pole of that fence.”

You get the idea.

“The cyclone wire fence was an area where the defensive backs were afraid to go. And behind the fence was where all sorts of fans were forced to go. All of a sudden Ronnie Lancaster and George Reed and eventually me and Ed Buchanan all showed up at Saskatchewan at roughly the same season. I wasn’t until midseason.

“Anyway, we started winning. And that next year, the excitement was such that they couldn’t fit them in the stadium. Every seat was full. People would come right on to the field and sat right on the sidelines. And they were packed in behind the end zone fence.

“So one time, on an afternoon game, we had a play that I still remember was ‘229-A-O-Get Open.’

“So I said to Ronnie ‘See that girl down there in the blue dress? I’ll be there!’”

Gluey Hughie made the Lady In The Blue Dress catch for the touchdown.

On another occasion, however, it backfired.

There was a Canadian flag that was also night in the middle of that fence at the back of the end zone.

“I said ‘Throw it at the flag.’ He threw a pass at tis little tiny flag on a springy wire in the corner of the end zone. I’m standing right in the middle of the end zone smack in front of this big Canadian flag and I see the ball hit this tiny little flag and it’s going ‘boi-oi-oi-oing’. He looks at me and puts his arms up like ‘What happened?’ And I pointed immediately over my head and there’s the Canadian flag right above me.”

There’s no longer a fence in the end zone at Taylor Field.

Another thing that’s different from when I covered my first games at Taylor Field in the late ‘60s was the location of the Roughriders dressing room. You had to hike over to the horse race track to talk to the Riders after a game.

“We used to practice in the middle of the racetrack with the horse going around. And actually it was a pretty darn good, spacious place to have a practice field.

“But for games, we’d get on a bus after we were all dressed and head over to Taylor Field. The cars were in the parking lot and all of that,” Campbell remembered.

At half time they went under the stands to a makeshift room where they’d built benches. And it was back to the dressing room after the game.

“And the field was not perfectly level. It was very nicely kept, nicely mowed and the lines were straight and all of that. But there were little dips and valleys and knolls in there. That was kind of a home field advantage for sure.”

I suggested to Campbell that even with the improvements made over the years I’ve always viewed Taylor Field as a Fenway Park type of treasure in Canadian sports, even to this day. The quirkiness has always been there.

“I think it is. It’s one of a kind. And it has a great tradition. And there are just little funny sections. It’s always had unique grandstands where they built seats everywhere they could. Some of them were shaped funny or at a funny angle and only held 20 people.

“The lights were in the four corners. If you ran a corner route, you’d look right back into the light standard trying to catch passes.”

It was not an easy place to play as a visiting team as a player. And, of course, Campbell returned to coach the Eskimos there.

No place in the CFL was as hard on visiting players and coaches as those positioned behind the visitor’s bench.

“Those fans were close. They knew the effect they had on some of them. And they liked to talk to you about the game as the game was going on.

“I remember they’d bring a player an ice cream cone or a hot dog, too, when I was there — the back-up quarterback or a guy who wasn’t seeing any action. It was like them saying ‘You might as well be with us.’ They always took pride in being a special gathering of fans behind that visiting bench.

“I personally was treated fine,” laughed Campbell of having ex-Rider exempt status.

In 1991 Lancaster enjoyed his first win as an Eskimos’ head coach in the stadium where he used to play.

“I know other coaches were given a rough time and for sure the players. If a player turned around and treated at them then they just got louder and worse,” said Campbell.

“As a coach I remember going in there and wondering how we could ever win with the fans being as enthusiastic as they were.”

I suggested to Campbell that he solved that with the first play of one game I covered in there where Warren Moon threw a 91-yard pass to Brian Kelly for a touchdown on the first play of the game. It was 34-7 at the half and 41-7 early in the third quarter. The first-play pass to Kelly was the longest of Moon’s career.

“Actually, that’s what I was thinking of but I didn’t want to mention it and be snooty about it,” he laughed.

Moon threw Kelly three touchdowns in Taylor Field the following year. That was Campbell’s last regular season game as an Eskimos’ head coach prior to winning a fifth Grey Cup in a row. Moon was lifted after reaching exactly 5,000 yards passing for the season, a record at the time.

Actually, the Eskimos had a lot of wonderful ‘I was there’ moments in Taylor Field.

Other than the Eskimos winning the 2003 Grey Cup there with the heroics of Jason Tucker, Ed Hervey and Ricky Ray, it was hard to top what happened in 1973 when Bruce Lemmerman threw 15 completed passes to George McGowan. It remains an Eskimos record to this day.

Fred Stamps had 14 and 12 reception games in the old joint and last year Adarius Bowman caught a dozen in there.

Eskimos stats man Brian Desjarlais and hobby historian Jack Morrow produced some of those and other memory jotters like Larry Highbaugh’s 94-yard punt return in the place in 1975. Tom Richards hoofed another one back 88 yards in 1987.

The famed Taylor Field wind also came into play.

“When that wind comes up, there’s the odd tractor blowing with it, too,” quipped Dave Cutler on 630 CHED this week.

Cutler’s 59-yard field goal in 1970 at Taylor Field still stands as a team record. And he hit the crossbar from 71 yards in Taylor Field and just missed from 64 in another one. Sean Fleming set an Eskimos record with a 91-yard punt in Taylor Field in 1991.

Two significant firsts in Eskimos history occurred in Taylor Field, the team’s first road win in 1949 and first playoff win in 1950.

My favorite all-time single incident (I wasn’t there for the Lady In The Blue Dress Pass game) happened on the property on July 14, 1975 at a pre-season game involving the Eskimos.

The Riders were introducing a touchdown cannon to proceedings that season. Rhett Dawson was alone in the end zone for an easy touchdown pass when the guy fired the cannon a half second early, causing Dawson to jump out of his skin and drop the ball That allowed the Eskimos to win 26-22.

I’ll give the last word to Gluey Hughie.

“My summary is that I have the greatest respect for Taylor Field. It’s part of the folklore and part of history.”

 

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