Free-spirited all-star says he never forgot tackle that kept him from winning a Grey Cup for Toronto.
Former Toronto Argonaut Tricky Dick Thornton wasn’t one to do things in half measures.
When he decided he wanted to switch positions and play quarterback in the pros, he hired a kid to run through the bleachers with a sign that read, “Thornton For Quarterback.” When he was upset about Argo running back Leon McQuay fumbling away the 1971 Grey Cup to Calgary, he penned a mournful, angry poem called “Stardom Denied,” which he had published.
Dick Thornton, a colourful three-time CFL all-star and two-time Grey Cup winner, died in Manila on Friday of cancer. He was 75.
Former Argo head coach Leo Cahill said he was stunned and saddened by the news.
“He just seemed like a guy who would never die,” said Cahill, 86, in a telephone interview from Atlanta. “Guys like that don’t die.”
“He had a full life,” former Argo teammate Peter Martin said in an interview on Saturday. “He crammed an awful lot into his 75 years.”
In 2012, Dick Thornton was among 14 members of the ’71 team honoured by the Argos at Rogers Centre.
Longtime Argo fan Sheldon Kates struck up a friendship with Thornton over the past decade and said he has nothing but good memories of him.
“He’d chuckle about life, no matter what it handed him,” Kates said. “I’m sitting here, tearing up a little bit.”
The stunt when Thornton hired the kid to run with the sign took place in Winnipeg, where he played for six seasons after coming out of Northwestern University.
“That was Tricky,” Martin said. “Tricky was tricky.”
An Argo from 1967 to 1972, he never tried to blend in with the crowd. He was one of the first CFL players to sport an earring, ponytail and Fu Manchu moustache; at a time when many players had brush cuts, his air could be seen sprouting out from below his helmet.
He could often be found Saturday afternoons at Woodbine Raceway, and sometimes collected wagers from teammates when he thought he had a sure thing.
Cahill said he recently spoke with Thornton on the phone, and they shared memories of four decades ago, when the Argos nurtured a feeling of us-against-the-world.
“He was the same old Tricky Dick,” Cahill said. “Told some jokes, had some laughs.”
Martin noted that Chicago-born Thornton thoroughly understood the game of football and that he had played quarterback in university.
He was capable of starting as wide receiver or defensive back and sometimes subbed in as punter.
He never did get to play quarterback as a pro, despite hiring the boy with the sign. Cahill said that’s because he was too vital to the Argos’ defence.
“When the chips were down, I wouldn’t have been afraid to put him in, anytime,” Cahill said.
An All-American in 1960, he chose to head up to the CFL after being drafted by the Cleveland Browns and trade to St. Louis.
At the time, CFL salaries were comparable to those paid in the NFL.
He quickly took part in two of the strangest CFL games while a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Immediately after turning pro, he helped the Blue Bombers win the 1961 Grey Cup.
Then, he played in the 1962 “Fog Bowl,” the only Grey Cup game ever suspended during play. The Blue Bombers won it 28-27.
He was also part of the Winnipeg team that lost the 1965 Grey Cup to Hamilton in the “Wind Bowl.”
His career ended in 1974 after one year with the Memphis Southmen of the short-lived World Football League, where he was team captain.
After his CFL run, he was head coach and athletic director briefly at tiny Southwestern University in Memphis, after hearing about the job in a bar.
Only three of his players weighed over 200 lbs and none of them had even faint professional aspirations.
Still he enjoyed the experience, and directed the team to a 9-1-1 record in 1977.
“We’re happy to draw 2,000 people,” he told former Star sports columnist Jim Proudfoot. “It’s a long way from pro ball or the Big Ten. But the goals are different. We’re providing a good experience for 35 kids, nothing more.
“Doesn’t sound much like the old Tricky Dick, does it? What ever became of the old rebel and all his chatter? I guess he just got older and smarter.”
After leaving football, he eventually settled in as a representative for Coca-Cola, in a job that allowed him to travel the world, with stops in Atlanta and Australia, London and Singapore.
He settled in the Philippines in 1994, raising a family and playing plenty of golf.
He is survived by wife Lhyn, daughters Lisa and Ashley, son Ricky and grandsons Trey and Josh.
He was last in Toronto a couple years ago, when TSN was filming a documentary on the 1971 Argos called, “The Greatest Team That Never Won.”
That trip back to Toronto included bittersweet conversations about how Thornton was almost the hero of that championship.
With less than two minutes remaining in the game, the Argos trailed 14-11, when Thornton picked off a pass and ran it back 54 yards.
Had he made it into the end zone, it would likely have meant Toronto’s first Grey Cup in 19 years. Instead, Stampeder quarterback Jerry Keeling made a great recovery, fighting off a block and tackling Thornton on the 11-yard line.
Then, famously, McQuay fumbled the wet ball after a handoff from Joe Theismann.
Four decades later, Thornton still hadn’t gotten over that loss, although he seemed happy with life in general.
His hair was far thinner but still in a ponytail of sorts and he still sported an earring.
“I’ve never forgotten that moment,” Thornton told the Star’s Bob Mitchell two years ago. “With the advent of YouTube it’s very easy to punch in the 1971 Grey Cup and there I am. There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t look at it as a memory or show it to somebody who has never seen it before.
“I should have scored. Maybe in a way I let everybody down. But circumstances happen. I should have cut right. I cut left. But then again, I was playing against Jerry Keeling, who was a great defensive back who happened to be playing quarterback at that time. He played me perfect.”
Despite the loss, he said that football was then a pleasant diversion in an unsettled time.
“Back in those days, the Vietnam War was going on,” Thornton told Mitchell. “There was a lot of protests and demonstrations. Football was my focus and it allowed you to get away from all of the outside influences that were disturbing people.”
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