via: http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Funeral+Monday+first+ever+draft+pick+McNichol/6177759/story.html
By Ian Macdonald, Postmedia News February 19, 2012
MONTREAL — A funeral service is scheduled for Monday in Mississauga, Ont., for Canadian Football League Hall of Famer Doug McNichol, who died Thursday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
He was 81.
McNichol was selected by the Montreal Alouettes with the No. 1 pick in the CFL’s first draft of Canadian players in 1953. The St. Catharines, Ont., native would became a cornerstone of the Montreal defence on an exciting and colourful team through the mid 1950s.
The Alouettes won three straight Eastern titles from 1954-56, before losing the Grey Cup each year to the Edmonton Eskimos. An all-star in football and basketball at the University of Western Ontario, McNichol signed a CFL contract with Hamilton while finishing his business-administration degree at Western. However, this was at a time when the CFL and the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union were working out an agreement on how to operate a draft of Canadian collegiate players.
“That made the contract I’d signed with Hamilton null and void,” McNichol explained years later. “Montreal drafted me.”
The six-foot-four, 240-pounder had arranged to work with Pittsburgh Glass in Hamilton. Fortunately, the company had an office in Montreal and had a job for him here.
The reason the Alouettes had the No. 1 pick in the 1953 draft was because they finished with a league-worst 2-10 record the previous season, which was Peahead Walker’s first year as head coach. Things improved quickly after that.
Walker had arranged to bring future Hall of Fame quarterback Sam Etcheverry in for the 1952 season, and along with McNichol the newcomers included Tom Hugo, Tex Coulter and Ray Poole. Alex Webster joined the Als midway through the season.
“Doug really hit hard,” Etcheverry, who died in 2009, once recalled. “He even hit hard in practice.”
When he was asked about that, McNichol chuckled and said:
“That’s right. You had to. The harder you hit the better (Walker) liked it. He didn’t care about style. He liked the loud noise on contact.”
That noise was heard in the National Football League.
On the word of Coulter, who played for years with the New York Giants, McNichol was flown to the Big Apple and offered an NFL contract. The Alouettes responded by offering him a $12,000 salary, which was decent in those days.
In 1960, Canadian Pittsburgh Industries wanted McNichol to take over as manager of its Toronto office and he asked Alouettes to trade him. McNichol and Billy Shipp were dealt to the Argonauts in exchange for Bobby Jack Oliver and Ron Brewer.
Montreal Gazette
imacdonald@montrealgazette.com
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