OTTAWA — Back in the 1950s and 1960s, an era when seemingly every athlete had a colourful nickname, Jim Conroy was simply Mr. Conroy.
He was skilled. He was tenacious. He hit hard and he played for keeps. And he was respected.
One night in Vancouver, according to legend, the Ottawa Rough Riders were out on the town and Conroy was on an already over-crowded elevator with teammates when then Rider Angelo Mosca tried to push his way on.
Mosca was insistent, so finally Conroy, all of 6-0 and 205 pounds, stepped forward and told the 6-4, 310-pound Mosca he would have to wait for the next elevator, to which a former Rough Riders great, the late Billy Joe Booth, turned and said, “I have to take a look at this Jim Conroy.”
Not many messed with Mosca. Fewer got away with it. Conroy could, and did.
It was memories such as those that former Rough Riders mentioned Tuesday following news that Conroy, who would have turned 74 on Oct. 18, passed away Monday of an apparent heart attack at the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre, where he had been since the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in 2006.
“He was fierce coming off the edge,” good friend and former teammate Bill Siekierski said. “Linebacker is the most difficult position to play in the Canadian game, and he was fierce coming off the corner.”
Conroy was born in Vancouver, but his family moved to Long Beach, California, when he was four.
He starred at the University of Southern California and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the first draft of the upstart American Football League, but he had his eyes on Ottawa and played here from 1960 through 1967, easily converting from offence to defence.
As former Rough Riders teammate Don Gilbert put it, he and Conroy were involved in a “blockbuster” 1968 trade that sent them and two others to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for three players, including Billy Cooper and Bill Van Burkleo.
Conroy played only one season out west, his legs basically deciding that nine Canadian Football League seasons were enough, rather than his initial goal of 10, so he retired as a player and put his civil engineering degree to use with De Leuw Cather & Company of Canada Ltd. before joining the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton roads department,
After retiring from that position, he created Conroy Auto Parts Recycling and immersed himself in the business that still bears his name.
Conroy is survived by his wife, Carol, daughters Jennifer, Joan and Julie, step-daughter Debby and three brothers, all still residing in Southern California.
Plans are in the works for a memorial service to be held later in the month.
BY DON CAMPBELL, THE OTTAWA CITIZENOCTOBER 5, 2011
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