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Alouettes' Sam 'the Rifle' passes the ball to 'Prince Hal' - that's as good as it gets
© by Mike Keenan 
Reading the newspaper account about Sam Etcheverry's recent passing brought back many fond memories of the legendary quarterback who successfully led his Montreal Alouettes to three Grey Cups in the 1950s and then coached them to victory in another. Sam "The Rifle" was 79. In the fifties, he struck fear into the heart of this young Argo fan. It wasn't just Etcheverry, but the combination of Sam and Hal (Prince Hal) Patterson, his favourite receiver, who would always make the clutch catch, no matter how difficult. They were a lethal combination that most teams could not control. There was such a perfect rhythm and harmony between the two players that when Hal turned around, the ball immediately arrived in a perfect spiral. Defenders bit their nails. They hated to cover Patterson. Gerry Philip, who played defensive back for the Argos, was my high school football coach at De La Salle in Toronto. Gerry revealed that he prayed that Patterson would not line up on his side of the field, such was his admiration for his opponent.
Etcheverry quarterbacked the Als from 1952 to 1960, setting team passing records for a total of 30,303 yards and 186 touchdowns on 1,969 completions. He led the Als to the Grey Cup in 1954, 55 and 56, but lost each time to the pesky Edmonton Eskimos. In 1954, Etcheverry won the Schenley Award as the CFL's best player. Two years later, he became the first quarterback in CFL history to reach 4,000 passing yards in a season. He threw for 508 yards in the 1955 Grey Cup, setting a record that still stands. Sam was a six-time CFL all-star, and in 1970, he returned to the Als as head coach, leading them to a Grey Cup victory over the Calgary Stampeders. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame on Nov. 28, 1969. Born May 20, 1930, in Carlsbad, New Mexico, Sam played at the University of Denver, where some passing records he set from 1949 to 51 still stand. He joined the Alouettes in 1952. "Prince Hal" Patterson was born a year later in 1931 in Garden City, Kansas. He was a football, baseball and basketball star at the University of Kansas. In 1956, he won the Jeff Russel Memorial Trophy then the Schenley Award as the CFL's Outstanding Player. That same year, Patterson set a record that has yet to be matched when he caught passes for 338 yards in a single game and set the record of 88 catches that stood up for 11 years before Terry Evanshen broke it in 1967. Hal Patterson still holds the record of 580 yards for Most Pass Receiving Yards in Grey Cup history. He scored 54 touchdowns in his 14-year CFL career and had 34 games with at least 100 yards in pass receptions. He was inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame in 1971. On November 21st, 2008, the Montreal Alouettes retired Patterson's number 75. Back in the 50's, there was no talk of steroids or other ergogenic aids to help get the edge on an opponent. In the case of the Alouettes, they didn't need much more edge than Etcheverry and Patterson. If Sam received adequate time from his linemen to step back and throw, he would march the team straight down the field. Defensive backs such as Jerry Philp had to back off Patterson, so Etcheverry would throw short ten-yard down and out patterns to Patterson who would routinely grab the ball high in the air before stepping out of bounds. There was nothing the defensive back could do except move up closer, and when that happened, you guessed it, Patterson would fake a down and out and go long for a touchdown pass that flew perfectly in the air towards its target. As a kid, I hated those two guys because I knew that they were so good and that we didn't have much of a chance against them. Only time could fashion that. |
