As a young football fan growing up in Winnipeg, I intensely disliked Jackie Parker. It seemed every time the Blue Bombers didn’t represent the West in the Grey Cup, he was largely responsible. Parker could do everything well and he usually did.
Many years later, I wound up on the golf course in a foursome with Jackie Parker…not once, but twice. We had a mutual friend, Tom Larscheid, who played briefly during the Parker era and then became a first-class colour commentator. Along the way, they became buddies and, by extension, I became a golf partner.
Parker was a better-than-average golfer, as pro athletes usually are when they tee it up, and he excelled at reading greens. I remember sizing up a putt of about 40 feet on a course in California and appealing to Parker for help. What he saw was almost exactly the opposite of what I saw. I listened to him. He likely wasn’t impressed that I missed the putt, but I was thrilled it was close.
In the days before this year’s Grey Cup on December 12, Canadian football will announce its “most outstanding player” like it does at the conclusion of every season. Dinosaurs like me instinctively think about the “most outstanding of the most outstanding.” For the record, Doug Flutie was the most outstanding “quarterback.” Parker, who died 15 years ago this week, did it all.
There are generations of fans who don’t know Jackie Parker from Sarah Jessica, so allow me to enlighten you.
He really could do everything. In his prime with the Edmonton Eskimos, Parker played quarterback, running back and defensive back. He threw, caught and intercepted passes. In nine seasons with the Eskimos, he was also either their punter or place kicker and sometimes both, and in the pre-kicking specialist era he became the league’s all-time scoring leader. He played when points at a premium. I watched him beat the Bombers in back-to-back games of one Western Final. The scores: 10-5 and 4-2. When his career ended, he was the all-time scoring leader with 750 points, which now puts him behind at least 25 kickers.
Parker played in four Grey Cups, won three, and was a finalist for the Schenley Award as outstanding player five times, also winning three. His legacy was born in his rookie season when he ran the most famous Grey Cup fumble for a touchdown, and into history, in 1954.
