1984 East Final

[ArgoRavi]

For those of us who saw this game originally, it is a painful memory as an Argos fan but it is still interesting to watch all of these years later (I have only watched the 1st quarter so far). The Argos defence was quite a bit different in 1984 compared to a year earlier. More than half of the starters on defence were new including the late David Boone and Vince Goldsmith on the defensive line, Doug Battershill at linebacker and Lamont Meacham, Dennis Clay and Ralph Dixon in the defensive backfield. Who was playing free safety or "rover" as it was called then? None other than the jack-of-all-trades Jan Carinci who was replacing Paul Bennett who had been dealt to Hamilton in mid-season.

The turning point in this game comes late in the 1st quarter and it was all downhill from there from what I recall.

Although Vic Rauter is now considered a national treasure, this game may have marked his first national TV exposure as he worked the Hamilton sidelines (vet Ernie Afaganis was on the Toronto sideline) and even did the player introductions before a nearly-full Exhibition Stadium. This game would mark the final time that an Argos game would draw over 40k to old CNE Stadium.

So let's go back to November of 1984 and watch the 1984 East Final between the Ticats and Argos:

[AngeloV]

I made the mistake of going through this game last night. Such bad memories. Obie, Obie, Obie. What the hell were you thinking.

Drives me nuts to remember having the ball 2nd and 10 on the Cats 41 yard line with 20 seconds left and not trying to gain more yards. Instead, he lets the clock tick to :04 and has Ilesic try and punt it for a single. What an idiotic move that was. That specific play had moronic Cats fans nickname Ilesic (rather unfairly) Hank the Shank. If a 40 yard punt is a shank, I'll have that guy punt for me any day.

I also am 100% confident if Holloway didn't leave that game for the better part of 3 quarters, Argos would have easily won the game. Barnes was terrible that day.

Anybody that remembers from that era, did you notice that whenever Holloway got sacked, the Argos would lose 3-4 yards, and when Barnes got sacked they would lose 10-15? Used to drive me nuts. Oh the memories. I now feel old.

[Argo57]

I made the mistake of going through this game last night. Such bad memories. Obie, Obie, Obie. What the hell were you thinking.

Drives me nuts to remember having the ball 2nd and 10 on the Cats 41 yard line with 20 seconds left and not trying to gain more yards. Instead, he lets the clock tick to :04 and has Ilesic try and punt it for a single. What an idiotic move that was. That specific play had moronic Cats fans nickname Ilesic (rather unfairly) Hank the Shank. If a 40 yard punt is a shank, I'll have that guy punt for me any day.

I also am 100% confident if Holloway didn't leave that game for the better part of 3 quarters, Argos would have easily won the game. Barnes was terrible that day.

Anybody that remembers from that era, did you notice that whenever Holloway got sacked, the Argos would lose 3-4 yards, and when Barnes got sacked they would lose 10-15? Used to drive me nuts. Oh the memories. I now feel old.

I too was at that game, painful memories for sure, ended the Argonaut Grey Cup Dynasty.

[ArgoRavi]

I too was at that game, painful memories for sure, ended the Argonaut Grey Cup Dynasty.

I have only watched the first half so far but one thing that strikes me about this game is that this may have been the final time that the Argos were considered to be on par, by media and fans, with the Leafs and Jays in the city of Toronto.

[Argo57]

I have only watched the first half so far but one thing that strikes me about this game is that this may have been the final time that the Argos were considered to be on par, by media and fans, with the Leafs and Jays in the city of Toronto.

After the 83 championship the Argos suffered from "we've won it now what" syndrome, 84 was a disappointment and 85 continued the slide with stars like Holloway and Greer in their Argo twilight and guys like QB Mark Casale (Bears draft pick) and the like brought in with little to no success.
The biggest factor IMO was the 1984 Blue Jays starting to look like a possible contender culminating in the 85 AL East championship and subsequent rise to the 92-93 World Series titles, sadly by then the Argonauts were basically an afterthought in Toronto and haven't recovered since.

[AngeloV]

After the 83 championship the Argos suffered from "we've won it now what" syndrome, 84 was a disappointment and 85 continued the slide with stars like Holloway and Greer in their Argo twilight and guys like QB Mark Casale (Bears draft pick) and the like brought in with little to no success.
The biggest factor IMO was the 1984 Blue Jays starting to look like a possible contender culminating in the 85 AL East championship and subsequent rise to the 92-93 World Series titles, sadly by then the Argonauts were basically an afterthought in Toronto and haven't recovered since.

'83 and '84 were also the years where NFL contracts really started to pull away from what CFL players were being paid. I still believe, that is a bigger factor than anything as to why Toronto stopped supporting the Argos. It gave the casual fan the "minor league" perception strictly based on salaries.

[Will]

I have only watched the first half so far but one thing that strikes me about this game is that this may have been the final time that the Argos were considered to be on par, by media and fans, with the Leafs and Jays in the city of Toronto.

But, even it did not draw as much as the 1983 eastern final.
I can also picture that if ArgoFans.com existed in the mid-1980's that we would have likely seen the same criticism of Bob O'Billovich that we presently see of Scott Milanovich.

[timlb01]

This game was not even close to being as depressing as the 2 game total points playoff game against Hamilton.... I don't know if that will every be topped.... that hurt for months.....

[AngeloV]

This game was not even close to being as depressing as the 2 game total points playoff game against Hamilton.... I don't know if that will every be topped.... that hurt for months.....

I was at both games (actually all 3 with '86 being a 2 game series), and it may not have been as depressing, but it was definitely more disappointing because the Argos were a much better team in '84 than they were in '86.

[Will]

I was at both games (actually all 3 with '86 being a 2 game series), and it may not have been as depressing, but it was definitely more disappointing because the Argos were a much better team in '84 than they were in '86.

That '84 team went 9-6-1, which is worse than the '83 team. Did the talent level drop off from '83 to '84 because it seems like much of the core was still around so what gave...?

[ArgoRavi]

That '84 team went 9-6-1, which is worse than the '83 team. Did the talent level drop off from '83 to '84 because it seems like much of the core was still around so what gave...?

1984 was an odd season. The team started off at 1-2 and then won their next six games in a row to go to 7-2. They then only went 2-4-1 the rest of the regular season as they wrapped up first place with about three games to go IIRC. Over those final six games, they beat Winnipeg and tied B.C. who were the other two best teams in the league but they lost to lightweights like Saskatchewan and Calgary at home. I think that the '84 squad was not that far off the '83 team but they did seem to lose their edge late in the season after they clinched first place. The Ticats, on the other hand, were 6-9-1 but won four of their final five games and headed into the postseason on a roll, especially with their defensive play.

[Gill The Thrill]

I've always wanted to see this game, as I heard it on the radio. It was as dramatic watching Don Wittman call the game, with analysts Ron Lancaster and Leo Cahill (What a broadcast team) as it was listening to Bob Bratina and Pete Martin.

I always blamed Ilesic as I thought he was inconsistent on field goals. That 30 yd miss in OT was a killer, but now that I saw the last play of regulation for the first time...what the hell was Obie thinking with that clock management. They could have lined up for a quick play, hopefully gained a few more yards to get into better FG positon, instead of letting the clock run down to 4 seconds before calling a timeout and then asking Ilesic to kick the 55 yd single by angling it to the pylon. The angle alone would make that a tough punt in those conditions, let alone the possible 75 yd single if you wanted him to punt it out the end line of the end zones. An attempt at splitting the uprights from 50 may have been the better choice. Rouff hit on a 56 yd and 47 yd FG and outkicked Hank that game.

I agree with you in your analysis that it was the last game, where you got the perception, the Argos were viewed as big time in Toronto. 48,414 in the stands on a dreary rainy November day. Sure, there were Hamilton fans, but the Toronto fans outnumbered them and cared just as much. Being at the 2013 East Final in perfect conditions, it was sad how the Hamilton fans didn't just outcheer the Argo fans, they out-numbered them in the stands imo. That wasn't the case back in 1984. Harold Ballard was definitely not the best owner of a hockey team, but he was great at promoting the CFL and the Argo/Ticat rivalry in those days as owner of the Ticats.

This game also reiterates and proves how important it is to get a good running game because of conditions that you'll play on in the playoffs. To be fair, both defenses were strong. Better than most defenses you see in today's CFL judging by the speed of the pass rush, but it was a Div Final.

[ArgoRavi]

Just watched the rest of this game last night and was as frustrated watching it today as I was in 1984. The Argo Bounce pretty much disappeared that day as Hamilton fumbled four times and managed to recover it on each occasion. The worst was on the one Hamilton TD drive in OT when Rocky Dipietro fumbled it with about four Argos present and Carl Brazley in especially good position to scoop up the ball and somehow the Ticats got it back. There was also a Johnny Shepherd fumble in the second quarter where he was clearly on his feet when he lost the ball, the Argos recovered and the officials somehow ruled him down. Incredible!

I concur with everyone who wonders what the hell Obie was doing in the final minute of the 4th quarter. All they had to do was call a timeout with 20 seconds left which would have allowed them to run at least one more play before sending Ilesic out to attempt a game-winning FG. It is amazing how Obie screwed up that entire equation. If Ilesic had been allowed to attempt a FG, missed and Hamilton had brought it out of the endzone, I could somewhat more easily accept this loss. However, Ilesic never had the chance.

There is so much that went wrong in that game for the Argos. I also agree with AV that the Argos likely would have won that game if Holloway had been put back into the game a bit earlier by Obie. Barnes was mostly terrible that day. Ilesic was outpunted by Ruoff and then missed a 30 yard FG in the first OT.

One question I have is how did the Argos go into the wind for the entire OT? Hamilton got the ball and the wind for the first half of OT but the Argos only got the ball and no wind for the second half. How did that happen?

One other observation - I enjoyed the sideline interviews with players done during the course of the game by Ernie Afaganis and Vic Rauter. IIRC, 1984 was the final season where such interviews were allowed. For a league that is all about fans having access, it would seem to be an easy thing to reinstate such interviews. My only concern is that I am not sure the players of today would provide the same quality of interviews that the players of back then did.

[shayman]

I noticed that the opening cheesy graphics showed a field with numbers at the 5, 15, 25 yard lines instead of the 10, 20, 30. Were the fields ever actually marked that way?

[Gill The Thrill]

I noticed that the opening cheesy graphics showed a field with numbers at the 5, 15, 25 yard lines instead of the 10, 20, 30. Were the fields ever actually marked that way?

Loved the intros in those days, the cheese is today's lounge singers who have to remind us what day of the week it is during the intros. Instrumental intros with a driving base like the CFL on CBC intro in the 80's was classic.

If you look at highlights during the early days of Artificial turf at CNE...I'm pretty sure the numbers were painted every 5 yds. I remember seeing the 5, 10, 15, 20...and so on on the first astro turf put on CNE. It was replaced by the late 70's as I never remember seeing them by the time I started to regularly follow the CFL in the early 80's.

[Will]

Ilesic's struggles this game probably heavily influenced the Argos bringing in Lance Chomyc for the 1985 season. Ilesic would continue to excel as a punter for the Argos and the kicking game was stabilized.

[Argo57]

Ilesic's struggles this game probably heavily influenced the Argos bringing in Lance Chomyc for the 1985 season. Ilesic would continue to excel as a punter for the Argos and the kicking game was stabilized.

Ilesic was pretty much the last of the "toe kicking" place kickers (for lack of better terminology) replace by the "soccer style" place kickers who tended to be less erratic and more accurate.

[KCargosfan]

When did the CFL move to an 18-game schedule and what was the reaction when they did?

[paulwoods13]

Eighteen games began in 1986. There was no criticism from players that I can recall (about more wear and tear on them, etc.). It was seen as a logical move to eliminate two preseason games and add two meaningful games.

[Johno27]

Eighteen games began in 1986. There was no criticism from players that I can recall (about more wear and tear on them, etc.). It was seen as a logical move to eliminate two preseason games and add two meaningful games.

Paul, do you recall if there was an issue with respect to player compensation being adjusted/pro-rated to accommodate the increase from 16 to 18 games? I seem to remember it being reported (probably Marty York) that this was a potential hurdle that would need to be cleared.