Ken Clark (26 May 1948 - 8 August 2021) R.I.P.

[Foxhound]

Ken Clark was born in Southampton, England in 1948. After moving to Canada with his family he enrolled at St. Mary's University of Halifax where he played for the Huskies football team. His career with the Huskies ended on a high note as he won the Ted Morris Memorial Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the 1973 Vanier Cup Game in which St. Mary's defeated the McGill Redmen 14-6. He then turned pro and played for the following teams:


1974 Portland Storm (WFL)
1975-1978 Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1978 Toronto Argonauts
1979 Los Angeles Rams (NFL)
1980-1983 Saskatchewan Roughriders
1983-1987 Ottawa Rough Riders


His one year with the Los Angeles Rams was capped off by the 1980 Super Bowl in which the Rams lost 31-19 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Ken Clark was an outstanding punter and his lifetime punting average of 45.6 yards in the CFL was the record when he retired. Moreover he still has the fourth highest lifetime average a scant 0.2 yards per punt behind Damon Duval's 45.8 yards per punt. Clark was a league All-Star in 1977, 1980, 1982 and 1985.

He was also the kicker for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1976 and continued to do so on an emergency basis through the rest of his career. He kicked a 41 yard field goal into the wind in the last minute of play to give the Saskatchewan Roughriders a 32-30 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Labour Day Classic in 1983. The wind was so stiff that day that Clark had earlier unleashed a 101 yard punt which is still a Roughrider record.

He also lined up as a pass receiver on occasion. While he caught only two passes for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1976, they were both for touchdowns. By kicking the converts for his own touchdowns, Clark thereby joined a select pantheon of all-time CFL greats including Lionel Conacher, Huck Welch, Annis Stukus, Joe Krol, Jackie Parker, Gerry James, Kenny Ploen, Jim Van Pelt, Cookie Gilchrist, Don Sutherin, Tommy Joe Coffey, Larry Robinson, Don Jonas and Lui Passaglia. He also had a 71 yard reception for the Tiger-Cats in 1977 and an 80 yard reception for the Toronto Argonauts in 1978.


https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/g434/Balticprince/ken-clark-01.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds


Ken Clark died at his home in Elmvale, Ontario near popular Wasaga Beach earlier this week. Sad. May a CFL punting legend rest in peace.

[shayman]

> 1974 Portland Storm (WFL)

I guess he would have played in the first US pro football game ever played in Canada - the Portland Storm vs Detroit Wheel WFL match that, bizarrely, was played at J. W. Little Stadium at the University of Western Ontario.

https://funwhileitlasted.net/2012/12/17/1974-1975-portland-storm/

[Foxhound]

I attended that WFL game in London. The owner of the Portland Storm was London millionaire Bob Harris. With firm plans to finance and build a stadium, Harris had the previous year applied for a CFL franchise for the London Lords. The CFL gave him the back of its hand by asking for a ridiculous expansion fee of around $14.5 million which was well more than the cost of building a stadium. (Even $1.45 million would have been way high for a CFL franchise.) Miffed Harris acquired the Portland Storm in the fledgling WFL and had plans to move the team to London.

Portland Storm - WFL (http://wfl.charlottehornetswfl.com/team_pages_1974/portland_storm.php)

:(

[shayman]

Hey, cool, you were there? I grew up in London, a teenager at the time of this game and I think we drove past the stadium as the game was going on.

Word I heard at the time was that Bob Harris was a good talker but didn't actually have the money he claimed he had so the CFL expansion franchise was never a realistic bid.

I often wonder what would have happened if this London-Lords-to-the-CFL fantasy of his had actually happened. The Lords of the old ORFU had a pretty good following and would occasionally draw 10,000+ to the big games. Of course there's no way you can compare interest of the 1970s to today, but still... I dream of a London Lords vs Atlantic Schooners Grey Cup.

[OV Argo]

Cool , interesting stuff guys - never heard of that Portland WFL game played in London; or knew their owner was a Canadian

[Foxhound]

Hey, cool, you were there? I grew up in London, a teenager at the time of this game and I think we drove past the stadium as the game was going on.

I was born and raised in London, went to Western and didn't leave until the big city came with a job offer when I was 25. I'll probably be cashing out and decamping from the Big Smoke now sooner rather than later for a cheaper more livable community, e.g. London, St. Thomas, Stratford, Port Stanley, Port Bruce, Port Dover, Niagara Falls, Owen Sound, Wasaga, Orillia, Bala, Port Carling, Peterborough, Lindsay, North Bay, Manitoulin Island, Moncton, Cape Breton, wherever. I'm a blue-eyed fair haired northerner by ancestry and it's getting too hot for me in Toronto anyway.



I dream of a London Lords vs Atlantic Schooners Grey Cup.

Mine too! Although I'd rather the team be the Halifax Schooners with several more teams in places such as Moncton or Fredericton, St. John's, Kitchener-Waterloo, Windsor, Saskatoon, Kelowna and Victoria. The major sports leagues in North America have all expanded to increase their popularity on a national basis.

:)