Ron Lancaster

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Ronald "Ron" Lancaster (Born October 14, 1938, in Fairchance, Pennsylvania) is a former football player, coach and general manager in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and sports announcer for CBC Television. He is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1982), the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1985) and the Wittenberg University Athletic Hall of Honour (1985). He is currently the Senior Director of Football Operations of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team in the Canadian Football League.

He and his wife, Bev, have three children Lana, Ron, and Bob.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Coaching career 2.1 Season by season results 3 Broadcasting career 4 References

[edit] Playing career

Ron started his professional playing career as a quarterback with the Ottawa Rough Riders (1960-1962). Ottawa won the Grey Cup in his rookie season in 1960, and he spent two more years with Ottawa, sharing the quarterback's role with another future Hall of Famer, Russ Jackson. Lancaster was traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1963.

Lancaster played 16 seasons with Saskatchewan (1963-1978); he led the team into the playoffs in 14 of his 16 seasons in the West Division, and to 11 straight Western finals appearances. Saskatchewan won 170 games with Ron at quarterback before he retired after 19 seasons as a player. He helped Saskatchewan win its first Grey Cup in 1966.

He is second all-time on the CFL's career list with 3,384 pass completions, 6,233 pass attempts and 50,535 yards passing and fell to second all-time with 333 touchdown passes in 2003, when Toronto’s Damon Allen surpassed Lancaster’s mark. Ron won the Schenley Award as most outstanding player in 1970 and 1976 and was a finalist for the award in 1966. He was an All-Canadian in 1970, 1973, 1975 and 1976 and a Western all-star in 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1975 and 1976

[edit] Coaching career

Lancaster was a player-coach in the 1977 and 1978 seasons, serving as Saskatchewan's offensive co-ordinator.

Lancaster became Saskatchewan's head coach immediately after his 1978 playing season but found "the glorious fifties and sixties were over, and he was the first Roughrider coach in sixteen years who did not have Ron Lancaster at quarterback." ^[1] The Green Riders finished 2-14 in consecutive seasons and Lancaster would not coach again for 11 years.

He returned to the coaching ranks when he was named 12th head coach in Edmonton Eskimos history on February 4, 1991. He coached the Eskimos from 1991-1997, amassing an 83-42 regular season record and a Grey Cup win in 1993. He passed Hugh Campbell for first place on the Eskimos' list for coaching wins October 27th, 1996.

Lancaster became the 17th head coach in Hamilton Tiger-Cat history on November 26, 1997. He coached the Tiger-Cats from 1998-2003. He took the team to the Grey Cup twice (1998, 1999) winning it in 1999. On July 10, 2006 Ron Lancaster was re-hired as the teams head coach on an interim basis after the firing of coach Greg Marshall.

Lancaster’s 142 career regular-season wins, place him fifth on the CFL’s career regular season wins list. ^[2]

[edit] Season by season results

Season	Record	Finish	Playoffs
Saskatchewan Roughriders
1979	2-14	5th in Western Football Conference	None
1980	2-14	5th in Western Football Conference	None
Edmonton Eskimos
1991	12-6	1st in West Division	0-1
1992	10-8	2nd in West Division	1-1
1993	12-6	2nd in West Division	3-0, Won 81st Grey Cup vs. Winnipeg Blue Bombers
1994	13-5	2nd in West Division	0-1
1995	13-5	2nd in North Division	1-1
1996	11-7	2nd in West Division	2-1, Lost 84th Grey Cup vs. Toronto Argonauts
1997	12-6	1st in West Division	0-1
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1998	12-5-1	1st in East Division	1-1, Lost 85th Grey Cup vs. Calgary Stampeders
1999	11-7	2nd in East Division	3-0, Won 86th Grey Cup vs. Calgary Stampeders
2000	9-9-0-2	2nd in East Division	0-1
2001	11-7	2nd in East Division	1-1
2002	7-11-0-1	3rd in East Division	None
2003	1-17	4th in East Division	None
2006	4-10	4th in East Division	None

[edit] Broadcasting career

CBC Television invited him to become a colour commentator on CFL broadcasts in 1980. He was with the CBC from 1980-1991 and was a member of the CBC team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea as the play-by-play broadcaster for basketball.

[edit] References

1. ↑  Mullick, Rajeev. CFL Legends: Ron Lancaster. Retrieved January 17, 2006.
2. ↑  Official Biography on Hamilton Tiger-cats website. Retrieved January 17, 2006.
3. ↑  All-time CFL coaching wins. Retrieved October 25, 2006.

Preceded by Unknown	Saskatchewan Roughriders Head Coaches 1979–1980	Succeeded by Unknown
Preceded by Joe Faragalli	Edmonton Eskimos Head Coaches 1991–1997	Succeeded by Kay Stephenson
Preceded by Don Sutherin	Hamilton Tiger-Cats Head Coaches 1998–2003	Succeeded by Greg Marshall
Preceded by Greg Marshall	Hamilton Tiger-Cats Head Coaches 2006	Succeeded by Charlie Taaffe