Cold Snap 1981 WEST W L T PTS PF PA Comments Edmonton 14 1 1 29 576 277 Formidable team with marquee players on offence and defence Winnipeg 11 5 0 22 517 299 Star QB; WR sets club record with 100 catches; solid defence B.C. 10 6 0 20 438 377 Offence led by all-star RB, C; strong run-stuffing defence Saskatchewan 9 7 0 18 431 371 Team lives by pass on offence, dies by pass on defence Calgary 6 10 0 12 306 367 RB leads way with 1,100 yard season; star DB anchors good pass D EAST W L T PTS PF PA Comments Hamilton 11 4 1 23 414 335 Good pass offence, stout pass defence, but disappointing playoff loss Ottawa 5 11 0 10 306 446 Leaky O-line, average D and run game almost good enough for title Montreal 3 13 0 6 267 518 Southern league offensive stars a bust up North; porous pass defence Toronto 2 14 0 4 241 506 Atrocious O-line gives up 73 sacks despite mobile QB Welcome to COLD SNAP 81, a game that recreates the 1981 Canadian professional football season on your tabletop. This season is perhaps most memorable for the David and Goliath championship match- up that almost marked the greatest upset in Canadian football history. Edmonton dominated the 1981 regular season. On the defensive side of the ball, the team had a ferocious pass rush, registering 72 sacks, and featured a ball-hawking secondary led by all-star DB Gary Hayes. Offensively, RB Jim Germany, with 18 rushing TDs, and Warren Moon, a future star QB in the United States, guided Edmonton to what would be their fourth straight league championship (they would win their fifth in a row in 1982). Many assumed the playoffs would end with the coronation of Edmonton as champs — especially when it appeared the team would be facing a 5-11 underdog, Ottawa, which stunned Hamilton in the eastern semi-finals. Ottawa had a star receiver in Tony Gabriel, who had helped the team win a title in 1976 with a last-minute TD grab known then as ‘The Catch.’ But Ottawa’s line wasn’t giving starting QB Jordan Case a whole lot of time to get the ball away, allowing 73 sacks on the year. Ottawa’s offensive run game featured a committee of non-spectacular running backs. Defensively, the team wasn’t an embarrassment, but it could be described only as average at best. And so, heading into the championship game, you wouldn’t expect the 22.5-point underdogs from Ottawa to be playing Edmonton in what has been described as one of the 10-best title games of all time. And yet, there it was at halftime: Ottawa 20, Edmonton 1. Edmonton veteran QB Tom Wilkinson appeared in the second half to settle down his team’s offence. Then Warren Moon came back to lead Edmonton to three second-half TDs and the game-winning FG with three seconds on the clock. Ottawa QB J.C. Watts, a Michael Vick style of player, took the game MVP despite the loss. Hall of Famer Tony Gabriel played with damaged knee ligaments, and this would be the last game of his storied career. Now you can replay the 1981 season. Perhaps you can coach Hamilton to the finals against Edmonton, the way many thought it should have been (the teams played to a thrilling 34-34 tie in Hamilton midway through the year). Or you might engineer an upset over Edmonton using the fearsome passing game of Winnipeg, whose star receiver, Eugene Goodlow, became the first to catch 100 passes for the team in a single season. Will B.C., led by RB Larry Key, a good defence and a high-risk, high-reward passing game, upend Winnipeg on your tabletop just as they did in the 1981 playoffs? More daring tabletop coaches can try to overcome Saskatchewan’s Swiss cheese passing defence with a stellar offensive passing performance. At your disposal, you have the likes of QB John Hufnagel and star WRs Joey Walters and Chris DeFrance. Ottawa can thank the league’s playoff format and the pathetic Montreal and Toronto teams for their chance at the title. Toronto, sporting navy blue uniforms with light blue trim, became renowned in this period as the ‘Double Boo’ — instead of the Double Blue — for its woeful performance on both sides of the ball. In Montreal, U.S.-transplants QB Vince Ferragamo, RB David Overstreet and WR Billy ‘White Shoes’ Johnson hardly lived up to the hype associated with their arrival in Canada. But perhaps they will recreate their U.S. glory on your tabletop. See what scenarios you can create with these 1981 teams cards, which I have re-created and re-rated since a previous — and in my view, rudimentary — incarnation a few years ago. Many thanks to Keith Avallone for the wisdom and inspiration he has shared with me over the past few weeks. This upgraded and re-rated team set would not have happened were it not for him. Please enjoy! David Gambrill (SportsGu10). © June 2012 Design Notes Statistics for older CFL seasons are notoriously hard to come by. I wish to credit cflapedia.com as an invaluable resource in creating this set. Still, some information was incomplete, leading me to make three observations about this set. 1) I did not have access to statistics for missed field goal returns in 1981. I would therefore suggest that when a FG is missed, the kickoff return (KR RET) finders and charts are used. 2) I did not find enough statistical information to be able to create offensive rush finders that separate IN and OU runs. I therefore created a single finder for offensive rushers. I would suggest if you use my rushing finders, maybe use the finder to identify the running back carrying the ball first, and then use your own discretion whether they are running inside or outside. Also, if a QB is not playing, but comes up on the finder as the rusher, skip up one row in the chart to the rusher that seems to make the most sense. 3) My interception finders do not distinguish between DBs and Linemen/LBs. I would recommend that if an illogical result comes up on the interception finder — for example, a DB picks off a pass behind the line of scrimmage, or a defensive lineman picks off a pass 30 yards downfield — simply skip up the list to the next player that seems to best suit the play result. Injuries Some teams in this set do not have a lot of back-up players listed in some positions because their starters participated in all 16 games and were never injured for more than one game. Below, I have listed all of the players that participated in all 16 of the teams’ games. I recommend that these players cannot be injured for more than one game. If an injury occurs to these players, I suggest rolling one die using the following results: [1-2] player is hurt but stays in the game; [3-4] player is injured for the current series; [5] player is injured for the rest of the half; [6] player is injured for the rest of the game. WEST Edmonton: Leo Blanchard, David Boone, Dave Cutler, Marco Cyncar, Ron Estay, Emilio Fraietta, Jim Germany, Larry Highbaugh, Joe Hollimon, Hank Ilesic, Ed Jones, Dan Kearns, Brian Kelly, Dan Kepley, Ted Milian, Mike McLeod, James Parker, Hector Pothier, Dale Potter, Tom Scott, Waddell Smith, Bill Stevenson, Tom Towns, Eric Upton, Tom Wilkinson. Winnipeg: John Bonk, Dieter Brock, Larry Butler, Bob Cameron, Ron Cherkas, Ken Ciancone, Leo Ezerins, Eugene Goodlow, Rick House, Mark Jackson, Trevor Kennerd, Anthony Norman, Vince Phason, Reggie Pierson, Joe Poplawski, James Reed, Gary Rosolowich, Frank Smith, Willie Thomas, Bob Thompson. British Columbia: Terry Bailey, John Blain, Al Charuk, Larry Crawford, Roy Dewalt, Devon Ford, Tyron Gray, Nick Hebeler, Ken Hinton, Glen Jackson, Larry Key, Rick Klassen, Kevin Konar, Tom Kudaba, Glenn Leonhard, Harold Lund, Nelson Martin, Mack Moore, Ron Morehouse, Joe Paopao, Lui Passaglia, Tony Proudfoot, John Henry White, Al Wilson. Saskatchewan: Roger Aldag, Joe Barnes, Lester Brown, Ken Clark, Chris DeFrance, Steve Dennis, Dwight Edwards, Greg Fieger, Stewart Fraser, Vince Goldsmith, Campbell Hackney, Marshall Hamilton, Gerry Hornett, Bobby Hosea, John Hufnagel, Alan Johns, Billy McBride, Ken McEachern, Doug MacIver, Bob Poley, Neil Quilter, Frank Robinson, Don Swafford, Emanuel Tolbert, Joey Walters, Paul Watson, Lyle Woznesensky. Calgary: Willie Armstead, Doug Battershill, Al Burleson, Lloyd Fairbanks, Rob Forbes, Tom Forzani, Miles Gorrell, J.T. Hay, Norm Hopely, Jeff Inglis, Dave Kirzinger, Frank Kosec, Mark Moors, Bernie Morrison, Ed McAleny, Mike McTague, Ray Odums, Bruce Threadgill, Robert Viccars, Merv Walker. EAST Hamilton: Keith Baker, John Blake, Carmelo Carteri, Tom Clements, Grover Covington, Rocky DiPietro, Ross Francis, Ed Fulton, Ed Gataveckas, Dave Graffi, Dave Marler, Jim Muller, Emil Nielson, Gord Paterson, Leif Pettersen, John Priestner, Bernie Ruoff, David Shaw, Bob Van Duyne, Henry Waszczuk, Preston Young. Montreal: Nick Arakgi, Wally Buono, Peter Dalla Riva, Gerry Dattilio, Dave Dumars, Bill Hampton, Billy Johnson, Marc Lacelle, Roland Mangold, Chuck McMann, Doug Scott and Glen Weir. Ottawa: Jeff Avery, Ian Beckstead, Val Belcher, John Glassford, Tim Hook, Malcolm Inglis, Greg Marshall, Gerry Organ, John Park, Kevin Powell, Jim Reid, Rick Sowieta, Larry Tittley, Bruce Walker. Toronto: Zenon Andrusyshyn, Jan Carinci, Bruce Clark, Dan Ferrone, John Foubert, Philip Jones, Leon Lyszkiewicz, John Malinosky, Paul Pearson, Doug Smith, Ron Southwick. 1981 BRITISH COLUMBIA DEFENCE KR RET PR RET 10 wins 6 losses tendency -1 Devon Ford 1-12 25** Devon Ford 1-11 11** Larry Key 13-17 19* Larry Crawford 12-20 11** Larry Crawford 18-19 30 SACKS: Hebeler 1-5, Proudfoot 6-8, Goltz 9-11, Moore 12-13, Jackson 14- Ron Morehouse 20 (15) 15, Murray 16, Britts 17, Konar 18, Lund 19, Martin 19, Crawford 19, Seymour 20, Klassen