A 1-5 season is not the only struggle facing the Hamilton Tiger-Cats this season; Ron Lancaster, the team’s Special Advisor and Organization Developer, announced today that he has lung cancer.The CFL hall of famer will take a lesser roll in the front office at 1 Jarvis Street and as a Ti-Cat's colour commentator on Y108 and AM900 CHML in the days to come because he has recently started chemo and radiation therapy at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton.
The 69 year old Fairchance, Pennsylvannia native has faced many battles on and off the football field throughout his life and meeting face to face with cancer is one he has tackled in the past.
Just after Bob Young announced Lancaster as the General Manager of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2004 he was diagnosed with bladder cancer.
Lancaster plans on using his past to remain optimistic about his future with the disease, “Five years ago, I survived a battle with cancer, and now we have another battle on our hands. The goal is to get this taken care of and move forward just like I did five years ago.”
In 1960 Lancaster started his professional career as a quarterback with the Ottawa Rough Riders where he stayed for the next two years and riffled his way to a Grey Cup ring in his rookie season.
Saskatchewan scooped up the young quarterback in a 1963 trade and used him for the next 16 seasons to secure 14 consecutive playoffs, 12 Western Conference finals, five Grey Cup appearances (1966, 1967, 1969, 1972 and 1976) and one championship title in 1966.
Saskatchewan won 170 games with Lancaster's arm and his record of 333 regular season touchdown passes is second only to Argo Damon Allen.
Immediately following his 1978 playing season Lancaster started his coaching career as the head coach for the Saskatchewan Green Riders; he was the first coach in 16 years who did not have Ron Lancaster at quarterback.
After the Green Riders finished two consecutive seasons at 2-14 Lancaster left coaching and looked to the media for his next football gig.
After spending a decade as a CFL colour commentator on CBC Lancaster returned to coaching in 1991. From 1991-1997 he led the Edmonton Eskimos to an 83-42 season record and a Grey Cup championship in 1993.
In the fall of 1997 Lancaster became the 17th head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. During his time with the black and gold he catapulted the team to the 1998 Grey Cup and a Grey Cup win in 1999.
Lancaster remained the head coach of the Ti-Cats until 2003 but returned in July 2006 on an interim basis after Greg Marshall was fired.
One of my most recent interactions with Ron Lancaster came on June 9th at Tim Horton’s Camp Day. I was at Tim Horton’s in Stoney Creek setting up Ben and Kerry’s broadcast to help raise funds to send kids to camp in the Tim Horton Children’s Foundation’s primary fundra
iser. There were multiple employees from the city, (firemen, police officers, EMS workers, and of course the Y108 Rock Patrol!), who came out to Tim Horton’s on this day to help work the drive through, work behind the counter and collect donations. After I had finished my time pouring coffees behind the counter I returned to the Y108 broadcast table where Ron was standing talking to Kerry. After their conversation Ron walked away and instantly turned back around, stuck out his hand and said, “that was rude, I didn’t even say ‘hi’. My apologies, my name’s Ron.”… as if I didn’t know who he was already.
He is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever interacted with at Ivor Wynne and my heart and prayers are with him during his time of recovery. I’m looking forward to seeing him on the field and in our broadcast booth very soon.
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