My tribute to Hal Patterson!

Alouettes de Montréal
#1

CFL legend Hal Patterson passed away on 21 November 2011 at the age of 79.

Prior to arriving in the CFL, Hal played football, baseball and basketball at the University of Kansas. He was the leading rebounder on the 1953 Kansas basketball team that lost the NCAA championship final to Indiana by one point. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles but chose to sign with the Montreal Alouettes where he teamed with QB Sam "The Rifle" Etcheverry.

The two were dynamite together. In 1956 Hal set the record for receiving yards in one game with 338. This record has yet to be broken. In another game that same year, Hal caught a 109 yard touchdown pass. The 1914 receiving yard record he set that season in fourteen games would not be broken until Terry Greer of the Argonauts caught passes for 2003 yards in 1983 in a sixteen game season. Hal had ten 100-yard receiving games in 1956, a record that was not broken until Jamel Richardson of the Alouettes set a new mark with eleven in an eighteen game season in 2010.

Hal went to Grey Cup games in 1954, 1955 and 1956 with the Als but they lost them all to the Eskimos. Hal was traded to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1961 and made it to the 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967 Grey Cup games emerging victorious in 1963, 1965 and 1967.

He did of course play both ways and was an excellent defensive back as well. Hal was voted the thirteenth best CFL player of all time in 2006.

This first picture appeared as part of one of the three series of CFL players that Weekend Magazine published in 1957, 1958 and 1959:

http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/275px-Hal_Patterson_-_football_player.jpg

Here as well are front and back scans of my 1959 Topps CFL card of Hal Patterson:

http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/23-11-201175151AM.jpg

http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/23-11-201175159AM.jpg

Great pose of a great player!

#2

He was one of my Dad's all-time favourite Alouettes.

#3

And one of mine as well.

When I was a young lad, Prince Hal lived around the corner from me.

Got to meet him (again) at the Grey Cup in 2008.

Class act.

#4

Nice tribute Balticfox! Hal Patterson was a great player and Alouette.

#5

Cool! Where was this, and in what years? Did you talk to him?

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#6

Hamilton, after the infamous trade.

Spoke to him during the 2008 Grey Cup week.

#7

A class act - period!

#8

He was my favorite Alouette player from 1954 to the present. Opponents could not keep up with his speed and his great hands as a receiver. Within the next year, they could not stop his running ability. I can recall the time he had a 10 yard per running average. Then they gave him and Sam away to the TiCats. From my perception of Als coaching and management, they were horrible on that day and are horrible now.

#9

Reading those of you who also wrote of Patterson, I felt a sense of relaxation reading your posts and, contentment was within me as I joined with you in my praise of Hal Patterson. We all have been fortunate to have idealized such a great player.
Politically my favorite was Winston Churchill re WW 2, followed by Pierre Trudeau, Lester Pearson and, my favorite today is Justin Trudeau
Reading those of you who also wrote of Patterson, I felt a sense of relaxation reading your posts and, contentment was within me as I joined with you in my praise of Hal Patterson. We all have been fortunate to have idealized such a great player.
Politically my favorite was Winston Churchill re WW 2, followed by Pierre Trudeau and, my favorite today is Justin Trudeau. I wrote him earlier today to thank him for his remarks to Trump whose remarks stirred up the anger and foolishness of that man.
I know that we are not supposed to talk politics on this site. But this is not politics, it is just the feelings of an older man.

#10

Pierre Trudeau? Justin Trudeau? Sounds political to me.

???

#11

Wasn't it Joe Zuger who lived around the corner from us? Little brother delivered his papers.

#12

Yes but that was later

#13

We could load the page with all kinds of platitudes for players like Hal Patterson.

But the one thing that he would have enjoyed if he could hear it

“There by the grace of god walks a football player!”

#14

Yes, he and george Dixon are my two all timefavourite Als. And they were in the same era as Jean Beliveau, Montreal sports had so much class.

#15

I used to be a huge Montreal Canadiens fan:

If I had to rate all the habs I saw and some I didn't it would go like this:

  1. Jean Beliveau
  2. Ken Dryden
  3. Rocket
  4. Serge Savard
  5. Pocket Rocket
  6. Howie Morenz
  7. Dickie Moore
  8. Larry Robinson
  9. Bob Gainey
  10. Lafleur
  11. Claude Provost
  12. Pierre Bouchard (The Undertaker)
  13. John Ferguson (rock solid enforcer, epic fail as an NHL GM)
  14. Gilles Tremblay
  15. J.C. Tremblay

My, how the mighty have fallen!!!

#16

One of my great moments was when i got Hal Patterson to sign his football card in 2008 at the Grey Cup played in Montreal.He and Sam The rifle were being honored. I met him in the Queen Elizabeth hotel