Top 5 Canadian, Ti-Cats Players of All Time!

Similar thread at Saskatchewan Roughriders Forum.

Hitchcock S/LB
Diepetro SB
Danychuk G/T
Paul Osbaliston K
Pete Neumann DE

Didn’t see him play but maybe Bob Krouse at lb? I’d put big Teddy Laurent there at DT too.

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From the Ralph Sazio Cats
Frank Cosentino
Tommy Grant
Zeno Karcz
Ron Brewer
Gene Ceppetellio
And so many others from the 60’s TiCat teams with the “Winning Culture”.

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Any such Ti-Cat list without imports Henley, Mosca, Barrow is NOT a true list.

Cosentino was never spectacular but he was a durable Canadian QB for many, many years. Cats answer to the obviously superior and more talented Russ Jackson in Ottawa. Cosentino also wrote one of the better books about the CFL, too!

And yet this is a discussion about CANADIAN players.

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I agree, most of the older guys I’ve only seen on YouTube through old games.

Cosentino did not get a chance to develop properly

Sorry - my bad. I’ll leave imports for another day.

Didn’t Garney Henley achieve national (ie. Canadian) status later in his career?

Hey… they all became Canadians, didn’t they?

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Osbaldiston is a tough one. Not a Canadian, but came here, stayed here and hung around post career. He’s essentially a Canadian

Like I’ve been for 43 years now. :blush:

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Reminds me of a trivia question: Who was the last Canadian born kicker to win the Grey Cup with the 'Cats?

That is a tough one. The “born in Canada” rules out Sunter, Ruoff, Osbaldeston, Coffey, Sutherin, Viti, etc.

How about Steve Oneschuk in 1957 Grey Cup?

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Correct.

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Steve Oneschuk was the vice-principal at my high school.

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Does such a list take into account the factor of length of service to the team, or just having to have played in one season or so?

Pure talent wise, I would say Jesse Lumsden is the best Canadian RB to ever play (that I’ve seen) for the Ticats and likely Andy Fantuz at receiver (Gabriel was a tight end with the Ticats), plus O’Shea at LB.

But longer service means as much or more for all-time lists IMO: I’d go with Rocky D; Hitchcock, Tommy Grant, Danychuk, Revenberg

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I think Longevity with a franchise has alot to do with it. I know back in the 60s and 70s, you saw more players have one team in their career.

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I was sad when we lost Jesse…he was so much fun to watch…our running game was never better!!!

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He was. I think he was really the only Canadian starting halfback of that era. In 2008 and onward you had Messam, Corinish and Harris show what a Canadian can do.

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I’ll do my lists a little differently and do it by position . These lists by the way are strictly of players who I saw play live , so basically no one from the 50’s and also for the most part no one from the 60’s .

I’ll start off with my TOP #5 Offensive players by position list and follow up on a later post with my top #5 by position Defensive list .

I’ll start with Receivers (in no particular order)

Rocky DiPietro (78-91)
Terry Evanshen ( 74-77)
Andrew Grigg (95-02)
Mike Morreale (97-01 , 04-06)
Andy Fantuz (12-18)
honourable mention : Dave Stala

Running back/ Fullback

Jesse Lumsden (05-08)
Neil Lumsden (78-79)
Eric LaPointe (99)
Julien Radlein (03-07)
Sean Thomas Erlington (17-present)
honourable mention : Nikola Kalinic

O-Lineman

Jason Riley (84-93)
Brandon Revenberg ( 16 - present)
Carl Coulter ( 98-01 , 03-04)
Miles Gorrell (85-91, 96 )
Bill Danychuk ( 64-75)
honourable mention : Dale Sanderson

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