By Kristen Odland
Calgary Herald

Larry Robinson considered them lucky. Especially if the wind stays calm until Sunday’s West Division final.

That certainly wasn’t the case when the former Stampeders kicker was called upon to kick a last-minute, game-winning field goal during the 1970 West Division final.

A storm had blown into Regina, just in time for the last clash in a best-of-three series which was tied at a game apiece between Calgary and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

“It was only about two or three above Fahrenheit (-16 C) with a 40 mile an hour wind (64 km/h),” Robinson recalled the other day.

“During the game, you just about froze to death. There were a bunch of guys that came out with frostbite in their hands.

“In those days, they didn’t have the kinds of gloves and stuff to wear under your gear like they do now. It was just an extra T-shirt and away you went. The field was quite frozen and snowblown. It was just miserable.”

That year, the Stampeders had finished in third in the West Division with a 9-7-0 record and had beat Edmonton in the West semifinal. Meanwhile, the Roughriders had rattled out a first-placed record of 14-2-0, which still stands as the franchise’s best season to date.

And as improbable as it seemed – in the worst weather imaginable – Calgary found themselves behind only 14-12 when Robinson was tapped on the shoulder to boot a 32-yard field goal.

Against the wind.

“I was going, ‘What is this?’ I’d warmed up before the game in just about the same place, 30 yards out, and I hadn’t gotten one to the goal-line,” said Robinson, who also played defensive back during his 14-year Canadian Football League career. “I thought, ‘Well, here we go.’ I just tried to play the wind. I knew how much it drifted so I just hoped I got it to the goal-line. But it went through.

“I don’t know how.”

Robinson, now 68, still resides in Calgary after a 40-year career in the oilpatch. In his 14 seasons with the Stampeders, Robinson was a CFL West all-star three times (1965, 1971, and 1972) and made it to the Grey Cup three times, winning it once in 1971. He was inducted into the CFL Hall Of Fame in 1998 and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

Although the 1970 group won the 1970 West final against Saskatchewan, that group wound up losing to the Montreal Alouettes 23-10 in the Grey Cup.

But to this day, Robinson still gets asked about that kick in those unfavourable conditions.

“I’m really surprised. There a lot of people that haven’t forgotten that, which is nice,” he said. “It was crazy. Unbelievable.”

So, his advice to the current edition of the Stampeders’ kickers who could be faced with those same frigid conditions and horrid wind on Sunday?

Good question, says Robinson.

“I was a straight toe-kicker; they’re all sidewinders so I couldn’t tell ’em what to do,” he said. “If the wind is blowing hard, the way they hook and slice the ball, it could end up in Banff if it’s a bad wind.”