By Billy Powers
Special to Stampeders.com

In the sportswriting game, the goal is always to scoop the other guys, be it in radio, television or newspapers. And over the years, this reporter has broken many stories, the last of which was when Calgary Stampeder owner John Forzani and his crew talked John Hufnagel into returning to our city to be the club’s head coach and general manager.

We at CHQR were the first to lock the story up with the details down to the dollar, which happened to upset a few of the other media people, not to mention an owner or two. But what I reported and Mark Stephen followed up on proved to be right on the button and the result was an instant Grey Cup for the Red and White. Well, instant, as in Huff’s first year.

But my biggest scoop, if you will, came many years ago and it was also the most frustrating. I knew the Edmonton Oilers of the NHL were about to trade — or sell — Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings but I had no one to tell. I had been fired by CKXL Radio but not yet hired by CHQR. I had the biggest story in the sports world but no one to tell it to. That, I can tell you, was tough to handle.

Tonight, though, I’m going to give you a scoop that is 48 years old but has never been told.

Veteran Stampeder followers will remember what I call “The Battle of Wascana Creek” but others call “The Miracle at Taylor Field” or “The Massacre at Taylor Field.”

It was 1963 and the Stampeders had a 10-win, four-loss, two-tie season which was good enough for second in the West and a semi-final match with Saskatchewan’s third-place-finishing Roughriders. In those days, the semi was a two-game total point affair with the winner to advance to the West final and a best-of-three series with pennant-winning BC.

Playing in front of the home fans, the Stamps posted a 35-9 win for what many felt was an insurmountable 26-point advantage heading for Regina. But they forgot that the other guys could play, too. The Stamps lost game two 39-12 to lose the series 48-47 in the shocker of Canadian Football League history.

So where’s the scoop you ask? Well get this. The head coach at the time, Bobby Dobbs, and his defensive assistants, Jess Thomson and Tommy Hudspeth, decided at halftime. with the lead down to just nine points, to go with an all-American defence in the second half. Not all-American as in award winners down south but just American talent.

One Canadian defensive back, who was benched at halftime and watched in disbelief at the Riders pulled off the comeback, had recorded a team-high nine interceptions on the season and another Canadian who could only watch had picked off two passes during the year.

The defensive back says Dobbs was so pro-American that he allowed players like Don Luzzi and Pete Manning to play both ways and never leave the field while some Canadians never saw action. I might add that the two Americans who replaced the Canadians in that crucial game had not played in the first game at McMahon.

No one ever questioned Dobbs, Thomson or Hudspeth because it seems no one seemed to notice other than the players inside the dressing room and none were prepared to rock the boat, so to speak.

Just for the record, the Roughriders would lose the best-of-three to BC and the Lions would lose the Grey Cup final to Hamilton’s Tiger-Cats.

In the words of Paul Harvey, “and now you know the rest of the story.”