By Bill Powers
Specail to Stampeders.com

History is being made today as the Calgary Stampeders host the Canadian Football Hall of Fame game as they face the BC Lions and, at the same time, mark the induction of seven football greats into the prestigious Hall of Fame.

And it’s my pleasure to introduce you to the chosen few for the 2011 season.

To kick things off, let me tell you about one of the most amazing players to ever play football in Canadian university history.

He is three-time winner of the Hec Crighton award as the top player in Canadian college ball. He is a three-time winner of the CIAU All-Canadian quarterback award and was a four time all-star quarterback in the Atlantic Universities Football Conference as the leader of the Saint Mary’s Huskies. He led the team two a 27-2 regular-season record and two Vanier Cup appearances, not to mention four AUAA championships. He has CIAU records for most TD passes in a season and career and is the leading rushing quarterback in CIAU history.

He is the pride of Buckingham, Que. — Chris Flynn.

Our next new member of the CFHOF is what you could call well travelled as in stops with no fewer than five teams in the Canadian Football League. He kicked off his career as a professional with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before stops in BC with the Lions, Edmonton with the Eskimos and, after a lengthy stint with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, he wound up his career right here at McMahon Stadium as a member of the Stampeders.

He has been both an Eastern and Canadian all-star quarterback, was the Most Outstanding Player in the league in 1999 when he won a Grey Cup with the Tiger-Cats and was the outstanding player in that game. He also won the Tom Pate award while in Hamilton in 2005.

The former star at Florida State, where he was twice named the player of the year and won the MVP award in the Fiesta Bowl in 1988, played in six Grey Cup games, coming out on the winning side three times. You watched him for years, Danny McManus.

Our next inductee has actually made more CFL stops than our previous winner. In fact, during his time in the CFL, he had six different addresses as a head coach. He started with the BC Lions back in 1983 before moving to the Toronto Argonauts in 1990 for the first of three stops there, going next to the Saskatchewan Roughriders for a one-year appearance with the now-defunct Baltimore Stallions. After that, it was to Edmonton and the Eskimos and then went to the Montreal Alouettes from 2002 to 2006.

He started in the CFL as an assistant with the Eskimos in 1977 becoming the defensive coordinator in 1978 and helped those Eskimos win five straight Grey Cup titles from 1978 to 1982. Then, though, he jumped to BC where he coached the Lions to their first Grey Cup appearance in 19 seasons and two years later not only won the Grey Cup over the Hamilton Ticats but earned his first of five CFL coach of the year awards.

When he retired, he had coached a total of 22 seasons and 365 games in the league and at the time had more wins as a coach than any other with 231. He has the record for Grey Cup wins as a head coach with five and appearances in the big one with nine.

I’m sure everyone knows he is Don Matthews.

Our next new Hall of Fame member started his Canadian Football League career in 1995 with the now-defunct Shreveport Pirates and finished it in 2006 with the Edmonton Eskimos. In between, he had two stints with the Tiger-Cats of Hamilton, with a season as a Toronto Argonaut squeezed in between.

He was an Eastern all-star five times and was picked as a CFL all-star in each of those five seasons. Three times he was selected not only as the East Division Most Outstanding Defensive Player but also the Most Outstanding Defensive player in the league.

He was a thorn in the sides of many quarterbacks as he became the first to register a minimum of 20 sacks in three straight seasons. He went to three Grey Cup games, winning with Hamilton in 1999 and with Edmonton in 2005. As an aside, he was voted number 40 on TSN’s Top 50 list of CFL players. This well-travelled CFL star is Joe Montford.

Another defensive standout is our next inductee. He was a middle linebacker who played with the Ottawa Rough Riders from 1964 to 1971 and in that time was an Eastern all-star no fewer than five times and an All-Canadian on three occasions.

He also won the Schenley Award as the league’s Most Outstanding Lineman in 1968. Three times he went to the Grey Cup game with Ottawa, wining in 1968 and ’69. It might be noted that in the 1968 game, he played the whole contest with a dislocated elbow.

His last year in the league was in 1972 when he played with the BC Lions.  He went to college at Xavier University in Cincinnati and was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Also a member of the Ottawa Hall of Fame, let me introduce Ken Lehmann.

Our next guest was a pretty fair football player himself as a member of the Edmonton Eskimos when they won the Grey Cup in 1954 and ’55 but he is being inducted as a builder in Canadian football.

That’s because of his years as a university coach in with the University of Alberta from 1964 to 1966 and the University of Windsor from 1968 to 1987. He was named the Ontario University Athletic Association coach of the year in both 1976 and 1977 and was awarded the Football Canada/CFL Award of Merit in 1987. He has been inducted into six different halls of fame. He was also a professor at Windsor and retired after 28 years.

Gino Fracas was 79 when he passed away in October of 2009 and was represented at the induction ceremonies by his lovely wife Leona.

Last but not least is another well-travelled player who spent time in both the West and East Divisions, playing first with the Calgary Stampeders and then Edmonton Eskimos before heading to Montreal and the Alouettes and then wrapping it up with a season with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

He was a Western all-star no fewer than seven times and three times was picked as an All-Canadian. He helped teams get to the Grey Cup game five times and was a winner with the 1998 Stampeders and the 2003 Eskimos. When he retired, he held the record for the most consecutive seasons with 1,000 yards receiving, reaching the mark 11 times, and for all-time receptions with 1,006 catches. He was the first CFL receiver to reach over 1,000 catches.

We refer, of course, to Terry Vaughn.

This is quite a lineup of star-studded talent, to be sure.