By Molly Campbell
Stampeders.com
When Jamie Crysdale picked up the phone and heard what Rocco Romano had to say on the other end of the line, he was in complete shock.
“I’d never really thought about stuff like this,” says Crysdale, who learned he’ll be added to the Stampeders’ Wall of Fame this fall. “It’s a tremendous honour because you see the guys’ names up there and I guess in the back of your head you’re always thinking that would be cool if that was you some day.”
Crysdale played 216 games — 210 of them consecutively — for the Stamps over a 13-year span from 1993 to 2005. Lining up at centre, the Ontario native snapped the ball to some distinguished quarterbacks including Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia and current offensive coordinator Dave Dickenson.
“Every game, every assignment, Jamie was money,” said Dickenson. “He never missed a game and he never missed a play. And people forget that he also snapped for extra points and field goals.
“I’m very happy for him and I’m happy to see a member of that offensive line get some recognition because that was a really good group.”
Crysdale played his entire CFL career in Calgary and is one of only five players to don the Red and White in more than 200 regular-season games. He has a lot of memories from his playing days, but some of the best are, not surprisingly, of his two Grey Cup victories.
“The ’98 Grey Cup — kicking a field goal to win — that’s a feeling you wish you could bottle up and have every time you’re not feeling good,” says the former West Division all-star. “The ’01 Grey Cup was also special and just the memories with guys, just all the trials and tribulations that you go through on a sports team, those memories are ones that just can’t be taken away. No matter how long from now, my kids see the Grey Cup and my name’s on there twice and it’s something that’s never going to get etched off.”
Crysdale moved to Calgary permanently after signing with the team in 1993. He was very active in the community and, as a result, was awarded the Presidents’ Ring and was the team’s Tom Pate nominee in 2004.
The Stampeders’ Most Outstanding Lineman nominee in 2005, Crysdale also made sure he set himself up for life after football.
“I was very fortunate because I had a couple of veterans that pulled me aside when I first got here and told me that football’s not going to last forever so get a job,” he remembers. “So I’d always worked. I’ve worked since ’94 in Calgary during my playing and everything else.
“I had a such a seamless transition after I was done in ’05 because I’d already started my own company in ’03 so the transition was easy,” he says of the company he founded called Gridiron Drilling Services. “There wasn’t a big ‘Oh my God what am I going to do now?’ It was basically ‘Oh life will be a lot simpler because I only have one thing going on now instead of two.’ So Calgary has been amazing. I couldn’t imagine being in a better city.”
On Monday, his wife and kids stood by proudly as they watched the press conference announcing the Wall of Fame class of 2014, which will be added to the Stampeders’ Wall of Fame on Sept. 13, 2014.
“I was very fortunate to be able to play a sport that I loved and got paid to do it,” says Crysdale. “The guys I got to play with and the teams I got to play with, we were such a consistent group for so long and we got to be on a team that people were gunning for every year. It was a tremendous opportunity to play here as long as I did. This is just kind of capping off great memories.”
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