Glory days

The current Toronto Argonauts organization will bring back the 1991 team that won the Grey Cup this weekend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its championship season but one person will be noticeably absent, principal owner Bruce McNall, who singlehandedly made that season unlike any other.

An Argo spokesperson told sportsnet.ca that the team wanted McNall to be part of the reunion but no one could connect with him directly. To be sure, his presence surely would have been interesting.

McNall had a grand vision as a sportsman to go big, and even though it would later turn out that his ventures were more of a scam than a legitimate scheme and he would serve jail time for pleading guilty to conspiracy and fraud and bilking several banks out of $236 million, he created excitement.

Without McNall, there would not have been an Argo ownership that included Wayne Gretzky and John Candy, both of whom were football fans, in particular the Argos. Literally and figuratively, there may not have been a bigger booster than Candy. The triumvirate ownership availed itself to the media and the public, creating news on a regular basis.

And without McNall there would not have been Raghib (Rocket) Ismail, who signed with the Argos fresh out of the University of Notre Dame for a whopping $18.2 million for four years, spurning the National Football League. Ismail lived up to all the hype, creating excitement with his receiving and especially his return ability.

The SkyDome, now known as Rogers Centre, was relatively new, and the combination of the state-of-the-art facility and the excitement of the Argos filled the stadium to capacity, although it would later be learned the house had been papered. Not that the 1991 Argos ownership was the only one that ever falsified information. As a private ownership, McNall and his partners weren't beholden to the public. The crowd could have been announced as 50,000 without declaring many in the seats had received their tickets free.

The games also included appearances by stars of the film and entertainment world, in which McNall was involved, which nowadays in the new media would have people around the world talking about the Argos and its brand.

Of course, when McNall's empire began to financially crumble, it would become known that the facts were more fiction, and because of his lies he would eventually trade in his fancy suits for prison garb.

McNall bought the Argos for $1 million from the late Harry Ornest, who as one sports columnist routinely wrote "threw around nickels like manhole covers." It is not known whether Ornest ever received the money, but it has also been said that Ornest is the last Argo owner since the "Dome" was built to have made a profit. Ornest ran the operation by carefully analyzing every line item. Members of the media were entitled to a free piece of pizza or a hot dog, but not both.

There has never been the kind of excitement generated in the Argos since McNall and likely never will. Even when the Argos acquired free agent quarterback Doug Flutie in 1996, it didn't have the same impact on the sporting world. Flutie had the athletic ability, but despite guiding the Argos to back-to-back championships, the team could not penetrate beyond a core group of fans. In fact, in Flutie's second year with the team, attendance dropped. It is still an issue, made even worse when the team is faltering. McNall's shell game would have been nothing without a winner, as the second year of his ownership proved. The team bombed, finishing last in the East, and it was the beginning of the end for McNall in Toronto.

McNall cast a spell like a magician that had everyone believing in his dreams, and it was not limited to just the Canadian Football League. It began with his ownership of the Los Angeles Kings in 1988 and his stunning trade for Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers that stunned the international hockey world. The National Hockey League believed in McNall and his hopes and dreams. He singlehandedly turned Los Angeles into a hockey team.

That was what McNall was all about: capitalizing on opportunities with grandiose ambition. Buying the Argos piggybacked on what he had done in Los Angeles, creating a vibe that hadn't previously existed. He managed to fool many people, until he became caught in his own web of deceit, for which he would later be punished.

History will look back on McNall as nothing more than an egocentric liar, but for one magical year he made people excited in the Argos. There will never be another owner like him, which may be a good thing. Current Argo owner David Braley bought the team last year purely for his interest in the CFL and keeping the team going. He is not McNall, but then few people are. Braley's money is legit, but his desire to win is the same as McNall's. He's just going about it a different way without trying to fool everyone.

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.