First downs, as opposed to a sporting first, were Mason Fine’s focus when he quarterbacked the Saskatchewan Roughriders against the B.C. Lions on Saturday.
But the cultural relevance of the contest became an emphasis and a source of appreciation after the game, when Fine and Lions signal-caller Dane Evans shook hands and chatted for a few moments.
Fine and Evans were likely the first two North American Indigenous quarterbacks to go head-to-head in the long history of Canadian professional football.
“It’s really significant, really cool,” Fine said Tuesday after the Roughriders practised at Mosaic Stadium.
“I didn’t even think about it during the game, but I think Dane said something to me about it after the game.
“It’s awesome to see that, especially two kids from Oklahoma.”
Fine, who hails from the small town of Peggs, is a member of the Cherokee Nation. Evans, from the city of Chickasha, is of Wichita descent.
“I think that’s kind of special — two kids from Hamilton, all the way up in Canada, doing what they love,” Evans told reporters in Vancouver after the Lions won 19-9 on Saturday.
Only a few weeks ago, a Fine-Evans quarterback matchup did not appear to be on the horizon.
But then Roughriders No. 1 quarterback Trevor Harris suffered a serious knee injury in the fourth quarter of a July 16 home game against the Calgary Stampeders. Fine was suddenly elevated to a front-line role, with a game against the Lions looming.
Evans began Saturday’s game on the sideline, only to be pressed into service at the 11-minute mark after Vernon Adams Jr. suffered a knee injury.
While the game was in progress, Football Canada President Jim Mullin sent the following tweet: “With Mason Fine and Dane Evans both on the field at QB in this game, I believe this is the first time two quarterbacks with (North American) Indigenous ancestry have played in the same CFL game.”
Fittingly, Evans and Fine were those quarterbacks, considering that their close connection dates back much further than this past weekend.
“What’s funny with the story with Dane was he was at the University of Tulsa when I was in high school at Locust Grove, about 40 minutes away,” the 5-foot-11 Fine noted.
“I always wanted to go to the University of Tulsa growing up, and I remember watching Dane. Dane’s not much taller than I am, so I thought, ‘If he can do it, I can do it.’
“I would watch TU games and I would watch Dane. I remember I went to a camp — I don’t even know if he remembers this — but I was talking to him.
“I’m real close to Dane and even his family. I went to college with his sister (Kacee) and we’re real close, so it’s really cool to see us having that success — both being Indigenous and both kids living out their dreams and being great role models for people.”
How important is it to be a role model?
“I don’t think about it, honestly, living day to day,” Fine responded. “It’s just something where hopefully you just live right and you’re not even thinking about it.
“It just comes naturally. From such a young age, since high school, I’ve always kind of had a lot of media around me, so it has always been in my mind. But I’ve got to give credit to my parents, because I think they raised me the right way, where I don’t have to think about being a role model.
“I just live my day how I think a person should and then everything else will follow. But you’ve always got to realize that you have eyes on you and you know you’re doing this for something bigger than yourself.
“It’s about being a role model for this organization, the province of Saskatchewan and then, obviously, for Indigenous kids and for people back home.”
A half-hour’s drive from Fine’s hometown of Peggs, you will find the University of Tulsa Hurricane’s 30,000-seat football facility — Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium.
In 2000, a portion of the street leading up to the stadium was renamed Glenn Dobbs Drive. That stretch of pavement is named in honour of the legendary Tulsa quarterback and head coach.
In 1942, Dobbs became the first Tulsa quarterback to earn All-American status. He was also ninth in Heisman Trophy balloting.
Nine years later, Dobbs made his debut with the Roughriders and quickly became a sensation. He was so phenomenally popular, in fact, that Regina was dubbed “Dobberville.”
The Dobber’s first iconic game as a Roughrider was played on Sept. 3, 1951, when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers visited Taylor Field.
The Blue Bombers’ quarterback at the time was Jack Jacobs, a member of the Creek Nation who was born in Holdenville, Okla.
As a second-year Blue Bomber in 1951, Jacobs became the first quarterback in professional football history to throw for 30-plus touchdowns and 3,000 or more yards in a season. He threw for 3,248 yards and 33 scores.
Three of those TD tosses were registered in the fourth quarter of the Roughriders’ first true Labour Day Classic.
Saskatchewan led 21-6 before Jacobs completed 10 of 13 passes for 189 yards during the final 15 minutes and piloted Winnipeg to a 24-22 victory.
The following year, Jacobs threw for another 2,586 yards while increasing his single-season record for TD passes to (34).
By the time Jacobs played his final game with the Blue Bombers, in 1954, he was the Western Interprovincial Football Union’s all-time leader in passing attempts (709), completions (1,330) and yardage (11,094).
In 1963, he became a charter member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, which is now celebrating its 60th anniversary.
Each year, the Blue Bombers present two Jack Jacobs Scholarships (each worth $2,000) to Indigenous high school students who plan to study at the post-secondary level.
What cannot be confirmed, but what is strongly suspected, is that Jacobs was the WIFU’s only Indigenous quarterback over the time he spent with the Blue Bombers. (The CFL was formed in 1958, when the WIFU merged with the eastern-based Interprovincial Rugby Football Union.)
While Jacobs played for the Bombers, 30 members of rival WIFU teams threw at least 10 passes during a season. Internet searches of players’ biographies have yet to produce a reference to an Indigenous heritage.
Mississippi-born Herman (Eagle) Day, who played for the Blue Bombers (1956), Stampeders (1961 to 1966) and Toronto Argonauts (1966), was referenced as “one-quarter Cherokee” in a 1948 story distributed by The Associated Press.
As was the case with Jacobs, we cannot find on the Internet an Indigenous connection to CFL quarterback who could have opposed Day.
The year after Day signed off as a CFL player, David Lewis began his brief time in Canadian football. According to a biography of Lewis on the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame website, his family “descends from the Central San Joaquin Valley’s Chukchansi Yokotch Tribe.” He threw 35 passes for the Montreal Alouettes over the 1967 and 1968 seasons.
Alex (Sonny) Sixkiller, a member of the Cherokee Nation, tried out for the Argonauts in 1974.
Sixkiller was born in Oklahoma — like Fine, Evans and Jacobs.
“There’s a large Indigenous population (in Oklahoma) but, also, Oklahoma produces a lot of great athletes,” Fine said.
“I think the greatest athlete of all time is Jim Thorpe, so maybe there’s something in the water there.”
