As long as there has been an aerial component to football, coaches have emphasized the importance of protection in the pocket.
But who knew that this applied to ticket stubs as well as quarterbacks?
Kelsey Lonie recently found two Saskatchewan Roughriders tickets that had been tucked away in a rain jacket since Oct. 5, 1963 — when the Green and White opposed the Ottawa Rough Riders at Taylor Field.
That unlikely, unconventional time capsule was among 300 forms of military garb that had been donated and ultimately catalogued by Lonie in her capacity as the Royal United Services Institute of Regina’s executive director and chief historian.
“Some of the uniforms dated back to the First World War,” Lonie noted during a Tuesday interview at the Royal Canadian Legion, Regina Branch 001.
“I checked through the pockets of every uniform. You never knew what you would find — a pocket knife … a handkerchief …
“Then I got to the rain jacket and pulled out these two tickets. I thought, ‘1963 … pretty neat!’
“I come across crazy things all the time. This is another case of, ‘I didn’t expect this.’ ”
The rain jacket was not accompanied by any identifying information, such as a name tag.
“A lot of the uniforms were donated to us without us knowing who they belonged to,” Lonie said. “At one point, nobody checked the pockets before they donated the rain jacket.
“Perhaps it was worn by someone who was in the colour party (for the national anthem). We can guess that someone was probably in uniform at the game and then shoved the ticket stubs in their pocket.”
A raincoat was a recommended accessory for the Saturday evening CFL game. According to the Oct. 5, 1963 edition of the Regina Leader-Post, the weather forecast called for “intermittent light moisture throughout the weekend.”
The Roughriders’ opposition was forced to settle for intermittent touchdowns, if that, for much of the 1963 season.
On Sept. 30 of that year, Saskatchewan defeated the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers 12-10. For Winnipeg, the high point was reaching the end zone against a Saskatchewan defence that had not allowed a touchdown for 20-plus quarters.
The Roughriders then allowed an atypical four majors as Ottawa won 28-13 before 14,551 spectators — including the as-yet-unidentified occupants of Section 40, Row 6, Seats 11 and 12.
The seats would have been located slightly more than halfway up the stadium’s west grandstand, overlooking the south side of midfield.
The Riders-versus-Riders showdown was held on a mild fall evening. The temperature was 13 degrees at the opening kickoff, even though the game did not begin until 8 p.m. The field was listed as “a little wet” on the official scoresheet.
A wind recorded at 15 km-h was not a factor for the teams’ quarterbacks. Russ Jackson called signals for Ottawa. Ron Lancaster and Frank Tripucka split time behind centre for Saskatchewan.
Tripucka produced both Saskatchewan touchdowns, hitting Jack Gotta for a pair of scores in a collaboration of past and future Roughriders head coaches.
Rookie fullback George Reed, playing in his 12th CFL game for Saskatchewan, registered a team-high 51 rushing yards on 10 carries.
Gotta (six catches for 85 yards) and Hugh Campbell (five for 37) were the Roughriders’ busiest receivers.
Campbell, who had joined the Roughriders on Sept. 17, 1963 after being released by the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, was playing in only his third CFL game.
He quickly became known as “Gluey Hughie” and emerged as a favourite target of Lancaster, whom the Roughriders had acquired from Ottawa on July 29, 1963.
Although Lancaster’s former team was victorious in only its second visit to Taylor Field, the nucleus was being formed for an iconic edition of the Roughriders that on Nov. 26, 1966 won the first Grey Cup championship in franchise history.
Lancaster, Reed and Campbell were all principal performers as Saskatchewan defeated the Jackson-led Rough Riders 29-14 at Empire Stadium in Vancouver.
Both Ottawa touchdowns resulted from long throws from Jackson to speedster Whit Tucker, whose preferred pass pattern — known as The Arrow — had produced a 55-yard score at Taylor Field on Oct. 5, 1963.
The 22,473-day-old ticket stubs, by the way, have been carefully catalogued and stored by Lonie.
Since July, she has processed 5,000 artifacts that can be found in the Legion’s storage room.
“You find so many things,” Lonie marvelled. “I’ll open somebody’s wallet and find a love letter that a soldier wrote to his wife during the war.
“I always read the letters out loud. It makes them feel alive again.
“You never know what will get to you on a particular day.”
Or what you might find.
Take the ticket stubs, for example, which have now been assigned a catalogue number — 0730 — and a permanent place in Saskatchewan military history.
