
Darrell Davis
Regina Leader-Post
As a football player and coach, Frank McCrystal was always brimming with confidence, a cockiness developed through decades of successes with the Regina Rams.
Now he’s not so sure, perhaps a little hesitant and modest about joining national legends in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
“I looked up some of the guys that are in the Hall of Fame,” said McCrystal. “And I go, ‘Wow! Like, really?’ I fooled a lot of people.
“I recognize it’s a team game. I’m extremely humbled and a little uncomfortable with this.”
McCrystal is one of two builders and five players being inducted as part of the hall’s Class of 2025. Former CFL official Glen Johnson is the other builder, along with retired CFL players Jeremaine Copeland (a receiver who played for Montreal and Calgary); centre Bryan Chiu (Montreal); offensive tackle Jovan Olafioye (B.C. and Montreal); defensive back-turned-linebacker Darryl Hall (Calgary); and safety Scott Flagel (Winnipeg, Calgary, Hamilton and Ottawa). Winnipeg sports writers Judy Owen and Paul Friesen are going into the Football Reporters of Canada wing.
The builders and players will be formally inducted during ceremonies Sept. 19-20 in Hamilton, site of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Part of the event includes an acceptance speech, which McCrystal is struggling to write, even though he was a teacher when not serving as a full-time coach.
McCrystal can oblige with the easy information, such as ring size and blazer size and photos for his ceremonial bust. And he’s OK making tentative travel plans for Wendy, his wife, their children Hailey and Charlie and families (a fourth grandchild is on the way) to join him at the ceremonies.
But despite being an experienced and inspiring speaker, McCrystal’s speech-writing thoughts roll endlessly through former Rams presidents Paul Barnby, Doug McKillop and Bob Pelton. They include assistant coaches Bernie Schmidt, Rick Seaman and Jerry Orban, his baseball coach Norm Loehr, volunteers who supported the Rams as a junior franchise that won seven Canadian Bowls during his 15 years as head coach before transitioning in 1999 into the University of Regina Rams, appearing one year later in the Vanier Cup and losing the championship game 42-39 to Ottawa.
“There’s also the incredible courage that some of the players had, like Neal Hughes,” said McCrystal. “Like Jason Clermont catching a two-point convert in the Vanier Cup with a broken collarbone. Darryl Leason playing with a (torn) ACL. I look at the people I’ve coached and the people I’ve played with, like Roger Aldag and Bob Poley, guys everybody knows. But there’s other unsung heroes from time to time, like Dave Sawa in 1973. He ended up being the MVP of the (championship) game and he was a defensive halfback.
“Some of that sticks out. I kind of think about the times we won, but the times that we didn’t stick out maybe more.”
And of course there’s Gord Currie, a Hall of Fame inductee and mentor who coached the junior team when McCrystal was a Rams linebacker.
“(Former Leader-Post writer) Ian Hamilton one time said to me, ‘Does it ever bug you that everybody keeps talking about Gord Currie this and Gord Currie that?’ ” said McCrystal. “I told him, ‘I just think he was way better than me.’
“I always had to work at calming myself down to do the right things. That stuff came so naturally to Gord. You always felt good after talking to Gord and it wasn’t always about football.”
All of it’s now in the rearview mirror. The games, the championships, the wins and losses, the thousands of nights at badly-lighted practices through rain and snow, heat, mosquitoes and freezing temperatures. Helping athletes like Clermont, Hughes, Jon Ryan, Brendon LaBatte and Akiem Hicks earn pro careers, helping others win championships and become contributing community members with families.
“I coached for 36 years and played for five,” said McCrystal. “I don’t know how many practices there were. It was sometimes so cold that we served soup or hot chocolate instead of a water break. I may have missed some games as a player, but I never missed a practice as a coach.
“I was never that interested in the Xs and Os. What kept it interesting was the people, getting the right guy and putting him in the right place, having him do the right things. Setting things up so Neal Hughes could return a punt for a touchdown, then doing it again. That was my thing.”