From 11722 Ken Stewart:
Found this photo from CMR from, I believe, fall of 1974. Montreal Alouettes had used CMR facilities for summer training in 1974 (and went on to win the Grey Cup). In thanks they brought the Grey Cup to the College for the day. The Als also helped out with the CMR Football team. The photo was taken at the Cadet Mess with a few members of the CMR Football Team.
(Click on photo for better viewing.)
In the summer of 1974 (and maybe beyond), several of us had no specific summer training due to the five-year program at CMR. We ran the marina (a lot of ping pong played) and the CMR museum (at the time it was just the Old Guard House) and we acted as “Officer” of the Day at the College. The Alouettes had negotiated to have their pre-season summer training at CMR. At the time, it had three football fields, a track, a great physical fitness centre, empty “dorm” rooms and an eating facility all within the confines of a fence and a “manned” gate. Thus we ate with football players as they attempted to “make the cut”. Names like Sonny Wade, Junior AhYou, Peter Dalla Riva, Tony Proudfoot, Wally Buno and many more, ate alongside of us. Some pretty big “boys” and the amount of food they consumed was amazing. As stated by Ken, that year the Alouettes won the Eastern Division and went on to beat Edmonton for the Grey Cup. Part of the “payback” beyond financial and bringing the Cup to the College was providing some additional coaching staff to the football team and the soccer team (the people who owned the Alouettes, also owned the Montreal professional soccer team (I forget the name and so has Google). Trying to instil confidence in our “small college” soccer team, the Montreal coach even had us wear the jerseys (same colours as the Alouettes) of the Montreal pro team … it seldom worked. I think we won two maybe three games against the other “small university” teams and we were taught several very big lessons on how to play soccer by the “larger university” teams. Still a great memory, thanks Ken … and I even got through a whole season without damaging my knee 🙂 Chris Cottle 10389
After his career in football ended, Pete Dalla Riva when to work for Molson Breweries in Montreal in a public relations capacity. I remember meeting him just over 30 years ago, in late 1990, at the annual reception Molsons used to host for cadets and Ex-Cadets in the region. He talked about the team’s experience training at CMR at the time he had been with the Alouettes. I also remember him saying that how important it was for the players and the coach to respect each other, in order to have a successful team. That comment has always stayed with me, and it reminds me of the importance that mutual respect and confidence play in having a successful team in any environment.