Paul Woods - Year of the Rocket - John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a Crooked Tycoon, and the Craziest Season in Football History

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Copyright 2021 by Paul Woods

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Cover designed by Jason Logan

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Year of the Rocket : John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a crooked tycoon, and the craziest season in football history / Paul Woods.

Names: Woods, Paul (Paul Stuart), 1957- author.

Identifiers: Canadiana 20210239808 | Subjects: LCSH: Toronto Argonauts (Football team)History20th century.

Classification: LCC GV948.3 T67 W663 2021 | DDC 796.335/6409713541dc23

ISBN 978-1-989555-44-6

To Simon and Caleb

F OR ONE NIGHTfor the first time ever, reallythe most important, talked-about, watched, and hyped event in Canadas largest city was, of all things, a football game.

On July 18, 1991, if you wanted to be where the action was, you had to be at SkyDome, the self-described worlds greatest entertainment centre, to witness the unveiling of the new Toronto Argonauts.

Many of the 41,178 spectators who trooped into the colossal facility on a typically muggy summer evening were Argo fans who had been to SkyDome, and its predecessor, Exhibition Stadium, before. But there were also a lot of folks there for the first time, and for reasons other than football.

We came to see the show, a young woman excitedly told a TV crew. Oh, and the game, too.

But mostly the show. For this was meant to be a show unlike anything Toronto had seen. Just a week after the Toronto Blue Jays had played host to baseballs best players in the major league all-star game at SkyDome, the Argonauts were about to stage their own showcase event, complete with Hollywood celebs, legendary musicians, and the debut of the most-talked-about player ever to step on a Canadian football field.

This moment had been anticipated for five months, ever since the lightning bolt in February 1991. Hockey star Wayne Gretzky and comedian John Candy were teaming with Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall to purchase the Toronto Argonauts. Tinseltown pizzazz was coming to a Canadian Football League that had appeared to be on the brink of extinction.

McNall, who made his fortune collecting and trading ancient coins, was the most important power broker in hockey. By acquiring Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers, he had transformed the sport from something popular in Canada and pockets of the U.S. northeast into a commodity marketed across most of America. Attendance at Kings games skyrocketed as Californians and their starsJohn Candy, Kirk Russell, Michael J. Fox, Ronald Reaganlined up to watch the Great One rack up goals and assists.

McNalls empire had expanded beyond coins and hockey players to encompass other collectibles, from prize-winning racehorses to rare baseball cards. Now he was bringing his apparent Midas touch to Canada, accompanied by two of its most beloved citizens. Gretzky, the skinny kid from Brantford, Ontario, who set mind-boggling, never-to-be-beaten scoring records. And Candy, the round-faced Torontonian behind such uproarious and memorable TV and movie characters as Johnny LaRue, Uncle Buck, and Del Griffith.

The funniest man Canada had ever produced, the greatest hockey player ever to lace up skates, and a slick coin-dealer-turned-sports magnate. As Brian Cooper, whom they hired as executive vice-president of the Argos, described it nearly three decades later: The king of comedy, the king of hockey, and the guy who owns the Kingsits a powerful group.

It was powerful enough to do something that from todays perspective seems outlandish, preposterous, unthinkable. They signed the most highly-touted prospect in professional football, a young man so fast and exciting he was worthy of the same nickname as an iconic Canadian athlete of an earlier generation. Move over, Rocket Richard, here comes Raghib Rocket Ismail, stolen away from the mighty National Football League on the very day he was expected to be anointed as its next star.

McNall, Gretzky, and Candy made Rocket Ismail the highest-paid player in football history. Not Canadian football history. Football history. He was to be paid at least 18 million dollars over four years. In return for these riches, Ismail was expected not only to be a superstar on the field, but to reignite interest among Torontonians and, indeed, people all across Canada, in the teetering CFL.

And it all started tonight.

* * *

The day before the game, a private jet bearing the silver-and-black colour scheme of hockeys Los Angeles Kings had landed on the runway at Pearson International Airport. Stepping off the tricked-out Boeing 727 and into a fleet of stretch limousines were the comedian Martin Short, actor Jim Belushi, Oscar-nominated actress Mariel Hemingway, The Breakfast Club icon Ally Sheedy, and Slap Shot star Michael Ontkean, to name a few. Wayne Gretzkys wife, Janet Jones, was there as well, along with daughter Paulina. Even Super Dave Osborne, the perpetually optimistic comedic daredevil whose stunts always, in the end, went horribly wrong, joined the entourage. That might have been an omen.

Another plane had also landed the previous day after a transatlantic flight. Donald Duck Dunn, Steve Cropper, Matt Guitar Murphy and several other legendary musicians were the house band behind Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) and Joliet Jake Blues (John Belushi) in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers. Now touring without the late Belushi, and restyled as the Elwood Blues Revue, they interrupted a string of dates in Europe to perform at halftime for a rumoured fee of a half-million dollars. Some people wisely invest in real estate, says Matt Cauz, a Toronto broadcaster who was a 16-year-old Argo fan in 1991. Others fly the horn section in from Italy.

The band was the feature attraction at a pre-game party the night before the game. That little shindig at the Horseshoe Tavern had been Candys idea. We need to set the world on fire, he told Bret Gallagher, his assistant. We need hysteria, we need craziness.

Soon after agreeing to buy a twenty-per-cent share of the Argos, Candy had solicited help from his former Second City Comedy mate Aykroyd, who grew up in Kingston, Ontario. Aykroyd was tight with the owners of the Horseshoe, a natural venue for the party, which drew an overflow crowd of celebs and gawkers wanting a peek at the glitzy new Argonauts organization.

Drinks flowed. Aykroyd blew a mean blues harp at the front of his red-hot band. Candy sang and mugged from the stage.

It was the single greatest sports party Ive ever been at, says Doug Smith, who has covered Canadian sports for four decades. That includes Olympic welcome parties and Blue Jays parties and Raptors parties.

Less than 24 hours later, the party shifted to the massive domed stadium, its roof open under the stars. While players on the Argos and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats warmed up on the artificial turf, the new owners of the Argonauts strolled around the field to thunderous applause. The grinning, Fred Flintstone-esque McNall performed a ceremonial kickoff alongside Gretzky and Candy. The three-piece Jeff Healey Band sang the Canadian national anthem