BOB RUMBALL (1955)

A lot of former football players get close to God and aspire to do his work in this world. Reverend Bob Rumball has gotten closer than most, and his work with the deaf and other good deeds are examples of a remarkable life away from the gridiron.

When he came to the Argonauts in 1955 following a four year stay in Ottawa, Rumball's future life was planned out. He was already in the ministry at the time, and would end his career after one season in Double Blue.

"Back then, football wasn't the focus and centre of your whole life," said Rumball, who played defensive halfback during his year with the Argos, after playing on both sides of the ball in Ottawa. "(We played both ways) because we didn't know any better, but you're far better off doing one thing well than a lot of things poorly."

During the 1955 regular season, the Argos played poorly, finishing with a 4-8 record. However, they were able to sneak into third place and make the playoffs, where they knocked off Hamilton in the semi-final 32-28 and then lost a squeaker to the Sam Etcheverry-led Montreal Alouettes 38-36 in the Eastern final series.

"We had a good team, and if we had put everything together, we would have won," said Rumball, who still meets some of his former teammates for lunch once a month at the Silver Rail Tavern.

Otherwise, he meets them at funerals, which Rumball sadly admits he has done too many of lately. However, it's one of the duties he has to perform as a clergyman as well as a police chaplain, "providing support and a hand to hold" to grieving family and friends.

Support is something he has unconditionally given to the deaf since leaving football. He has been around the world and set up schools in places such as Jamaica, Haiti and Puerto Rico, and locally opened the Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf in April of 1979. It's one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world, but it took a lot of convincing of public authorities to get it established.

"Queen's Park still thinks we shouldn't exist," said Rumball, who believes in the specialized services his centre supplies, while the government feels they should be normalized. While he disagrees with many government figures, he has at least made inroads, which he attributes partly to his football days.

"If it hadn't been for football, a lot of the things with the deaf wouldn't have happened," admitted Rumball, who is currently involved in a hockey camp for the deaf in Parry Sound, which runs in the first two weeks of July and is led by instuctor Jim Kyte, a deaf NHL defenceman. "If I hadn't had the sports connection, all those doors wouldn't have been opened."

One such example was in the mid-70's, when he and former Leaf owner Conn Smythe made their way to Ottawa to speak with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and were granted a meeting because Trudeau's secretary was a football fan and remembered Rumball from his playing days.


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