If there is a more informed person on Canadian football than Frank Cosentino, you'd be hard-pressed to find him.
As someone who has played quarterback, coached and even written a couple of books about the game, Cosentino brings a level of intelligence and perspective in talking about football that goes beyond the x's and o's, and grunts and groans.
"(The quarterback) is supposed to be a thinking man's position," said Cosentino, who played the position for 10 years in the CFL, including one year with the Argos in 1969. "That's what appealed to me. It was like a game of chess. I always found it a challenge to probe teams and take advantage of them."
Born and raised in Hamilton, Cosentino went to the University of Western Ontario and graduated with a business administration degree in 1959. The next year, he joined his hometown Tiger-Cats, where he won two Grey Cups in 1963 and 1965 and played with legends such as Bernie Faloney and Joe Zuger. His Grey Cup experiences helped him in writing his first football book, "Canadian Football: The Grey Cup Years", in 1969, and his follow-up, "A Passing Game", which was published last year.
While with the Ti-Cats, Cosentino began teaching at Cathedral High School and attended McMaster University to get his physical education degree. When he was traded from Hamilton to Edmonton in 1967, he went to work on his master's and P.H.D. at the University of Alberta, which he finally completed in 1973.
During his post-graduate studies, Cosentino spent an eventful year with the Argos in 1969, where he alternated with Tom Wilkinson at QB. Highlighted by a high-scoring game against Montreal which he called "my most satisfying game as a pro", the the cast of characters on the team made it a memorable season.
"They liked to call themselves a bunch of misfits," said Cosentino, referring to players such as Mel Profit and Bobby Taylor, who were castoffs from other teams, but jelled as a unit in Double Blue. "Leo Cahill used to say, 'All you guys would be somewhere else, digging ditches or in jail, if it wasn't for me."
That '69 team had a 10-4 record and an eight-point lead in the two-game eastern final over Ottawa, but lost in the second match in Ottawa 32-3. "(Cahill) said only 'an Act of God' could beat us, and then we went there and there was hail, snow, rain, sleet," said Cosentino, who said the 'Riders wore broomball shoes to gain an advantage in the weather.
The year after, Cosentino retired from the Argos to take a position as head football coach and assistant phys. ed. professor at his old alma mater in London, and ended up taking the team to two Vanier Cup titles in 1971 and 1974. In 1976, he moved to York as chairman and director of their phys. ed. department, and coached the Yeomen in two three-year intervals, from 1978-80 and 1984-86. He still teaches sport history at York, and is now at his summer residence in the Ottawa Valley writing his 12th book, tentatively titled "Brothers of the Wind", about basketball founder James Naismith and famous sculpter Robert MacKenzie.
Family-wise, Cosentino and wife Sheila have four kids (Tony, Peter, the Argos' director of marketing, Marie and Teresa).
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