PLAYER #73 - AB BOX (1932-34)

Ab Box remembers the 1933 Grey Cup as one of those typical Canadian football championship games, much like the Mud Bowl of 1950, the Fog Bowl of 1962 and the Ice Bowl of 1977.

"It was played up in Sarnia," said Box. "There was snow on the ground and they had to scrape it off. In those days, we probably had only two footballs to play with."

But those two balls were enough to bring the Argonauts their third Grey Cup victory, a 4-3 win over the hometown Sarnia Imperials.

"They had a very good team," recalled Box, who was an excellent punter and kicked a single in that game. "It took all we had to beat them."

Box was also the quarterback on that day, and although the forward pass was officially introduced in 1929, the Argos were not using it yet for the three years Box played with the team, from 1932-34. Aside from the Grey Cup win, Box's other major accomplishment with the Argos was winning the Jeff Russel Memorial Trophy as the Eastern Division's top player in 1934.

But Box was probably better known as a star for the ORFU's Balmy Beach, and was a major component of their 1930 Grey Cup win. Balmy Beach won 11-6 over the Regina Roughriders at Varsity Stadium, and Box contributed three singles to the cause. To recognize his performance with both Toronto teams, Box was inducted into the CFL Hall-of-Fame in 1965.

"I had lots of offers from different teams, but I wanted to stay in the city," said Box, who spurned offers from teams in Montreal, Regina and other cities to play his whole career in the city he grew up in. He attended Malvern Collegiate, where his coach was the legendary Ted Reeve, also a former Argo.

"He was pretty good," said Box. "He was tough, but he wanted to have fun at the same time."

Away from football, Box was able to work for forwarding company Muirhead, who were sponsors of the Balmy Beach football club, for 20 years. "It turned out to be swell for me," said Box. "I was a travelling salesman and I played football."

After working at Muirhead, Box bought a summer lodge in Minden and ran it for years, and then sold it as he headed into retirement. Now 87 years old, Box lives in the Beaches area of Toronto with his second wife of 30 years, Phyllis. He has two children, Donald and Linda, as well as three stepchildren and three grandchildren.