PLAYER #96 - RODGERS "TUFFY" SMITH (1939-40, 45)

Next to "Red", in which there are five documented cases of the name being used, and probably a few more unofficial ones, the most popular nickname in Argo history appears to be "Tuffy".

Having just profiled Dave "Tuffy" Knight, the Argos' director of player personnel in the 1980's, it is ideal that we move on to another "Tuffy", one of three officially to have played in a Double Blue uniform. His name is Rodgers "Tuffy" Smith, and the way he got his nickname is a good place to start, even though it came about as a case of mistaken identity.

"(Coach) Lew Hayman gave me the nickname," said Smith, who was only 19 years old when he first made the team in 1939. "He said: 'You have hair all over your head, and you're sloppy on your feet, just like a guy (I used to coach named) Tuffy Griffiths. I thought you might have been related'."

While it wasn't the reason behind the nickname, Smith was also a tough player, playing the demanding centre position on both offence and defence.

"In those days, there was no platooning, you played 60 minutes," said Smith.

And you worked hard in practice for the demanding Hayman, even though Smith admits he would usually arrive a half-hour late, since he worked up in Malton and had to drive about 20 miles to practice each day. On one occasion, he was in such a hurry to escape Hayman's wrath that he accidentally knocked over all three of the team's beat reporters (from the Toronto Star, Toronto Telegram and Globe and Mail) in one fell swoop.

"I came busting through the doors and bowled them over like bowling pins," said Smith, who once also broke the cardinal rule of Hayman's teams when it came to banned substances - no, not drugs or alcohol, but pastry, which was forbidden. "We were doing sprints and I was about three or four yards back, and Hayman said: 'What's slowing you up?' My mother had put three butter tarts with my lunch, and that was not allowed, no pastry."

When it came to toughness, Smith didn't restrict it to the football field. After two years with the Argos, "Tuffy" did what so many of his brave generation did, which was serve overseas in World War II. He spent four-and-a-half adventurous and dangerous years with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) 405 bomber squadron, which was the only Canadian squadron to be affiliated with the Pathfinders, an elite allied force. In fact, Smith was on his way to Ottawa this week for a reunion of the old platoon.

After the war, Smith played on the 1945 Grey Cup team, and then in 1946 joined the Metropolitan Toronto Police Force, where he served for the next 27 years in five separate divisions, working his way up to staff sergeant. A couple of strokes and a pair of open-heart surgeries forced him to retire in 1973 on a disability pension, and now at age 76, walks around with an artificial heart valve.

Born and raised in Toronto, Smith now lives in Newmarket with his second wife Mona, from whom he inherited four stepchildren. He also has three daughters from his first marriage to wife Shirley, who passed away, and 11 grandkids.