PLAYER #102 - BILL ZOCK (1937-41, 45-49)

Talk to any of the former Argos who played in and around the war era, and inevitably they will come around to mention Bill Zock.

A Hall-of-Fame lineman (inducted in 1985), Zock was the ironman of his time, playing a total of 18 seasons, 10 with the Argonauts and four each with the Edmonton Eskimos and Balmy Beach of the ORFU. He won a total of six Grey Cups (in 1937-38, 1945-47 with the Argos, and in 1954 with the Eskimos), placing him tied for second on the all-time list. The only Grey Cup he lost as a player was in 1952, when he suited up for the Eskimos and they lost to the Argos 21-11.

Zock was known as one of the strongest players who ever played the game, and intimidation was his middle name. Zock particularly liked to test the mettle of the high-priced import players, who were starting to come to Canada en masse in the early 1950's.

"These guys (imports) would be flown into Edmonton and they'd walk in with dungarees and running shoes and a paper bag," said Zock to Gord Walker. "Somebody had raved about how good they were, so I thought now was the time to find out. Not that I'd tell anybody about it, but I would take them on, one at a time, to find out. The only one I had trouble with, who had an even break, was Monk Manley. I always thought, though, if we were in a game, I could lick him. Maybe we would have broken even a couple of times, but I think I would have won a couple of times."

It was in Edmonton that Zock earned almost legendary status, as he was the leader of a drifter-like group recruited by Annis Stukus to join him out west, where he started up the Eskies in 1949. By 1954, they were Grey Cup champions in Zock's final year of football.

However, he had already made quite a name for himself with the Double Blue, and was selected as the starting offensive guard on the Argo modern era all-star team, selected from 1945-73. Only 19 when he first joined the team in 1937, the Toronto native did not play much in his early years, but did learn a lot.

"It may have been Lew Hayman's way of bringing a young player along," said Zock. "But I thought the Argonauts looked after me pretty good. They gave me good instruction in football, stuff I'd never heard of before. Lew Hayman was probably the best that ever came to Canada."

During the war years, Zock moved over to Balmy Beach, something the rival Argos didn't like, and they paid him $100 less than his teammates upon his return in 1945 to show it.

"With Balmy Beach, it was a case of playing football and having fun," said Zock. "With Argos, it was play football, but make sure you win."

After his playing career ended, Zock coached Balmy Beach in the late '50's and the Argos in the mid-60's, and after that, the toughest guy in football actually started singing, in a group known as the Invictones. Unfortunately, Zock is no longer with us, leaving behind wife Mildred and kids Bill, Gordon and Arlene.