PLAYER #106 - CHESTER "COOKIE" GILCHRIST (1959-61)

This is the second week of our special look at the players that former Globe and Mail sportswriter Gord Walker thought were the most interesting Argonauts.

Walker's unpublished book, "...And That's Why I Love The Argos: A Lifelong Passion", was completed by his son Terry in 1988, and the stories in it resonate with a lot of the inside information that fans love to hear about. This week, again with the help of Walker, we will profile Argo greats Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist, Tobin Rote, Jim Rountree and John Kerns.

(P.S. - As we did with other holidays such as Labour Day and Canada Day, Ancient Mariners will take Thanksgiving off, showing due respect to our country's traditions. Besides, we'll be eating our turkey and watching the Argos beat the Stampeders at the time... Also, the week we missed in late September was due to a reshuffling in our Internet page staff, as our main man Hans left to go to New Zealand. Our apologies to our readers and our thanks to Hans, who will be missed. Good luck down under, mate!)

Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist, who some former players claim is the best all-around athlete to ever play for the Argonauts.

"Chester Gilchrist was the kind of guy that would do anything for you," said former teammate Fred Black, as recounted by Gord Walker. "He'd play tackle, or defensive end, or linebacker, or fullback, or kick field goals,..."

Black could go on and on, and others like Alex Ponton and Bobby Kuntz were also there to sing the praises of Gilchrist. But where they didn't want to be was on the field opposing them.

"If I was playing linebacker, I couldn't get to sleep until about two o'clock in the morning until the teams were posted on the board," said Black, prior to some intra-squad scrimmage games in training camp. "I'd go down and find out, 'Oh, I'm playing with Cookie.' And then I'd go back to sleep like a lamb."

But there was one time Black did go up against Gilchrist.

"I remember playing linebacker and doing everything perfect, the way I'd been coached from day one," said Black. "I read my keys well, saw the guard pulling, and knew it was an off-tackle play. I'm supposed to close the off-tackle hole. I went in, straightened my legs,, straightened my back at point of contact, which you're taught to do, and all of a sudden you hear "WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!... He just ran over me."

Gilchrist spent nine years running over people in Canada, first with Sarnia and Kitchener of the ORFU, and then with Hamilton, Saskatchewan and Toronto of the CFL. He was a perennial all-star and free spirit, whose "shoot-from-the-hip" attitude wore thin with many coaches. It also hurt his many business ventures, including an electrical company called "Lookie, Lookie, Here Comes Cookie".

His best Argo season was in 1961, when he rushed for 709 yards on 105 carries, scored eight touchdowns, kicked 43 converts and five field goals. He left that year to finish his career in the new American Football League, but in 1973, was honoured as the fullback of the modern era Argo all-star team (1945-73).