PLAYER #110 - BOYD CARTER (1957-62)

This will be our third and final week of showcasing long- time Globe and Mail football writer Gord Walker's unpublished book "...And That's Why I Love The Argos: A Lifelong Passion", which was completed by his son Terry in 1988.

It's a shame this book has never made it to print, but it's never too late. With some popular responses to it from the Ancient Mariners followers, maybe we can get the momentum going for it to get a publisher's attention. Maybe the Ancient Mariners profiled here earlier, combined with Walker's excellent mini-biographies, could form the basis of a larger project?

We'll wait and see, but with the dearth of quality CFL books out there, it's probably something that is worth a shot. But for now, we'll offer some more snippets of Walker's favourite players, with this week's characters including Boyd Carter, Frank Morris, Art West, Jim Palmer and the incomparable Red Storey.

With a name like Boyd Carter, you would think Hollywood would come-a-calling. Carter grew up just around the corner from Hollywood in Santa Monica, California, and attended Santa Monica Junior College before coming to the Argos in 1957. While he was born in the U.S., Carter could qualify for non-import status at the time because his parents had been born in Canada.

"It all started one night after practice at Varsity Stadium," recalled Carter to Gord Walker. "Bobby Kuntz, Norm Stoneburgh, Dick Brown, Bernie Custis and I decided to go down to Yonge and Bloor and have a bite to eat. During the course of dinner, Kuntz announced that he was born in the U.S. I said, 'How can you be born in the U.S. and be classified as a non- import?' He said, 'My parents are both Canadian'. I said, 'Well, so are mine'."

And so began an exhausting search for his mother's birth certificate, which ended up taking Carter to a Winnipeg hospital. When he found it, it was off to Ottawa to get sworn in as a Canadian citizen, and the next day, it was off to practice.

"Do you mind if I get some sleep?", he asked coach Hampton Pool at the time. "We practice at eight o'clock," replied Pool. "You be there. We have a game coming up."

But when it came to game time, Carter always showed up, playing six solid years as an Argo defensive back. He is also a part of a record that will never be broken in the CFL, a 131-yard kick return for a touchdown that he shared with Dave Mann in a game versus Montreal on August 22, 1958.

"Mann's tremendous run was aided greatly by a piece of smart operating by Boyd Carter," wrote Walker in the Globe and Mail the next day. "The pair went back to field (Bill) Bewley's field goal attempt in the event it was wide. Carter tucked in the ball near the dead ball line and started to his right. He drew most of the Alouettes that way, then he cut back to his left. He outran a couple of pursuers, waited until he was almost hauled down, then lateralled to Mann. That great competitor ran around three Alouettes, was boxed in, then reversed his field to break between a pair of pursuers. He kept cutting across the field and finally outran the pack to canter the final 20 yards or so."