PLAYER #116 - RALPH SAZIO (1981-1989)

There's an old saying about former Argo president and general manager Ralph Sazio, popularized by the Toronto Sun's Jim Hunt, that he used to "throw around nickels as if they were manhole covers". If you said this to Sazio's face, he might very well have thrown a manhole cover at you.

The term "no-nonsense" could have been invented for Sazio, a tough, take-no-prisoners kind of guy from South Orange, New Jersey, the type Bruce Springsteen would write about in his songs. While not always popular, Sazio was always respected, which is much more important from a football standpoint.

"You always knew where you stood with Ralph," said former trainer Fred Dunbar, who had to deal with him on a regular basis.

So too did John Wintermeyer, one of his right-hand men as the director of Canadian scouting, who was the first person Sazio hired upon joining the Argonauts in 1981, after more than three decades as a player, coach and front-office manager in Hamilton.

"Ralph was an extremely hard-working, bright executive," said Wintermeyer. "He was an old-school football guy, but he was also a businessman, the sharpest in Canadian football."

So much so that he was selected to the CFL Hall-of-Fame as a builder in 1988, having built Grey Cup champions in Hamilton and Toronto. He won a Grey Cup as a player (1953), three as a Ti-Cat coach (1963, '65, and '67) and one as a general manager (1972), and then was one of the chief architects of the first Argo championship in 31 years in 1983.

"I think we had a good rapport between us," said former Argo coach Bob O'Billovich, one of the other main reasons for the sudden resurgence of the Double Blue in the 1980's. "He was a good resource guy to have in your corner."

But the corner could get awfully small with Sazio around, leaving little room for other people, according to some former employees.

"He may have had some trouble delegating authority," said former Argo director of player personnel Dave "Tuffy" Knight, who is now head football coach at the University of Waterloo. "He was like, what could you say, a one-man show. We banged heads (a few times), and you usually lost with Ralph."

But Knight admits he generally got along with Sazio, whom he respected and learned a lot from. "He was a hard guy to work for because he was so moody, but I probably got along with him as good as anybody," said Knight.

Current Argo director of communications Dave Watkins had just joined the Argos as a young 21 year-old assistant out of Ryerson in 1983, and got a quick lesson in the way things are done with Sazio around.

"He was a very determined guy who knew what he wanted from the organization," said Watkins. "He demanded you work as hard at your job as he did at his."

Sazio stayed with the Argos until the end of the decade, but was let go with O'Billovich before the 1990 season started. On the personal front, he and his wife Rose have lived in Burlington for many years, and they have two children, Peggy and Mark.