PLAYER #122 - DOUG PHILPOTT (1976-81)

In the late 1970's, despite having had a lousy team for years, the Argos drew huge crowds to newly-expanded CNE Stadium.

While it's true that the competition for the entertainment dollar was not as strong back then, it was equally true that the Argos did all they could to stay in the media spotlight.

With front men like Leo Cahill and Lew Hayman, you could be assured that the Double Blue always had space on the front page of the newspaper. It was Doug Philpott's job as manager of public relations and promotions to make sure the team stayed there, and more often than not, they did.

"There were some phenomenal sports figures there who had great track records on and off the field," said Philpott, whose wide job description included day-to-day functions with advertisers, sponsors and game-day promotions, as well as handling media guides and programs.

According to Philpott, the CFL program was 100 pages long at the time, with 36 pages dedicated to the local team, which is much bigger than it is now. The team also had a 48-page newsletter that went out to the 33,000 subscribers. Obviously, the Boatmen were at their peak in terms of popularity.

"We had a lot of personalities," said Philpott, who did all he could to promote them. "We destroyed a lot of trees with press releases. But the football players in the CFL are great when it comes to their involvement in the community. I have to give them full marks over the other sports leagues."

While the team was successful in the stands, it was lousy on the field. When Ralph Sazio took over in 1981, the complete opposite started to hold true.

"The only thing that we won was back-to-back Miss Grey Cup titles," laughed Philpott, who left the team when Sazio arrived. "I think promotion changed when Ralph Sazio came in. He equated winning with getting fans. The marketing sort of disappeared."

Unfortunately, so did many fans, even though the team was very successful. Philpott was still involved with the CFL at this time when he became a senior account executive with Hayhurst from 1981-86, who had the league as one of its clients.

A Ryerson business graduate, Philpott got started in journalism in Montreal in 1969 as an assistant at the Hockey News. From there, he became sports editor at the North York Mirror, and in 1974 joined the St. Clair Group before taking the Argo job in 1976. He returned to the St. Clair Group full-time in 1986, where he is now the director of hockey projects, a job which includes promoting junior hockey and the CHA.

A self-confessed workaholic, who admitted to taking only three days off when he married his wife Joanne, Philpott sees his work as something a fan would die for.

"I've been in a lot of spaces where the excitement is," said Philpott, who served as Canada's media relations liaison in Czechoslovakia in 1987 during the famous junior hockey brawl, and who takes credit for starting up the Air Canada national midget hockey championship. "It's probably a job that every fan would love to have, but it's a 12-14 hour a day job."