PLAYER #132 - IAN SUNTER (1978-79)

The last time a Grey Cup was held in Hamilton was 24 years ago in 1972. But you don't have to remind Ian Sunter of that; he has a lot of help in that regard.

"I'm in the sporting goods business now, and I deal with people who are sports fans all the time," said the former Tiger-Cat and Argo kicker. "Not a couple of days go by when I don't have somebody remind me of the 1972 Grey Cup game."

How could they forget? As a 19 year-old rookie from Burlington, Sunter was on the field on the last play of the game, kicking a 32-yard field goal to give the Ticats a 13-10 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

"It's a great conversation piece," admitted Sunter. "If everybody who told me they were in the stands that day actually were, it would have been an all-time record crowd."

As it was, almost 34,000 people were in the stands that day, and just as many will be on hand this Sunday to watch the Argos go for their league-record 13th Grey Cup championship against the Edmonton Eskimos, who will be going for their 12th title.

"If I get into the spirit, I might go to the game," said Sunter, who would prefer it if the game were held in the afternoon. "When we played in 1972, it was at 1:30 in the afternoon and it was a beautiful, sunny day."

Sunter went on to play five years in total with the Tiger-Cats, and then finished his career with the Argos in 1978 and 1979. "I played with some great guys and enjoyed my time there," said Sunter of his Argo stay, which was not very successful on the field. "When I was with the Argos, I might have held the record for most punts in a season, though."

He laughed after the latter statement, and he needed a sense of humour to get through those lean years in Double Blue. Officially, Sunter connected on 37-of-65 field goal attempts in his two seasons, and punted another 188 times for a 41-yard average. He was also one of the first in the new era of the soccer-style placekicker, an area that is now almost exclusively the territory of such stylists.

"Guys like Don Sweet, Gerry Organ and myself all came into the league at the same time, and we were all soccer-style guys," said the native of Scotland, who came to Canada with his family at age 15. "It was also the beginning of teams keeping a specialist around as a kicker. It used to always be that your field goal kicker was a second job for another player."

When Sunter decided to retire from football with the onset of the 1980's, he moved into sales for many companies. Finally frustrated with working for other people, Sunter decided to get into business himself, opening CWS Sports in Burlington seven years ago. The business is going strong and life is good for this one-time Tiger-Cat "toast of the town" and Argo Ancient Mariner, who lives in Burlington with his wife of 22 years, Karen, and kids Kelly and David.


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