The 1960 Tiger-Cats’ dismal 4-10 record was the only time in the franchise’s first 18 years that they posted a losing record, and the only season that they finished last in the four-team CFL East in their first 23 years.
But it was one of the most significant seasons in Ticat history because it formed the bridge of first dynastic team consisting of Bernie Custis, Vince Scott and Co., and the core group which, with Winnipeg, dominated the 1960s.
And 1960 was the year that brought future legend Garney Henley to town, just after he’d set the all-time US college record for career points-scored at tiny Huron College and had been the last-day cut of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers.
Knowing they needed new blood on the team, the Tiger-Cats had already begun building for the future with young stars like Angelo Mosca (who was still only 23 in 1960), John Barrow (25) and Bronco Nagurski Jr. (22) and in 1960 added Ellison Kelly (25), Frank Cosentino (23), and Henley and brought back Don Sutherin (25) from the NFL.
They were set. For a looong time.
At legendary Packer coach Vince Lombardi’s suggestion, Tiger-Cats head coach Jim Trimble called Henley when Green Bay released him and brought him north. By the time he arrived, the Ticats had played four games, all losses, and Trimble couldn’t believe the slight, bespectacled—a childhood disease had nearly killed Henley and left him requiring glasses—young man was a football star. He thought he was there for the track team which also trained at Civic Stadium. One legend has it that assistant coach Ralph Sazio was told to give him a quick workout and then send Henley on his way, but once Sazio saw Henley run at several different speeds, he was invited to stay and soon became a starter at defensive halfback. He was the fastest player on the team, and probably the league.
On Friday night it was announced that Henley’s No. 26 would be retired at the home opener next season. Only Angelo Mosca and Bernie Faloney have had their numbers retired.
Henley was quiet and unassuming off the field but stunningly fast and hard-hitting on it, with a vertical leap of a much taller man, courtesy of his basketball prowess (he’d been the best high school player of his era in South Dakota and also dominated at college).
Trimble nicknamed him Clark Kent, for his transition from mild-mannered to superhero when he crossed the sidelines. Garry Inskeep, who played on the 1972 Grey Cup team with him said Henley was a superstar who didn’t want to be a superstar, “which is what made him a great team player.”
And there was no better team player. In an era when many players played on both sides of the ball, Henley was the best at it.
The late Mike Blum said in the biography Garney Henley: A Gentleman and a Tiger, that Henley was, “like having a coach right on the field.”
That spoke to Henley’s versatility, commitment to education and his long history of studying what every player on both sides of the field was supposed to do on every single play. It led to long successful careers in education, business, administration and coaching.
When Henley arrived in Hamilton, playing defensive halfback in his first game as a Ticat he was beaten deep by superstar Dave Mann of the Argos, and in the next game had to cover the uncoverable Hal Patterson. Eventually, they were teammates with the Ticats for seven years and of all the great two-way players of the CFL’s first 20 years—Mann, Jackie Parker, Marv Luster, Ernie Pitts, Oscar Kruger, Larry Highbaugh, Dick Thornton, Rollie Miles and Jerry Keeling—only Patterson had the same kind of ridiculous versatile stats as his future teammate.
Henley wanted to play more offence but was moved to that side of the ball full time only in 1972 and that year, as a receiver, made his 10th straight CFL all-star team, after nine consecutive all-league awards at defensive back, and was named the league’s Most Outstanding Player.
In his 16-year CFL career, all with the Ticats, he had 59 interceptions and 56 total touchdowns. Of those touchdowns, five came on interception returns, two were on fumble returns, six were rushes and 42 on pass receptions. He had sprinter’s speed and a second gear in the open field, so his average yardage per catch was just under 20. He returned punts in a time when there was no blocking, held the ball for converts, blocked for running backs and even punted a couple of times. He caught passes from, among others, Wally Gabler, Joe Zuger, Chuck Ealey, and Frank Cosentino.
And it’s no surprise that Costentino, another education-oriented professorial type, were roommates for their seven years together.
Henley grew up in tiny Hayti, and when his high school, which had an enrolment of under 100 students won the South Dakota State title, the joke was that the motorcade to welcome them back to town had no spectators because everyone was in the parade. The first football game he ever saw, he was playing in.
Henley played in seven Grey Cups and won seven, and in one of the losses—the famous Fog Bowl—he was the best player on the field. When a special panel of 12 CFL observers from across the country chose the all-Grey Cup team of the 1960s, Henley was the only unanimous choice.
And everyone liked him. No matter what storms blew around him and the Ticats, he was an oasis of calm.
