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Friday, October 29, 1999
Jamie Bone (1975-78)
As Western's career leader in passing, Bone completed 326 of 522 passes for 5,503 yards,
1,000 yards more than runner-up Andy Rossitt. Other strong stats include a 59.1 completion
percentage and 39 touchdown passes as compared to just 27 interceptions. While Bone won an
arsenal of individual honours, including the Hec Crighton award as the country's top
player in his final season, 1978, he also led the Mustangs to two national championships
in his four seasons. He was at his best in the 1977 final against Acadia, throwing four
touchdown passes and completing 80 per cent of his passes in the Mustangs' 48-15 victory.
After a brief fling with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, Bone rejoined the Mustangs as an
assistant coach till 1988.
Frank Cosentino (1956-59)
Cosentino is a Mustang great on two levels, in the 1950s as a quarterback and in the '70s
as head coach of a rejuvenated Western football program. As a player, Cosey's greatest
feat was leading the Mustangs to the Canadian championship, the first such national final,
in 1959. He was captain that season, a year in which the Mustangs went undefeated in eight
games, culminating in a 34-7 victory over the B.C. Thunderbirds. Cosentino's next stop was
the CFL, where he played 10 seasons. He returned to Western in 1970 and endeared himself
to a whole new generation of Mustang football fans. The 1960s had been lean years for
Western, the tactics staid and ineffective. Cosentino set out to restore the glory of the
1940s and '50s and in 1971, just his second season as head coach, led the Mustangs to the
Vanier Cup. He did it again in 1974 before moving on to York University to be closer to
his family.
Scott Crawley (1995-99)
Crawley, in his fifth season, has given Mustang fans a lot of big moments the last couple
of seasons, but none bigger than his 87-yard touchdown scamper -- part of his 240 yards on
the day -- in Western's 47-41 win over the Waterloo Warriors in last year's Yates Cup
game. In 11 games last season, the six-foot, 217-pound tailback rushed for 1,455 yards.
Like running mate Fabian Rayne, Crawley has picked up this season where he left off. He
leads the Mustangs with nine touchdowns and 741 yards on 116 carries, an average of 6.4
yards a carry. He has two TD receptions among his five catches for 42 yards this season.
Don Getty (1952-54)
The play Getty is most remembered for is a pass he threw to halfback Murray Henderson that
gave the Mustangs the 1953 Senior Intercollegiate championship. With the ball at Toronto
Blues' 51-yard line and the Mustangs trailing 8-7 in the final minute, Getty, a London
Beck grad, hit Henderson at the Blues' 10. Henderson, who died recently in Burlington,
took it from there, slipping away from a Blues defender who had caught him by the heel and
diving into the end zone. Getty went on to play 10 seasons with the CFL's Edmonton
Eskimos. Later politics beckoned the Western business grad. He was first elected to the
Alberta legislature in 1967, served as provincial minister of intergovernmental affairs
from 1971-'75 and energy minister in '75. Getty left politics for private business later
that year. He stayed away till 1985, when he took over as leader of the Alberta Tories.
Getty was the province's Premier from 1985-'93.
Joe Krol (1939-41)
Krol began his football career at Kennedy collegiate in Windsor and with Western's
intermediate Colts before moving on to the Mustangs, where he starred for three seasons.
The 1939 Mustangs, Krol's first season, went 8-0 and won the Yates Cup. Krol's final two
years with the Mustangs were seriously abbreviated because of the Second World War, but
Krol was well on the way to building his reputation as a swivel-hipped triple threat. In
fact, even at age 19, Krol was called the greatest running halfback in Canadian football.
Krol turned pro in 1942, won his first Grey Cup with the Hamilton Wildcats in 1943 and
went on to win five more with the Toronto Argonauts before hanging up his cleats in 1953.
By the end, the press was routinely referring to Krol as Canada's Mr. Football, a fitting
monicker for man who won the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete in 1946. He was
named to the CFL's Hall of Fame in 1963.
Blake Marshall (1984-86)
Being Greg's younger brother, Blake had big shoes to fill when he came to Western. And he
did, leaving the Mustangs in 1986 as Western's career rushing leader. He's since been
passed by Sean Reade (2,905 yards) and Tim Tindale (2,554), but Marshall finished with
1,971 yards on 259 carries -- 7.6 yards a pop. His best season was 1986, when the bruising
fullback ran 116 times for 986 yards (8.6 a carry) and nine touchdowns. Marshall capped
'86 by winning the Hec Crighton award as the top football player in the CIAU, but the
season ended in heartbreak when UBC wrenched the Vanier Cup away with a touchdown with
four seconds remaining. While with the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos, Marshall was a two-time
Grey Cup winner, three-time Western Conference all-star and set an Eskimos' record by
scoring 20 TDs in 1991. A persistent neck injury forced him to retire after the '93
season.
Greg Marshall (1978-81)
It hardly seemed possible three years ago that Greg Marshall would shed the purple he'd
worn for 17 seasons, four brilliant years as a star fullback and 13 as an assistant coach,
for McMaster maroon. But since 1997, Marshall has been at the centre of a blossoming
Marauders program that is becoming an arch-rival of the Mustangs Marshall so typified:
intense, hardworking and punishing. You wouldn't expect anything less of Marshall. As a
player, he ran for 1,918 yards ( 7.3 a carry) and scored 23 touchdowns. His best season
was 1980 when he won the Hec Crighton as the outstanding player in the country after
running for 913 yards on 110 carries, 8.3 a pop, and scoring nine TDs. Marshall was
drafted by the Edmonton Eskimos in the 1982 CFL draft, only to have a promising pro career
cut short by knee injuries.
Bob McFarlane (1946-50)
While his football statistics have largely gone missing, there's one thing on Bob
McFarlane's resum that stands out above all others -- Western's athlete of the century.
The honour was bestowed upon McFarlane, a longtime London plastic surgeon, in 1978 during
the university's W Club (men's athletic hall of fame) centennary dinner in honour of
Western's 100-year anniversary. Along with football, McFarlane excelled in track and field
and hockey. A member, along with his brother Don, of Canada's Olympic track team for the
1948 Olympic Games, McFarlane held a number of Canadian records, including the 300 yards,
400 metres, 440 and 880 yards and relay teams in the 440 yards, mile and mile medleys. On
the football field, McFarlane was as shifty as they come, relying on his great speed to
get him outside and around the corner.
Michael O'Brien (1996-)
As athletic as any player in years at Western, O'Brien is a multiple threat as a runner,
passer and kicker. O'Brien makes the transition from quarterback to punter as smoothly as
anyone could. O'Brien, in his fourth season, leads the CIAU in punting with an average of
46.7 yards, up from last year's OUA-leading average of 41.6. His other numbers aren't
shabby either. He began the season eighth on Western's career passing yardage list at
2,182 and with this year's production -- 72 of 134 for 1,157 yards -- he's climbed to No.
5.
Fabian Rayne (1996-)
Rayne, a five-foot-11, 220-pound fullback, established himself as one of the best running
backs in the CIAU last season, rushing for 1,107 yards on 146 carries, 7.6 yards a pop.
His 22 touchdowns are the most in a season by a Western player. He added another 151 yards
on 11 carries in Western's 33-17 loss to the Saskatchewan Huskies in last year's Churchill
Bowl. Rayne's tear continues this year. In seven games, he's scored eight touchdowns and
piled up 661 yards on 95 carries (7.0 average) -- and that includes the York game in which
Rayne gained just nine yards on four attempts. So how does he get it done? A 400-pound
bench press to go along with 4.7 (seconds) speed in the 40-yard dash is a good place to
start.
Sean Reade (1992-95)
No question, Tim Tindale was the guy who carried the mail for the Mustangs in the early
years of the 1990s. Then along came Sean Reade, picking up where Tindale left off. Using
his blinding speed an great ability to shift and cut, Reade left Western following the '96
season with more touchdowns than any other Mustang in history -- 37, three more than
Tindale, the runner-up. He's also the leader in career yards, with 2,905 over five seasons
(7.6-yard average). Reade was an all-Canadian in both 1994 and '95, both years in which
the Mustangs went to the Vanier Cup. They split, winning a 50-40 overtime thriller in '94;
losing 54-24 in to the Calgary Dinos the next year. A key to Calgary's success was holding
Reade to 81 yards on 21 carries, pretty good production for most running backs.
Tim Tindale (1990-93)
A Londoner, Tindale is the only Mustang to have twice (1991 and ' 93) won the Hec Crighton
award as the outstanding player in Canadian university football. The feat is remarkable in
that Tindale, a punishing runner with blinding speed, played only four seasons and missed
most of 1992 with a broken leg. He's the second leading rusher in Western history, gaining
2,554 on 323 carries, 7.9 yards a carry. And how's this for a year's production: 1,208
yards, the most ever by a Western running back in a single season, on 130 carries
(9.3-yard average) and 17 touchdowns. Drafted by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1993, Tindale
chose the NFL route where he played four seasons for the Buffalo Bills before being traded
to the Chicago. Like Marshall, knee injuries cut short his pro days.
Tyrone Williams (1988-91)
Few who saw Elegant 18, Williams's jersey number, play will ever forget Williams, a
perfect blend of size and speed at wide receiver. At six-foot-five and with a time of 4.6
seconds for the 40 yards, Williams was able to beat defenders by either outrunning or
outjumping them, or both. Williams is Western's career leader in receptions with 102 and
yards with 2,078, an average of 20.4 yards a catch. He held the single season marks as
well -- 27 catches for 592 yards (21.9 average) till Dan Disley's splendid 1998 season
shattered both records. Disley had 30 receptions in '98 for 695 yards (23.4 average).
Williams, an all-Canadian in 1990 and '91, was never better than during the 1989 Vanier
Cup, a 35-10 Mustang victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies. That day in front of 32,877
spectators at SkyDome, Williams had five catches for 157 yards and a touchdown, winning
the Ted Morris Trophy as the game's outstanding player. Williams was drafted by the
Calgary Stampeders in 1992, but chose the NFL instead where he won two Super Bowl rings
with the Dallas Cowboys.