Sports


you like, but nobody in the game does all the things Harris does as well as Harris does them. He is clearly the best runningback in the game. Tat


Andrew Harris – the best player in Canadian Football W


innipeg Blue Bombers 31-year-old runningback, Andrew Harris, is the best football player in Canada. I won’t even argue the point. Say anything


stands without argument. He is probably the best pass catcher among runningbacks and might be one of the Top 5 pass catchers, period. He is also an excellent blocker, likely the best blocker among CFL runningbacks today. He’s fear- less and in most cases, tougher than the people who want to tackle him. On Friday night at Investors


Scott Taylor


Group Field, Harris led the Bomb- ers in rushing, carrying 16 times for 82 yards and a touchdown. He also led the Bombers I receiving, catching four passes for 46 yards. Of that 46 yards, 41 came after he caught the football. Te Bombers had a total of 270 yards of offense in a 29-23 win over Hamilton and Andrew Harris had 128 of them. Whenever the Bombers needed a first down, especially late in the game, QB Matt Nichols gave the ball to Harris. And while the Bombers’ Nic


Demski, another Winnipegger, might have had his best game as


a pro with four yards rushing, 45 yards receiving, a touch- down and 134 yards on four kickoff returns, Harris had a ho-hum game (for him) and was the best player on the field – again. In fact, Harris leads the CFL in rushing with 720 yards in


121 carries in eight games. He’s 112 yards ahead of No. 2, Ottawa’s William Powell. Harris is 30th in receiving in the CFL with 31 catches for 254 yards. He’s seventh in Yards After Catch with 183. He has 974 all-purpose yards in eight games. Oh, and did we say that he also blocks. Andrew Harris is a football player. The consummate


football player. Although, he almost wasn’t. As a kid, and as the proud son of a wonderful single mom, Harris was a heck of a hockey player. “I always wanted to be a hockey player when I was young,”


he told me a few years ago. “When I was young, my heroes were Steve Yzerman and Paul Kariya. I loved the game and I still do today.” He must. In the off-season, Harris still plays hockey three


times a week with his buddies in the Adult Safe Hockey League at Canlan.


Winnipeg vs Toronto Argonauts during CFL action in Winnipeg on Thursday, July 13, 2017. Photo by Jeff Miller. So why didn’t he pursue the game? Even though teams


in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and the Western Hockey League had shown interest in the game, the cost of playing just became too prohibitive for Andrew and his mom. “Te fees, the equipment, the travel expenses, it was all


too much for my mom and I and I sometimes wonder how families can afford it today,” Harris said candidly. “I played at a time when Composite sticks were just coming out. I played with a wooden stick because composites were $100 at the time and that was just too much because I would go through a stick a week. When I looked around, I figured out that I was the only kid on the team with a wooden stick. “I used to wear this old bubblehead helmet, something from the 80s, and I used to get teased about it, but I took


it. Tat was just part of growing up. Still, it just got too expensive for us. I still think about what might have hap- pened if I’d stuck with it. Some of the kids I played with got to the AHL and NHL. But I don’t have any regrets. I found football and I lo Considering what Harris has done in his three seasons


in Winnipeg and in his remarkable eight-year career in the CFL, you can bet that Blue Bomber fans are quite pleased that he found football, found the programs at Grant Park High School and Oak Park High School and went out to B.C. to hone his craft. If the Winnipeg Blue Bombers win the Grey Cup, and


there is no reason to believe they can’t, then they’ll do it because Andrew Harris carried the football. Good thing hockey got way too expensive.


Bill Burfoot


peg, but all across Canada. And now Lyon is being recognized for his achievements with an induction into the Athletics Canada Hall of Fame. Lyon was inducted posthu-


M


mously in the builder category at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Toronto August 9th. Born in Winnipeg, Lyon was


Track champion enters Canadian Athletics Hall of Fame A list of Lyon’s achievements


anitoban David Lyon left his mark on athlet- ics not only in Winni-


Canadian contingent to the Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba in 1991. Lyon attended four separate Olympic Summer Games, managing the Track and Field Team in Los Angeles in 1984, Seoul in 1988, Barcelona in 1992 and Sydney in 2000. Te Seoul Olympics stands out for Sean. “I can still remember the


pride I felt writing in a diary project at school that my dad was at the Seoul Olympics when Ben Johnson won the 100m.” At the time, that moment was


David Lyon.


an athlete at Oklahoma Baptist University where he was the two-mile champion in the Oklahoma Athletic Conference and placed fourth at the United States National Cham- pionships in 1961. After injuries forced him to retire from


competition, he turned to coaching and managing. His passion for the sport and desire to help athletes reach their highest potential was what drove Lyon. In 1966, he founded the Winnipeg Razorbacks Track Club and was the Meet Director for the pro- vincial high school track and field champion- ship from 1966 to 1969. Lyon was also part of the organizing committee for both the 1967 and 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg. “My father's life was Track and Field”, says


David’s son Sean. “From the time he entered into Oklahoma Baptist University to only a few short years before his death, he lived and breathed track. If it wasn't a track meet we needed to help out with, it was saying good bye to him at the airport as he flew around the world heading the Canadian Track and Field team at countless events between the late 1960s and the 2000s.” Lyon would end up leading Canadian


teams in national competitions beginning at the World Cup trials in Mexico in 1977. Lyon served as the national team manager on many occasions since 1984 and led the


12 Manitoba Post


the most famous 100m final in the history of the Olympic


Games, but it quickly turned infamous when Johnson tested positive for steroids before ultimately getting stripped of his medal. Da- vid was the official who notified the coach of Johnson that the sprinter had tested positive for steroid use and would lose the Gold Medal in the 100 metre event. A high school teacher by profession, Lyon


impacted countless youth in their pursuit of academic and athletic excellence. He was involved in organizing and managing the provincial high school track and field championships for many years and viewed the school programs as vital link to encour- aging athletes to further pursue their track and field careers. He also worked and vol- unteered in various capacities with Athletics Manitoba both on the Board of Directors as well as Director of Athletics. In 1981, Lyon was recognized as the Vol-


unteer of the Decade for Track and Field and was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. “I can most definitely say that my dad posi-


tively affected the lives of many hundreds, if not thousands, of aspiring athletes through his time as a coach, the head of the Razorback Track and Field Club as a team manager, as a builder of the sport of track & field in Manitoba, and as an organizer of track & field meets/events in Manitoba.”


1. President & Chief Coach – Winnipeg Razorback Track Club (1966 – 1976)


2. Events Chairman (Track & Field) Pan Am Games (1967)


3. Head Coach and Administrator – Advanced Track Camp of the Royal Canadian Legion’s Athletics Camp (7 years)


4. Director – Track Camp of the Royal Canadian Legion Athletic Camp (3 years)


5. Coach – Canada vs USA Dual Meet (1972) 6. Coach – Canada vs USSR Indoor Dual (1973)


7. Coach – Canadian Team – Pacific Conference Games (1973)


8. Team Manager – Canadian Training Camp (Phoenix, AZ) (1974)


9. Manager and Coach – Canadian European Touring Team (1974)


10. Director – Canadian National Coaches Camp (1974)


11. Team Manager – Canadian Pre Olympic Track Team (1975)


12. Team Manager – CDN Team - World Cup Trials (Mexico) (1977) 13. Director – Legion Athletic Camp (1977 – 1988)


14. Team Manager – CDN Team – World Cross Country Championships (Scotland) (1978)


15. Assistant Team Manager – CDN Team – Com- monwealth Games (1978)


16. Meet Director – Norway vs Canada Dual Track Meet (1979)


17. Team Manager – CDN Mens Team – European Tour (England & Italy) (1979)


18. Team Manager – CDN Team – Pan Am Games (Puerto Rico) (1979)


19. Team Manager – CDN Team – World Student Games (Mexico) (1979)


20. Designated Team Manager – CDN Team – Moscow Olympics (1980 – boycotted by Canada)


21. Team Manager – CDN Team – Pacific Confer- ence Games (New Zealand) (1981)


22. Team Manager – CDN Team – World Univer- sity Games (Rumania) (1981) 23. Team Manager – CDN Team – Canadian Team


www.manitobapost.com


Meets (Celia, Jugoslavia and Milan & Venice, Italy) (1982)


24. Team Manager and Chef de Mission – CDN Team – Pan Am Games (Venezuela) (1983)


25. Head Manager – CDN Team – Los Angeles Olympic Games (1984)


26. Head Manager and Chef de Mission – CDN Team – World University Games (Kobe, Japan) (1985)


27. Head Manager – CDN Team – Common- wealth Games (Scotland) (1986)


28. Head Manager – CDN Team – World Indoor Championships (Rome) (1987)


29. Head Manager – CDN Team – Canada vs Italy (Cessinatico, Italy) (1988)


30. Head Manager – CDN Team – Seoul Olympic Games (1988)


31. Head Manager – CDN Team – matches against Northern Ireland, Wales, England and East Germany (1990)


32. Head Manager – CDN Team – Pan Am Games (Cuba) (1991)


33. Head Manager – CDN Team – Barcelona Olympic Games (1992)


34. Meet Chairman – Pan Am Junior Champion- ships (Winnipeg) (1993)


35. Head Manager – CDN Team – Common- wealth Games (Victoria) (1994)


36. Head Manager – CDN Team – World Champi- onships (Sweden) (1995)


37. Head Manager – CDN Team – World Champi- onships (Greece) (1997)


38. Events Chairman (Track & Field) – Pan Am Games (Winnipeg) (1999)


39. Head Manager – CDN Team – Sydney Olym- pics (2000)


Manitoba Awards for National Team Participation (1974 – 2000)


Outstanding Young Manitoban (1975) Volunteer of the Decade (Track & Field) (1981) Member – Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (1991) Volunteer of the Year – Athletics Manitoba (1993)


September 2018


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