Regina Leader Post
November 28, 1966. p.1
By Mel Hinds, Staff Reporter
The Grey Cup champions returned to Regina Sunday night to be greeted by boisterous pandemonium unequaled, some said, by even the great celebrations here on V-E Day.
Regina celebrations began seconds after the final gun at Empire Stadium in Vancouver Saturday when shouts and cheers could be heard outside in any city neighborhood and car horns sounded a din throughout the city.
The feeling built to a great crescendo until it finally erupted from the throats of from 6,000 to 8,000 persons Sunday night when the Grey Cup was carried into the Regina Armory. The cup belonged to Saskatchewan for the first time in history.
Some of the crowd there had been waiting for more than three hours for the Saskatchewan Roughriders who arrived at 9:30 p.m. At least two hours before that, the fans were packed back-to-stomach and shoulder-to-shoulder on every available inch of the 20,000-square-foot Armory auditorium.
At least six persons fainted from the heat and closeness of the hall, and the St. John Ambulance brigade reported they treated 12 others, who were just plain weak from the crush or sick to the stomach.
But despite the long wait and the rigors of standing jam-packed, there was nothing wrong with the throat of the crowd.
Mighty cheers shook the Armory roof when the Grey Cup was carried in, when coach Eagle Keys was the first to step up to the mike and then again when quarterback Ron Lancaster, and other favorite players stepped up.
After an initial thunderous ovation, which lasted nearly three minutes, coach Keys introduced the players and other officials, adding a word of individual praise for each.
He looked out over the sea of faces and such signs as, "We love yah," "We got it this time," "The East plays lousy football" and "Eagle Keys for Mayor." The coach warned anyone still without a season ticket for next year to get one as soon as possible "because we're going to be playing some exciting football."
After the introductions and short speeches by Premier Thatcher and Mayor Baker, the crowd began to chant for their favorite players to speak.
First to be demanded by the chants was Ron Lancaster who said, "The only thing I can tell you is what you said all year: We had them all the way."
Next to be called were George Reed, Hugh Campbell, Ed Buchanan and Ron Atchinson. Atchinson said, "Ever since I've been here, we've had great fans. This year we had a great team."
Then came the popular veteran lineman Reg Whitehouse, who may have played his last big game Saturday. He hefted the Grey Cup aloft and said that while, "this is the greatest moment of my life, all I want to do now is get home to sleep because I've been partying it up pretty good all night."
When Premier Thatcher stepped up to speak, the crowd made it evident with a sustained chorus of boos that it had come to hear football players, not dignitaries.
The crowd was relatively quiet for a while as he launched his short address, but there was another round of boos when he said the Roughriders were the underdogs from the start of the season.
But the boos changed to cheers when he described how the team had brought glory and honor to Saskatchewan. Premier Thatcher announced the province will sponsor a dinner, sometime within a month, for the Roughriders and the Regina Rams, Canadian junior football champions.
Mayor Henry Baker fared better than the premier. He was greeted by a long cheer and the crowd listened to him much more patiently as he extolled the virtues of the Saskatchewan football club.
By this time the crowd had started to leave and it dispersed gradually, making the movement of traffic out of the area much easier than had been expected earlier in the evening.
The crowd at the Armory was orderly and there was little sign of over-indulgence. However, there were a lot of bloodshot eyes on display, and even with the noise and uproar, many who had obviously celebrated hard and long the previous night were unable to contain huge yawns.
People starting arriving at the Armory as early at 6 p.m. and by shortly after 7 p.m. the place was jammed. At 7:30 p.m., almost as many people were leaving, unable to stand the press of the crowd, as were arriving.
Those trying to get out and those trying to get in created such a crush at the main door, it was closed at about 8 p.m. Corner doors were opened for a few minutes to allow a few feet of space in the corners of the hall to be filled up, and it didn't take long.
Hundreds were turned away and many came and left, making it impossible to count the total number of persons who showed up to cheer their champions. Estimates as to the number of people in the building at any one time ranged from 6,000 to 8,000.
Throughout the long wait, rock and roll and western bands played and radio personalities kept the crowd practicing chants and songs.
When a band struck up a polka, a few couples tried to dance but they gave up quickly when they could manage to do little but jump up and down on each other's toes.
There were attempts to get snake dances started, but there just wasn't enough room. Several young men carrying girls on their shoulders tried to charge through the crowd to the stage with a large silver paper cup but never made more than a few feet of progress.
Rolls of toilet paper and paper toweling were snaked about the room, there was a large drum and even the bugle player who seems inevitable in football crowds.
Sgt. Russell Obuck of the St. John Ambulance Brigade said it was the worst crowd he had ever seen in Regina, from the standpoint of numbers crammed in to one place.
The situation was difficult because "everyone was packed so closely together in a hot room filled with smoke and most of them had their coats on."
He said the brigade had not been officially invited to attend the function, but that it was fortunate some members decided to come anyway because they were called on to treat the 18 persons.
Regina celebrations began immediately Saturday after the Grey Cup victory to demonstrate why it has often been called the football craziest city in Canada.
Many celebrating fans jumped into their cars and headed for the downtown area where small groups of merrymakers could be seen dancing spontaneously in the streets, although none of the dancing was of a prolonged duration.
Convertible tops were put down and some passengers got out to ride on car fenders. One motorists said to took him 30 minutes to drive from Albert Street to Broad Street on 11th Avenue.
At least one beer parlor closed at 9:30 p.m., 90 minutes early, because, "we were afraid of a riot."
Liquor stores were crowded after the game, and at one a group of fans formed a ring and danced around a policeman, singing, "Who won the Grey Cup, who won the Grey Cup?"
Christmas lights were up and turned on in many residential sections, and from the air it must have looked like St. Nick himself was being guided in. Citizens had been asked to turn on Christmas and other lights in an effort to make the city look as attractive as possible when the team arrived by air.
City police officials said the downtown scene Saturday night "was like an enormous New Year's Eve."
