When you know, you know.
It didn’t take long for former Town of Okotoks councillor Ray Watrin to realize his fourth stop in the Canadian Football League was destined for greatness.
“It’s funny you have a feeling sometimes when you go to a team,” said Watrin. “I said to myself and told some of the players, ‘We’re going to go to the Grey Cup.’”
Those words ahead of the 1974 season would prove prescient.
Watrin, 79, and members of the 1974 Montreal Alouettes reunited last month in Quebec to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their Grey Cup championship over Edmonton.
Watrin, an offensive guard, went on to win two Grey Cups, the other during the infamous Ice Bowl at Olympic Stadium in 1977. He played in five finals, all of which featured Montreal and Edmonton, as part of a 12-year professional career.
The 1974 team — featuring the likes of Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers, star quarterback Sonny Wade, defensive lineman Junior Ah You, linebacker Wally Buono, runningback Rudy Florio, receiver Skip Eamon, kicker Don Sweet and headed up by legendary coach Marv Levy — was a special group.
“They were just good players,” Watrin said. “Johnny Rodgers, he was a really fast player, he used to run in backwards after he caught it for a touchdown, some people didn’t like that, but we loved it.”
In the 1974 Grey Cup, its 62nd iteration, Montreal outlasted Edmonton 20-7 amid wet and slippery conditions at Vancouver’s Empire Stadium.
“We knew Edmonton was a good team, but our defensive line, they got in and got to the quarterback in the first half,” Watrin said. “They were shuffling quarterbacks in and we just had a good game. It was really wet, people were sliding around all game.
“Marv Levy was pretty smart. He had a player named Larry Sherrer, he was a really quick and fast runningback, and he just kept him on the injured list and Edmonton didn’t know anything about him.”
The post-game celebrations are fond memories for Watrin, from drinking out of the Cup, to watching one of the victors hold their baby in it on the plane ride home prior to the victory parade.
“It was unbelievable,” he said.
The reunion, held during Montreal and Edmonton’s Aug. 25 contest, brought back a number of key figures from the championship, including Wade, Watrin, Eamon, Buono, Ah You, Florio, Phil Price, Larry Smith, Barry Randall, Ed George, Peter Dalla Riva, Ian Mofford and Art Edgson.
“I felt I could go into a team and practice with them and have a really good feeling about them,” he said. “I wasn’t that surprised we won in ’74.
“It was just neat to be with some of these guys you really know well. It brought us right back.”
Watrin added it was a first-class reunion put together by the team and his visit wouldn't have been possible without his sons Kevin and Kel accompanying him in Montreal, both of whom got a kick out of being around the Alouettes legends.
Retrouvailles entre légendes ! Soyez avec nous ce soir au stade pour les honorer comme il se doit ! 🎟️ : https://t.co/2ZxyAxCVmj
— X - Alouettes de Montréal (@MTLAlouettes) August 25, 2024
Meet the legends! Come join us at the stadium to honour the 1974 Alouettes! #Alouettes Match présenté par Labatt 50. pic.twitter.com/zQ6MiFfzVN
Levy, who at 99 years of age was represented at the reunion by family members, and his coaching staff set the team up for success.
“When we went back home, Marv Levy called me into his office and said, ‘Ray, you’re just getting into your prime,’” Watrin recalled. “And after hearing previous coaches say that I was too old and too slow, you can imagine what that did to me.”
Watrin started his career as a defensive lineman with the Calgary Stampeders and played with the B.C. Lions and 4.5 seasons with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
He made the switch to offensive line late in his Winnipeg tenure, joining an Alouettes team in 1974 that went on to feature in five of the next six Grey Cups.
There was a couple of common denominators for those Als teams.
“We got along well together,” he said. “That’s what I saw with Montreal when I got there. And it had a lot to do with Marv Levy, he was a tremendous coach and gathered really good coaches around him.”
Watrin enjoyed the best period of his career in his later years, playing in four of five Grey Cups in his 30s. In 1979, his final season in Montreal before playing with Ottawa in 1980, the Okotokian was awarded the Leo Dandurand Trophy as the CFL East Division’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.
Growing up on a farm between High River and Okotoks, Watrin followed his older brother Duane into junior football before landing an opportunity to play at Utah State.
Prior to his time on Okotoks council, Watrin helped establish the high school football program at Foothills Composite where he coached for 23 years and was a math and physical education teacher.
Watrin was part of the inaugural class inducted into the Okotoks Wall of Fame in 2013.
Football, like rodeo and stunt work before it, runs in the family.
Watrin’s two sons played at the post-secondary level with his grandson Nolan a freshman quarterback/defensive back for the UBC Thunderbirds.
