Edmonton football players celebrate winning their fourth Grey Cup in a row after defeating the Ottawa Rough Riders in Montreal on Nov. 22, 1981. From the left: Hector Pothier, Eric Upton, Ted Milian, Leo Blanchard and Bill Stevenson.CP
Eric Upton spent the early part of his working life knocking people on their backsides.
As an offensive guard in football, it was Mr. Upton’s chore to protect his quarterback by blocking defensive players. He also opened paths for his team’s running backs by blocking – and sometimes bowling over – opponents.
Mr. Upton, who has died at 71, was a stalwart member of the Edmonton Eskimos (now Elks) dynasty that won five consecutive Grey Cup championships.
His successful professional career came after he fractured his pelvis in an accident and doctors told him he would never play football again.
Eric Thomas Upton was born in Ottawa on April 29, 1953, to the former Jean Daisy Cornford and Joseph Clarence Upton. His father, a graduate of the University of Toronto, had been a paratrooper during the Second World War before playing five seasons as a guard for the Ottawa Rough Riders.
By about the age of 9, young Eric became determined to follow his father by playing pro football. He dreamed of winning a Grey Cup championship, an achievement that eluded his father.
While attending Confederation High in Ottawa, he starred on the football team, winning best lineman honours at a camp sponsored by the Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League. Mr. Upton also proved to be a husky force on the basketball court, leading Confederation to several victories.
Mr. Upton spent the 1971 season with the Ottawa Sooners of the senior Ontario Rugby Football Union, before accepting a full scholarship at the University of Colorado after being recruited by former Montreal Alouettes head coach O. Kay Dalton.
He was one of six Canadians on the Colorado Buffaloes, including future Rough Riders tackle Jeff Turcotte and defensive back Larry Uteck, who would play for four different Canadian Football League teams before embarking on a successful career as head coach of the St. Mary’s Huskies in Halifax.
The demands of the American school’s football program barely left time for academics and made any other extracurricular activities impossible.
“I hated it,” Mr. Upton once told the Edmonton Journal. “It was an all-year thing in Colorado. And I was too young to be so serious.”
Eric Upton pours champagne from the Grey Cup after defeating the Montreal Alouettes at Olympic Stadium in Montreal on Nov. 25, 1979.Paul Wodehouse
The day after defeating the Oklahoma Sooners 20-14 in a game aired on ABC in October, 1972, Mr. Upton joined some of his teammates in racing downhill in tire inner tubes. Disaster struck when Mr. Upton’s tire hit a boulder.
“We went to the mountains and it was getting late in the day and the track was icy,” he told the Ottawa Citizen in 1978, and went on to describe how he lost control of his tube when it hit the ice. “It went directly for some rocks to the side at about 45 miles per hour [about 72 km/h].
“Following the injury, the doctors told me I would never be strong enough to play football again.”
He spent eight months recovering from a pelvis broken in three places. He also suffered internal injuries, as well as a concussion.
Mr. Upton returned to Canada to attend classes at the University of Ottawa, where he graduated with an honours degree in physical education. He helped the Gee-Gees win the 1975 College Bowl (now Vanier Cup) national championship in his senior year to complete an undefeated, 11-0 season. The guard was overlooked by the hometown Rough Riders in the CFL draft. “They never really looked at me,” he once said. “They thought I was a quitter.” Edmonton grabbed him at the end of the second round, No. 18 overall.
He was placed on a taxi squad, which meant he could practice with the team but not play. “In some ways it was depressing, but I knew I wasn’t ready to start, and it was nice just to make it,” he said. He was later activated and took part on special teams in exhibition games.
At 6-foot-3, 245-pounds, he soon wedged his way onto Edmonton’s starting roster as a left guard after Roger Scales sprained an ankle at training camp in 1977. Mr. Upton was named a Western Division all-star in 1979, and was named the team’s offensive captain in 1981.
Mr. Upton made his Grey Cup debut in 1977 before a record crowd of 68,318 spectators at Olympic Stadium in Montreal in a game remembered as the Ice Bowl. The hometown Alouettes prevailed by 41-6, some of the players later insisting they had an advantage after stapling the bottom of their cleats for better traction on the icy field. For his part, Mr. Upton felt he had not had success against Montreal’s Glen (Fuzzy Fuzzmore) Weir, who was named defensive player of the game after twice sacking Edmonton’s quarterback, as well as making two fumble recoveries.
The pair faced off again in the Grey Cup a year later, when Mr. Upton better protected quarterback Tom Wilkinson from the likes of Mr. Weir in a 20-13 victory in Toronto.
“This is it. This is a dream,” a tired but exuberant Mr. Upton said in the locker room after the game. “Talk about never forgetting something. This is all I ever wanted.”
Edmonton also won the next four consecutive Grey Cups, a Green-and-Gold dynasty unmatched in CFL history.
Mr. Upton spent 10 seasons in Edmonton, including a final campaign when he was recovering from knee surgery and chronic bursitis in a heel that made even walking difficult.
After retiring from the sport following the 1985 season, he spent 14 years as regional sales manager for the CBC in Edmonton and Calgary, before becoming sales director for the Edmonton Oilers in 2000.
In 2012, he was hired to be director of advancement in what is now the faculty of kinesiology, sport and recreation at the University of Alberta with responsibility for raising funds to support research.
He was inducted onto the Nepean Sports Wall of Fame in 1986.
Mr. Upton died on May 23. He leaves his wife, Nancy, as well as a son, a daughter, two grandchildren and a brother.
After his death, the Elks placed a black circle containing his uniform number of 57 in the end zone at Commonwealth Stadium.
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