CFL legends Kapp, Mosca brawl on stage

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This article was published 27/11/2011 (5376 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — After five days of pre-game chatter, some of it inane, a little of it informative, the great Joe Kapp/Angelo Mosca dust-up landed a direct hit on the Grey Cup’s funnybone.

It was everywhere in Vancouver on Saturday — the impossible story of the two 73-year-old Hall of Famers, still harbouring grudges from the 1963 Grey Cup game, getting into it a punch-throwing, cane-swinging brawl on stage at a CFL alumni luncheon Friday.

The melee ended with Kapp, the iconic B.C. Lions quarterback of the early 1960s, knocking Mosca, the archetypal villain, through the curtains at the back of the stage after the former Hamilton Ticats defensive lineman (and pro wrestler) had cracked him over the head with his cane.

“Honestly, God bless both of them,” Lions head coach and GM Wally Buono said Saturday. “I thought Italians were tough, but Mexicans…”

Actually, Kapp’s from New Mexico but, you know, close enough.

News of the septuagenarian scrap even eclipsed Friday night’s double-overtime Vanier Cup thriller in which McMaster upset powerhouse Laval 41-38 — and the funnybone was still vibrating as this evening’s CFL championship opponents walked through their final practices at BC Place Stadium.

It was as if the football gods had sent down a double dose of relief from pre-game nerves by providing such an unbelievable anecdote that it rendered any serious discussion of Xs and Os sort of… well, humourless.

Mind you, some didn’t find the tale of the oldtimers duking it out at an event intended to raise money for needy former CFLers — a luncheon that had included bagpipes and an emotional tribute to fallen war veterans — to be terribly funny.

“Sad,” said Lions kicker Paul McCallum.

Others did.

“Is it hard to believe? Knowing Joe Kapp, that story didn’t surprise me a ton,” said quarterback Travis Lulay. “I don’t know Angelo Mosca, but I did have a chance to meet Joe, and you can see the fire’s still there.

“That speaks to the intensity of the game, and how much that memory will last. I thought that was a pretty cool story, to tell you the truth.”

Buono first disqualified himself from comment, since he didn’t see the fight, but added: “I will say one thing. That generation, I believe, is tremendously tough. Just after the war, what their fathers taught them, how they were raised, what the mentality was — we can’t comprehend it. So I think you’ve got to cut them a little bit of slack.

“I just don’t see those guys being all buddy-buddy before a game.

“Today it’s like…families welcome out there. So you know what? Not a big deal, let’s move on.”

Nearly 50 years later, the memory still burns in Joe Kapp.

Asked which Blue Bomber he could even imagine wanting to take a swing at, half a century from now, Travis Lulay demurred.

“Take a guess,” someone urged.

“Take a guess? I hope I can wrestle Buck (Pierce, the Winnipeg QB) some day,” he said.

As he walked out of the room, a reporter said: “Odell Willis?”

“I almost said it,” Lulay said.

Actually, he did.

The Grey Cup? Oh, yes.

If the mood was slightly lightened Saturday, that suits the Blue Bombers fine.

“I will say this: they play well when they’re having fun,” head coach Paul LaPolice said. “I need to get this team to be flying around as fast as possible.”

The Bombers’ team speed, especially on defence, may be the one element that is slightly unsettling to the Lions, who are favoured by a touchdown or thereabouts.

— Postmedia News