About Ron Lancaster
Ronald Lancaster was an American-Canadian professional football player and coach in the Canadian Football League (CFL). As the starting quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders for 16 seasons, he led the team to its first Grey Cup championship in 1966 and is the franchise's all-time leader in passing yards, attempts, completions, touchdowns, and interceptions. At the time of his retirement, he was the CFL's career leader in passing yards and still ranks sixth overall as of 2016. After his retirement as a player, he served as a head coach and general manager in the CFL; he led his teams to two Grey Cups and currently ranks fourth all-time with 142 regular season wins. He was also a colour commentator on the CFL on CBC from 1981 to 1990. At the time of his death, he was the Senior Director of Football Operations of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1982), Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1985) and the Wittenberg University Athletic Hall of Honour (1985). He attended tiny Wittenberg University and led its team to a 25-8-1 record between 1956 and 1959, and two Ohio Athletic Conference championships in 1957 and 1958. In 1963 Lancaster's playing rights were sold to the Saskatchewan Roughriders for $500 with the stipulation that if Saskatchewan ever wanted to trade him, Ottawa would have the first right of refusal. During that period, Saskatchewan played for the Grey Cup five times (1966, 1967, 1969, 1972, and 1976) and won it once, in 1966, when they defeated Lancaster's former team, the Ottawa Rough Riders, 29–14. In Lancaster's career with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, he won 170 games as quarterback, and had only one losing record, 4–11–1 in 1978, his last season as a player.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.