Vegas baby, Vegas! With the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights unveiling their inaugural uniforms last night and making their expansion draft picks later this evening, we remember the BC Lions’ brief history in that region.
Both jerseys that we will wear in our inaugural season. #VGKFirstJersey pic.twitter.com/NYj3zDQmdZ
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) June 21, 2017
Contrary to popular belief, the Golden Knights are not the first pro sports franchise to set up shop in Sin City. Who can forget the CFL’s Las Vegas Posse? They joined the league in 1994 along with the Baltimore CFL Colts (later Stallions), and Shreveport Pirates, one year after the Sacramento Gold Miners and one year before the Memphis Mad Dogs and Birmingham Barracudas.
The Gold Miners became the San Antonio Texans in that final year of ill-fated entry into the US. Like all other American franchises, the Posse was not required to dress a quota of Canadians.
“I always took pride in beating those teams, because there was always that belief Canadian football couldn’t hold a candle to the US,” said Leos’ director of community relations and former offensive lineman Jamie Taras.
A quick history lesson on the Posse: their head coach was Ron Meyer, who had success at Southern Methodist University and also ran the New England Patriots. The starting QB was a kid out of Utah State named Anthony Calvillo (pictured above), who wound up being pro football’s all-time leader in passing yards. Without the Posse, would we have ever heard from him? And who can forget their opening game when lounge singer Dennis KC Parks performed O Canada in the form of O Christmas Tree?
We all know Taras and the Lions wrote a magical Grey Cup story in 1994, but very few remember that year opened with a 47-12 loss to the Posse in pre-season play at BC Place. Side note: this writer only remembers because he was given tickets as a reward for passing a science test. He was in grade four.
The regular season brought some better memories as they swept the two-game series with Calvillo and company, winning 39-16 in Vegas on August 20th and crushing the Posse 45-7 at BC Place on October 29th. Taras has vivid memories of the summer trip to Nevada.
“I think it was 105 degrees at kickoff and people kept telling us not to worry because it was a ‘dry heat.’ We went to Memphis the next year and it was only 85 degrees,” explained Taras with a laugh.
“Most of our wives decided they were making the trip, of course, they weren’t making it to Saskatchewan, right? We stayed at the Flamingo, right in the middle of the strip,” recalled Taras.
“We had our own regular routine and the wives were doing their own thing. Mine, Giulio Caravatta’s and Mike Trevethan’s were all hanging out together. At one point I saw my wife and she tells me she ‘lost her shirt.’ So I start to ask her what happened and she says she lost 40 dollars in a slot machine. I just said ‘that’s my girl!’ It was an exciting time for everybody.”
The game itself brought about even more quirky memories. Sam Boyd Stadium had to be “configured” for the CFL game. The end zones were not the correct dimensions and because the stands were essentially right out of bounds, the front had to be padded so players would not get injured when they made a catch or ventured out of play.
Taras also recalls the Posse taking some liberties on a significant member of their squad.
“Jeff Reinebold was their special teams coach and he had a reputation for putting bounties on guys,” said Taras.
“During the game, they laid a cheap shot on Lui Passaglia, one of our oldest and most revered players. He was knocked out of the game and that created some tension between the two teams. I remember Ian Sinclair was mimicking Reinebold riding a Harley. To this day Reinebold denies he ever put a bounty on Passaglia.”
The Posse is now just a footnote in league history. There were whispers of relocation to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Jackson, Mississippi, but the franchise ended up folding after that 5-13 season.
“I don’t know that Vegas had the same following as some of the other (US Expansion) spots,” said Taras.
“Sacramento and Baltimore both had a strong following. I think in Vegas they were trying to figure out 
what the CFL was and they were the first pro franchise to ever play in the city. That excited them and I think people viewed it as something to do. I remember the players on that team saying how much of a gong show it was, practicing in the parking lot and cashing their cheques at the casino.
It was certainly a wild and weird experiment, but for us it was a chance to venture into the United States and showcase our game.”
By all accounts, the new hockey franchise has a beautiful facility and no parking lot practices will be required. Best of luck to the Golden Knights and a personal shout out to the great job they have done with social media and marketing. Perhaps our free agent camp in Las Vegas next year will coincide with a home game at T-Mobile Arena.
Aftermath of the Posse
If the CFL experiment accomplished anything, it provided an appetite to purs
ue pro football on a long-term basis. The late Bob Ackles was the General Manager of the XFL’s Las Vegas Outlaws in 2001, one year before he returned to the Lions as President. They were also famous for Rod Smart who had “He Hate Me” as his personalized jersey. Coincidentally, Smart is also the brother of Lions’ return specialist Chris Rainey.
The Outlaws was also name to one of three Arena Football League franchises in Vegas. They also had the Sting and the Gladiators. The Las Vegas Locomotives set up shop in the ill-fated UFL and were coached by former New York Giants headman Jim Fassel.
And finally, you may have heard the Oakland Raiders are scheduled to move there in 2020 with a $1.9 billion dollar world-class stadium to be built just off the strip in Paradise, Nevada.
Matt Baker: mbaker@bclions.com