GEARY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-10 published
The backroom brain of the Canadian Football League
For 37 years, he was 'Facts Fulton,' the head-office man who
made things work and who wrote the complex rules that govern
the Canadian Football League
By Dan RALPH,
Canadian
Press;
Globe and Mail files Wednesday,
December 10, 2003 - Page R5
For 16 years, former Canadian Football League commissioner Jake
GAUDAUR never relied on a computer to draw up the league's regular-season
schedule. Instead, he looked to Greg
FULTON to do it in his head.
"We used to run it [the Canadian Football League schedule] in
the computer for days," said Mr.
GAUDAUR, who served as league
commissioner from 1968 to 1983. "But in the final analysis, Greg
would always have it worked out in his mind."
Mr. FULTON, who spent 54 years with the Canadian Football League
as a player, statistician and historian, died in Toronto on Monday.
It was his 84th birthday. The cause of death was not provided
but he reportedly suffered a stroke last week that caused him
to fall into a coma from which he never emerged.
"He worked behind the scenes and received so little credit,"
Mr. GAUDAUR said. "There was no one in Canadian history who knew
as much about the league as Greg did."
Doug MITCHELL, who succeeded Mr.
GAUDAUR as Canadian Football
League commissioner in 1984, marvelled at Mr.
FULTON's ability
to draw up a Canadian Football League schedule.
"He did it on a sort of a blackboard," he recollected. "What
the computer kicked out invariably never worked but Greg's schedules
always did. It really was incredible."
Current
Canadian
Football League commissioner Tom
WRIGHT said
Mr. FULTON's passion and commitment were an inspiration. "While
he served our league with distinction and honour, he will best
be remembered for the warmth of his smile, the wit of his stories,
and the depth of his recollections."
Mr. FULTON, a Winnipeg native, moved to Calgary in 1930 and began
his career as a player with the Stampeders in 1939. During the
Second World War, he served with the Calgary Regiment of the
First Canadian Armoured Brigade and participated in the abortive
Dieppe raid on August 19, 1942.
Returning home in peacetime, he attended the University of Alberta
to get a bachelor of commerce degree and soon after found a job
with Revenue Canada.
So, how exactly did a Calgary tax man end up as one of the Canadian
Football League's most influential people? It started with a
love affair for facts and figures that first led to a part-time
job in Calgary as a statistician for the Stampeders. When Clark
DAVEY, who was later appointed to the Senate, was appointed in
1966 as the Canadian Football League's first full-time commissioner,
he lured Mr.
FULTON to Toronto.
Sen. DAVEY "made some quick enemies because he was outspoken
and the job wasn't really ready for him," Mr.
FULTON told former
Globe and Mail sportswriter Marty
YORK. So 54 days after he took
the job, much of which consisted of feuding with Canadian Football
League officials, Sen.
DAVEY resigned. Mr.
FULTON was kept on
under Mr. GAUDAUR,
Sen.
DAVEY's successor.
"Jake usually approaches me every day to ask me something," Mr.
FULTON once said in an interview. "A lot of the times, I think
he knows the answers to the questions he is asking, but I think
he might feel better if he hears something from me. I guess you
could call me his confidant, but there are times when I do mention
something that he has overlooked and that often can have an effect
on the league and the fans."
What was most important, wrote Marty
YORK in 1981, was Mr.
FULTON's
status as assistant commissioner -- a title he did not hold but
a role he filled seven days a week. A walking Canadian Football
League encyclopedia, he was soon nicknamed Facts Fulton. He was
also known as Jake
GAUDAUR's memory bank.
When Mr. GAUDAUR became commissioner, he delegated a number of
the commissioner's key duties to Mr.
FULTON who already administered
the pension funds and had the challenging task of drawing up
the Canadian Football League schedule. Consequently, the nine
Canadian Football League general managers became accountable
to Mr. FULTON.
He was authorized to issue orders, regulations and memoranda
to all club officials, including coaches and players. Also, he
was responsible for roster control, player personnel, registration
of all contracts, waiver procedures, negotiation lists and draft
lists.
"He did the work of three people but the last thing he wanted
to do was talk about it," Mr.
GAUDAUR said.
At the same time, however, Mr.
FULTON was a confessed nag. "I
wouldn't be doing my job if I wasn't," he once said.
Managers of Canadian Football League clubs across the country
sometimes came to dread the sound of the phone ringing. "He'll
bug you when he calls to remind you that you didn't do such-and-such
a thing," said Montreal Alouette general manager Bob
GEARY in
1981. "It gets on your nerves sometimes, but I guess if he didn't
do that kind of stuff, no one would, and we'd be suffering more
than we do."
Mr. FULTON was also something of a Canadian Football League policeman
who had to lay down league laws. At one time, Canadian Football
League clubs were strictly limited about who could attend training
camps. Under the terms of an agreement with the Canadian Football
League Players Association, clubs were allowed to conduct pre-training-camp
practices only for rookies, quarterbacks and veterans who had
surgery the previous year. Veterans were allowed to work out
on their own, but coaches were forbidden to order them to participate.
In a case in which the Argo felt they had good reason to start
camp early, Mr.
FULTON had to consult his regulations.
"I told them it was fine," he decreed. "As long as the veterans
were running around on their own."
Clubs that violated pre-training-camp rules by practicing with
veterans faced fines, he said.
All things considered, though, it was drawing up the schedule
that was Mr.
FULTON's most time-consuming job. It was also the
one for which he suffered the most criticism.
"I've never yet been able to satisfy everyone with the schedule,"
he said. "I'm convinced that that's impossible because of the
uniqueness of our league. We only have nine teams, which means
that one team has to sit out every week. Also, because some of
our clubs play in stadiums where baseball and soccer are played,
I have to work the schedule around that too."
In 1990, Mr.
FULTON received the first Commissioner's Award for
his contribution to football in Canada. Five years later, he
was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in the builder's
category. In 1995, he was named the honorary secretary-treasurer
and was active in head office as a consultant and historian until
his death.
Mr. FULTON, who was reappointed by the Canadian Football League
to his primary role about 10 times eight times, sometimes felt
guilty about his job because he puts it ahead of everything else
in his life.
"I've never been able to take an extended holiday," he said in
1981. "But I wouldn't change it for anything in the world...
I'm one of those rare people who actually enjoys his job."
To a sometimes troubled league, he was a godsend.
"Thank goodness we have a guy like him," Bob
GEARY told Marty
YORK. "I hate to think what would happen to us if he wasn't around."
Mr. FULTON leaves children Robert, Byrne and Rebecca. He was
predeceased by wife
Angela
BOMBARDIERI in 1990. Funeral details
are pending.
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