Year of the Rocket: John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a Crooked Tycoon and the Craziest Season in Football History

by Paul Woods

The century-old Toronto Argonauts, like the rest of the Canadian Football League, seemed to be in shambles in 1991. Then everything
changed. The Argos were acquired by an unlikely the greatest
hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky; a universally beloved comic
genius, John Candy; and an upstart sports magnate, Bruce McNall, whose
apparent Midas touch masked dark secrets. They audaciously swiped from
the NFL the most-hyped college athlete in years, Rocket Ismail, by
signing him to the richest football contract ever, and set their sights
on a league championship. Candy's friend Dan Aykroyd summoned the Blues
Brothers band to fly in from Europe and perform, along with Candy, Jim
Belushi, and Mariel Hemingway, at the Rocket's first game. And the
season only got crazier from there... Year of the Rocket is the untold saga of one of the greatest gambles in sports history, and one of the most unforgettable seasons on
any gridiron, brought to life by a veteran sportswriter who combines
meticulous research with the perspective and passion of a lifelong fan.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction, History, Canada

233 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2021

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a college football star signs with another professional league that is not the NFL, it usually makes big news. This was the case in 1991 when Notre Dame star Raghib "Rocket" Ismail signed with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). This book by Paul Woods is a very good account of that 1991 season for the Argonauts, which would not have happened without two other famous celebrities with ties to the team.

Those celebrities were Wayne Gretzky and John Candy, who along with Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall (who was Gretzky's owner at the time as he was a player on the Kings) purchased the floundering CFL and promised to make the team better. Their first step was to sign Ismail. This was done not only to make the Argonauts better but also to bring much more exposure to the league and eventually expand it to the United States.

Some of those goals were accomplished, thanks to the generous cash flow of McNall. Not only was Ismail's contract much higher than the limit on salaries placed on CFL TEAMS, but there were also other incentives such as $100 bonuses paid to Argonaut players. That season, thanks to not only Ismail, whose main contributions were exciting kick returns (the description of his return touchdown in the 1991 Grey Cup championship game is my favorite writing in the book about action on the field) but also a dominant offense led Toronto to the championship.

What also makes this book quite good is that Woods did NOT limit the book to being about the Rocket, McNall, Gretzky and Candy. Many players and coaches on that Argonauts team have nice write-ups and for those who want to get a good picture of what the state of the CFL was at that time, this book does that as well. American readers may not be familiar with all the names, but will still enjoy this book about a championship team that took an entire nation by storm.

I wish to thank Sutherland House for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book. an important companion to ed willes' end zones and border wars, of which this forms a small but important early section. there, willes rushes forward to get to his own source material - namely, founding CFL franchises in US cities - and leans heavily on the testimony of CFL commish larry smith and various players and coaches associated with those teams. here, woods deals with a shorter span of time - four years, at most, but mainly the '91 season in which the rocket led the argonauts to the cup - in even greater detail, interviewing then-owner bruce mcnall and a good number of the surviving players from the team (but not co-owner wayne gretzky or raghib ismail). on the whole, it's a better-written book than willes', letting what humor there is come from the quotes and anecdotes rather than an endless string of arrested development-style narrative "kickers." it's straight journalism done well, and fans of well-executed sports books about niche topics (especially those with loads of primary source work, such as interviews, oral histories, etc.) will appreciate this one (and should read willes' book too, since it goes into greater detail about the aftermath and salvation of the league via TSN and eventually streaming). i hope more CFL books of this caliber drop in the near future, since there's just not a great deal of good work on the league.

[Holly McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that makes me wish I had been old enough in 1991 to fully appreciate the Argos and what John Candy brought to my favourite sports league

[Erich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Year of the Rocket. Author Paul Woods captures all of the details, whether it is play-by-play of the penultimate games, the feelings and quirks of the football players, the egos of coaches or the strange behavior of owners, it is all here in a vivid recollection of the 1991 CFL season focused specifically on the Toronto Argonauts. Like any good author, Woods sets the reader up with a strong background on the league, team and ownership.

The CFL at the time was in dire straits financially. It only had one TV partner which made for a less-than-savory contract. Additionally, fan attendance was really down in the 1980s. The Argos were among the better positioned teams in the league in terms of attendance, but they faced difficulties with the NFL being broadcast on Canadian televisions and a ton of cultural attractions in Toronto.

Bob O'Billovich coached the team to their first Grey Cup title in 1983, but the team struggled to match that subsequently. He was dismissed after the 1989 season in favor of the brash Don Matthews. Matthews was able to find underutilized players to construct an incredibly exciting offense.

After a season under Matthews, the team changed ownership, which leads to the meat of the book. When the team found itself owned by Wayne Gretzky, John Candy, & mysterious business tycoon Bruce McNall, the team generated a ton of buzz and led to an unforgettable 1991 season. I loved the detail that McNall popularized the idea that having Hollywood celebrities watching a team would increase the team's popularity tenfold. We see it still today with Jay-Z and Beyonce attending the Staples Center and now Barclays Center. Suddenly, the Nets went from a snooze to one of the bestselling teams in the NBA led by Kevin Durant.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this to sports fans and even those interested in Canadian popular culture, in marketing & business, and in general history.

[Christopher Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Subtitled: John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a Crooked Tycoon, and the Craziest Season in Football History

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I was in my early 30s when Notre Dame’s Raghib ‘Rocket’ Ismail shunned the NFL to sign a monster contract with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). While he only fulfilled two of the four years of that contract, Ismail’s time in Toronto turned out to be way more entertaining than I remembered.


Just prior to Ismail’s signing with the team, the Toronto franchise had been sold to an ownership group that included actor/comedian John Candy, hockey great Wayne Gretzky, and business tycoon Bruce McNall – at that time, the owner of the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. The Argonaut braintrust gambled that Ismail’s high profile combined with the star power of Candy and Gretzky would not only enhance the fortunes of the Toronto franchise, but also lift the entire CFL out of the economic problems it had been experiencing. I leave it to you to read the book if you want to know the rest of the story.

I gave Year of the Rocket five stars on Goodreads. Even though I’ve never been a huge fan of the CFL, there were enough familiar names to keep me interested. The CFL always seemed to have more ‘characters’ than most sports leagues, so this was a really entertaining read.

[Thomas Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depending what kind of sports nut or nerd you might be you maybe aware that there is an Canadian Football League. I remember watching CFL games on cable in the 1980's. This story follows one of nine teams in the CFL, the Toronto Argonauts. It does go in to some history of both the team and the league and when the owner of the LA Kings hockey team was looking for a new sports adventure and jumped in with other ship that include Wayne Gretzky maybe hockey's all time great and actor and comedian John Candy with both being Canadian heros. This along with making the major splash of signing Raghib "The Rocket" Ismail away from the NFL where he was projected to be the number 1 pick. It was going cost some serious money though but they figured this would bring new life to the CFL and possibility of expansion. The money they paid him was equal to what the rest of the team made in salary. This was an interesting read along with a little humor at times. Give it a read to see how it turns out.

[Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that book was quite an adventure!! The 1991 Toronto Argonauts were owned by a trio of celebrities: famous Canadian actor and comedian John Candy, supposed sports guru Bruce McNall, and hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky. Not only did they try to bring more of a Hollywood flair to the team, they also brought in projected number 1 NFL pick: Rocket Ismail.

Although the 1991 team did win the Grey Cup (the CFL’s version of the Superbowl), it came at a cost. Rocket Ismail was paid more than all other teams. He became the highest paid football player, North or South of the border. This immediately put the Argos in a hole moving forward. Then it turned out that Bruce McNall was a crook. He committed fraud over a multitude of years, and eventually was convicted and spent time in jail.

The heartwarming part of this story comes from the passion that John Candy had for the Toronto Argos. He loved the team to no end, and did everything in his power to promote them, and the CFL as a whole.

[Al Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Candy is dead, Bruce McNall is in Jail and Wayne Gretzky is in St. Louis


An okay book (writing is often disjointed and the author jumps around a little too much for my liking) that goes into a good amount of depth and info on the three amigos buying the Toronto Argonauts and paying Rocket Ismail even more money per year than what Gretzky was making for the Kings. (Circumventing the salary cap)

The author even tracks down who actually threw the beer can at Rocket on his crucial kickoff return, it is a interesting book on a unique part of sports history, and the conclusion that comes out the most is that John Candy really loved the team, the book could have just been better written.

[Adrian]

Chronicles the year 1991 when McNall, Gretzky and Candy bought the Toronto Argonauts and paid big coin to lure Raghib Ismail north. Woods has impressive contacts and a nice turn of phrase and for the most part tells his story well. Might be some hyperbole calling 1991 the craziest season. Best chapters are on Rocket Ismail's total inability to fill role which the three amigos had cast him for. Candy is a bright light throughout. He was totally committed to job unlike Gretzky and McNall who lost interest in project. Argos won the Cup that year but then the facade collapsed as McNall's empire crumbled behind the fraud it was based on.

[Allen Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the world of gridiron football, the NFL reigns supreme. The league has become an entertainment behemoth, a multibillion-dollar monolith that is the closest thing to monoculture that North America experiences anymore.

But to the north, there is another football league with a storied history of its own.

The Canadian Football League has been around for a long time too – decades longer than its more prominent neighbor to the south – though it has never developed the same sort of all-encompassing hold on the general population. As the NFL exploded in popularity in the 1970s and into the ‘80s, the CFL – once an entity on more-or-less equal footing with its counterpart – began losing ground.

But in the early ‘90s, thanks to a bizarre confluence of timing and circumstance and a handful of bold and ill-conceived choices, a celebrated college star headed north and the CFL briefly found itself the talk of the sports world.

“Year of the Rocket: When John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, and a Crooked Tycoon Pulled Off the Craziest Season in Football History” by Paul Woods is the story of that moment, where a trio of celebrated owners took control of one of the CFL’s most storied franchises and used their combined clout and cash to convince Notre Dame’s Raghib “Rocket” Ismail, one of college football’s biggest stars, to sign with them.

Woods goes deep into the situation, documenting the struggles that came from dealing with the sky-high expectations across the board; on the field and off, behind the scenes and in front of the world, these were circumstances unlike any ever experienced by the CFL. It was a whole new world – some of it good, some of it bad, all of it compelling.

1991 was shaping up to be a rough year for the CFL. The venerable football league was in a financial tailspin, with every team in the league dealing with some degree of economic hardship. Even the league’s flagship organization, the Toronto Argonauts, was in danger of succumbing to these harsh realities.

And then – it all changed.

A new ownership group took command of the Argos, including two of the most iconic Canadians of the day. There was John Candy, the beloved comedian and Toronto native who was a lifelong fan of the Argonauts, and there was Wayne Gretzky, the Great One, the consensus best hockey player of all time. Tough to find a pair that would be more engaging to a Canadian crowd. The third member of the trio was Bruce McNall, a rare coin and antiquities magnate who also owned the NHL’s L.A. Kings.

Suddenly, there was a new excitement surrounding the league. Still, there’s only so much buzz that can be generated by an ownership group. Ultimately, it comes down to the players on the field … but this threesome had a plan for that.

And so it was that Raghib Ismail, better known as “The Rocket,” – Notre Dame star, Heisman Trophy runner-up and one of the most hyped college football players ever – wound up the subject of a bidding war, one that found the Argonauts making him the highest-paid player in the history of football before he’d ever played a professional down.

But as it turned out, while there was room for short-term success, there was an underlying reality to the situation that would leave almost everyone involved dealing with some degree of disappointment. And while this period was relatively short in chronological terms, the impact from the situation would reverberate through the league for many years afterward.

As someone with a well-documented fondness for the CFL, “Year of the Rocket” was always going to hit right with me. Doubly so considering that in 1991, I – while not yet enamored of the gridiron of the Great White North – was only just ascending into general sports fandom and was rather fascinated by Rocket Ismail. This is a story I remember in the moment, though only the initial splash – the aftermath was something that I never knew.

Until now.

Woods has written a remarkably thorough deconstruction of the turbulent chaos that was the early-90s CFL. It is an eminently readable time capsule, a breakdown of the unique set of circumstances that led to such a wild ride – some of it on the field and so much more of it off. He handles so many aspects of the situation with deft delicacy. There was the massive pressure on Ismail to live up to the terms of his contract, both as a player and as a league ambassador. There was the genuine passion of Candy, who completely and utterly adored his time as an owner; his was a very real love of the game. There was the general shiftiness surrounding McNall – shiftiness whose depths would become apparent in the years that would follow. All of the ownership stuff – particularly anything involving Candy, who comes off as a combination of CFL Pied Piper and Dionysian saint.

Oh, and in the middle of all of it, an Argonauts team surrounded by a publicity circus the likes of which the league had never seen was trying to win a Grey Cup.

Well-reported and engaging, “Year of the Rocket” captures a moment in time unlike any in the history of any sports league – Canadian or otherwise. It brings together many of the main players, delving into their memories of a stretch that – however briefly – changed the landscape of professional athletics.

For fans of the CFL – or of sports in general – “Year of the Rocket” provides a concise and comprehensive account of one of the weirdest moments in pro sports, a time when a single massive splash produced ripples that expand outward to this day.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew that the McNall ownership of the Argos would be a disaster in the end. Fake Hollywood glitz. Sad to see John Candy pass away soon after everything fell apart. The one who really cared. Woods does a good job here detailing the rise and fall of this version of the team.

The Grey Cup game of 1991 was portrayed very well. After a season of high octane offence and Hollywood overkill, the Argonauts won the Grey Cup in 30 below conditions in Winnipeg. They won the old fashioned way, with smash mouth football. As for Rocket Ismail, good riddance. Pinball Clemons was always The Guy.

[Dave Cottenie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely fascinating dissertation of one of the most interesting eras in sports history. Bruce McNall, Wayne Gretzky and John Candy’s ownership of the Toronto Argonauts is legendary. Thankfully, the story did not focus on Rocket Ismail as much as I expected it would, and maybe there was a better title. As an aside, an entire chapter devoted to finding out who threw the can of beer at Ismail was utterly brilliant.

[Mike Forestell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great recap of the history of the Toronto Argonauts prior to the 1991 season and the arrival of Bruce McNall. Excellent in depth look at the Rocket and his time with the Argos and that magical 1991 Grey Cup Season as well how the wheels fell off over the 1992 and 1993 seasons. Great look at how passionate John Candy was about the CFL and the Argos even when the financial losses started mounting.

[Andrew Garvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, and hugely entertaining deep dive into the Toronto Argonauts' 1994 season with the audacious takeover by a conman and Canada's most beloved actor AND its most revered sports star, as well as the now-unthinkable outbidding of the NFL for professional the contract of Notre Dame superstar Raghib Rocket' Ismail, this a tremendous book about sport and the business of sport. Loved and devoured it in three days.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great recap of the 1991 Grey Cup-winning Toronto Argonauts. I remember this era very well, and it was nice to be taken back to that year. Woods does a good job covering all the different personalities involved in the team, and I was especially interested to find out why the 1992 team was unable to come close to what the '91 team did. A fascinating book, well-researched and well-written.

[Calvin Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sadly not a lot of books out on CFL, but this one is excellent :)

[Philip Benmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

great football book that gathers all the emotion of that crazy season

[Gordon McCallum · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love John candy

[Randall Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent insight into the running of the Argonauts and their late 80s early 90s and how difficult it is to run a sports franchise especially when the owner was a con man.