In 1962, barely two years out of living in Cornwall, Moe Racine, number 62, the big guy from the mill city’s East End, found himself standing on a football field in Vancouver, listening to the roaring crowd, ready to kick for a goal in a national game. At that crucial moment, he remembered thinking, “I actually have to take this game seriously!”
He did take it seriously.
In his professional career (1958-1974) with the Ottawa Rough Riders, Moe Racine, a place kicker and offensive lineman, was part of four Grey Cup winning teams, a CFL East All Star 1962, 1965 and 1966, and holder of the team record for most games played, 213. His jersey, # 62, was retired by the Riders at his last game in 1974. And in 2014, Moe Racine was officially inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Thom Racine, Moe’s son, was at the South Dundas Historical Society meeting in Iroquois on Thursday, June 18, to discuss his new book, Moe the Toe: Never My Dream, a memoir of the player’s life on and off the football field.
A retired member of the Cornwall Police Force, an historian and author of Constable Davey – A Future Lost, himself an avid sportsman and sports fan, Thom Racine spent three years talking to his dad, writing notes and putting this memoir together. Along the way, Racine did extensive research into the history of the CFL and the great players who were often his father’s team mates and on-field rivals. An affable and knowledgeable man himself, Thom told stories and shared anecdotes from his new book.
“By grade six,” Racine said, “my dad, who was born in 1937, had grown into this ‘behemoth of a kid’ who was so good at sports that teachers kept holding him back from games so other kids could have a chance. He was one of six children, and his father, my grandfather, had the attitude that schooling was only important to a certain age, especially if the family needed money. I don’t think my grandfather understood football up to the day he died. It was my grandmother who insisted that Moe go to St. Lawrence High School. On his first day there, the phys. ed. teacher recruited him to play football. He didn’t know a thing about football. That was the start of a 22 year career in the game.”
Thom shared insights into his father’s career. From leading St. Lawrence to its third high school championship, to starting with the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1958 at a salary of $1,300, Moe Racine built a reputation as a determined kicker. “On October 8, 1962, with one second left on the clock, he kicked a 41 yard field goal in Montreal that won the game 26-24. That’s when he picked up the nickname, Moe the Toe.”
Thom brought that game winning ball, a # 62 jersey, a 1973 Grey Cup ball and other memorabilia to his presentation. He also talked a little of what it was like to grow up with a father who was often in the limelight. “Our mother kept us very aware that we were no different than anyone else, that we were just like other kids whatever our dad did.” However, Thom admitted to being secretly thrilled when his father appeared on a sports card in 1968 that also mentioned his family and all his children’s names.
Moe Racine once said, “I was blessed with pretty good physical ability, but it was heart that got me through.”
“Growing up a Milltown boy, Dad’s story is one of family, and of perseverance that culminates with the perfect timing of his being inducted into the Hall of Fame just as the book was ready to come out,” Thom Racine said. “When we were trying to think of a title for this memoir, we knew part of it would be Moe the Toe. We ran a lot of ideas by him, including a number of ‘dream’ themes. That’s when Dad exclaimed, ‘Football was never my dream! I didn’t even know what a football was.’ And I said, Dad, I think you have the title.”
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