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LOUISIANA LEGENDS

TOM HINTON: OL MADE FANS TAKE NOTICE
Tuesday, June 21, 2005 By Marty Mulé
Staff writer
Tom Hinton was jarred by the voice on the other end of the phone line telling him he was the object of television announcers' analysis.

There isn't very much media coverage of the Canadian Football League, but for a while, some games were televised.

Hinton got a phone call right after one such game. "The guy on the other end was telling me how much the announcers were talking about me," Hinton said. "I couldn't understand. Why would they be talking about me, an interior offensive lineman? Nobody watches us, or even knows what we're doing."

"They said you were holding," came the answer.

"Isn't that typical," Hinton reflected almost 40 years after the fact. "The only time an offensive lineman gets noticed is when he's flagged for holding."

That's not entirely true. Somebody noticed Hinton, who was a five-time CFL All-Star while blocking for quarterback Joe Kapp as the British Columbia Lions made two consecutive Grey Cup appearances, the CFL championship game, in the 1960s. Somebody noticed Hinton enough for him to be inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame, one of two Louisiana athletes so honored.

And somebody noticed Hinton, a native of Ruston, enough for him to gain admittance into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, into which he'll be inducted Saturday in Natchitoches.

"It's hard to believe that I'll be placed in a Hall where such athletes as Terry Bradshaw, Billy Cannon and John David Crow are honored," Hinton said.

Not so hard. He spent a lifetime in the company of Louisiana football legends. Hinton played on a state championship team in 1951 at Ruston High under the late L.J. "Hoss" Garrett, a member of the Hall, and he played on a Gulf States Conference championship team in 1956 at Louisiana Tech under the late Joe Aillet, a member of the Hall.

Even Hinton's journey to Canada was encouraged by a couple of football men in British Columbia, one being Abner Wimbley, who tried to recruit Hinton to LSU and was a Lions camp coach, and a volunteer for the Lions, Y.A. Tittle, a member of the Hall in Natchitoches.

Under Garrett, Hinton was a high school All-American on teams that lost twice in three seasons; under Aillet he was a three-time unanimous All-GSC pick and the league's Athlete of the Year. Drafted by the NFL's Cardinals after the 1957 season, Hinton took the advice of Wimbly and signed with British Columbia.

Why? Money.

"The NFL didn't pay a lot in those days," he said, "and the Canadian dollar was worth more than the American dollar, so I went where I could earn the most."

That illustrates how much the sporting world has changed. So does Hinton, who went to the pros at 6 feet, 232 pounds -- a size that made him the largest man on the South squad and the third largest in the '57 Blue-Gray Game. "Today I might be a linebacker, or even a cornerback," Hinton joked.

Kapp said don't be fooled, Hinton was an excellent offensive lineman. "I tell you this, he was as good an offensive lineman who ever played the game," said Kapp, who will present Hinton on Saturday. "He had size, speed and intelligence. I don't care what league you're talking about, the CFL, the NFL or whatever, Tom would be outstanding."

Jim Taylor of Vancouver, a former sports writer who covered British Columbia at the time and who wrote books and stories on the CFL, concurred. "He was a technician," Taylor said. "He wasn't the biggest, probably not the strongest, but he certainly was one of the smartest and quickest, and he played guard like he had been born to it."

In his first season in 1958, Hinton was the Lions' Rookie of the Year. In his second season, he was chosen the Outstanding Lineman and the Outstanding Player of the CFL.

Between 1958 and 1966, Hinton was a major part of Lions history. British Columbia reached the Grey Cup for the first time. It was a thrill, and noteworthy. But British Columbia lost 21-10 to the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

The next year was even more exciting. This time the Lions beat Hamilton, 34-24.

After two more years, at age 29, Hinton decided it was time to move on. After his last season, in 1966, Hinton was voted the most popular Lion by British Columbia fans.

Somebody noticed him then, too.