Courtesy Regina Leader Post:

Back in 2000, there was a great celebration in the Ottawa sports community billed as “No. 70 turns 70.”

True Ottawa sports fans took one look at the tickets and knew immediately who was being honoured. They didn’t have to see a name.

And the only place big enough to accommodate the fans, the supporters, the friends and, most importantly, his loud, booming voice were the salons of the Civic Centre, just a short Tom O’Malley pass from the field on which Ottawa Rough Riders superstar Bobby Simpson achieved greatness.

On and off the field, Simpson, best remembered as one of the game’s great offensive threats, was larger than life.

However, Wednesday morning, shortly before the breakfast hour, No. 70 went quietly at an Ottawa hospital. His wife, Mary, was at his side. Simpson was five months short of his 78th birthday.

If Simpson wasn’t the greatest Rough Rider of all time, he was definitely top 10, and he was certainly the loudest.

“His booming voice was just one of his many ways of announcing his presence,” said Riders alumnus Ted Smale, a proud Simpson teammate from 1956-62. “Yes, he was loud.

“Bobby, along with Kaye Vaughan, were our captains. Leading by example, as well as letting you know when you did right or wrong, were characteristics of both of them.

“But I learned a lot about sports and a lot about life from Bobby. Just being around him at the Belle Claire (Hotel) with owner Sam Koffman was always worth the price of a beer. The stories and them playing off each other brought tears of laughter.”

Some people measure greatness by induction into one Hall of Fame. Simpson was inducted into three: the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1976, along with the Greater Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Windsor-Essex Sports Hall of Fame the very same year.

His football exploits were legendary, but Simpson was also an outstanding basketball player.

He played on two provincial championship basketball teams in high school before joining the famed Tillsonburg Livingstons in 1952, under legendary coach Gerry Livingston, of Smiths Falls, Ont.

The Livingstons won a Canadian championship over Winnipeg, then beat the university-champion Western Mustangs for the right to travel to Helsinki to represent Canada in the Olympics.

But football made him famous, and there was no player quite like him.

Simpson arrived in Ottawa in 1950 after a year with the Windsor Rockets in the Ontario Rugby Football Union.

He almost immediately took the league by storm.

He was so good that early in his career he turned down offers to play with the NFL’s New York Giants because the money was nowhere near as good as in Canada. In today’s game, football would have made Simpson a rich man.

Instead, he was a man rich in memories and life.

Simpson was all parts character.

He could be loud. He could be off-colour. He was politically incorrect before it was even a term. He could make you laugh one moment and cringe the next. He was never short on an opinion.

And for all that, he is best remembered for just one play: the infamous sleeper play. It happened during the 1960 Grey Cup game in Toronto when Simpson faked going off the field, then caught a long pass that led to a Riders score and win. The play was outlawed soon after.

But fans never forgot. And Simpson never forgot.

Smale arrived in Ottawa from the University of Toronto in 1956 and was an end, both on offence and defence, putting him in the mix to compete against Simpson for playing time.

“I was ‘the rookie’ to him,” said Smale. “The last time I talked to him in hospital (Saturday), I was still the rookie. But the voice was now very quiet. Today it is stilled.

“We very much appreciate the way his family shared him with us and the rest of the community.”

He is survived by his wife, daughters Lynn and Mary Leigh, sons Rob, Gary and Mark, and seven grandchildren.

His funeral is Saturday morning in Ottawa.