Mount Union borough

John Helton's Canadian football career, 1969 to 1982

John Helton, nicknamed Biggie, graduated from Captain Jack High School in Mount Union and played college football at Arizona State University. Buffalo took him with the 157th pick of the 1969 NFL/AFL draft, in the seventh round, but he signed with Calgary. A 2010 Stampeders profile points to the weather, the stronger Canadian dollar, and two Calgary players, Herm Harrison and Bob Lueck, who sold him on the city. In a 2018 article on the Canadian Football League's website, Helton gave another reason: in many American communities, he said, he would not have fared well as a Black man.

He played ten seasons for the Calgary Stampeders, from 1969 through 1978, starting at defensive end and moving to defensive tackle. He was on the team that beat Toronto 14 to 11 for the 1971 Grey Cup. The Canadian Football Hall of Fame lists the Schenley Award for Most Outstanding Lineman in 1972 and for Most Outstanding Defensive Player in 1974 among his honors.

A 2016 Blue Bombers profile says Calgary made him a low contract offer and then sent him to Winnipeg in a preseason deal. Winnipeg also got offensive lineman John Malinosky and gave up running back Richard Crump and defensive back Merv Walker. In that profile Helton said he had called Winnipeg's head coach, Ray Jauch, and told him he would come if they traded for him. He played four seasons for the Blue Bombers, from 1979 through 1982. The Blue Bombers' 2016 profile counts nine CFL All-Star selections across his career, the last two in 1979 and 1982.

The Hall of Fame credits him with 219 games over a 14-year period. CFLapedia's season table adds up to the same 219, while Pro Football Archives lists 14 games rather than 16 for 1971 and a total of 217. The Hall's own page places him in its class of 1986, while the Stampeders, the Blue Bombers, CFLapedia and Pro Football Archives give 1985 for his induction. He is also in the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, from 1993, and the Winnipeg Football Club's hall of fame, from 2016.

Checked against the record. We checked the story against the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Alberta Sports Hall of Fame profiles, Pro Football Archives, CFLapedia, the 1969 draft table, the Blue Bombers' 2016 profile, the Stampeders' 2010 and 2015 pieces and the Canadian Football League's 2018 article. The 1979 trade rests on the Blue Bombers' 2016 account and on Helton's own words, since we did not find a notice from 1979. The 1979 rosters fit it, with Helton and Malinosky at Winnipeg and Crump and Walker at Calgary. Pro Football Archives records the move as a release by Calgary in 1978 and a signing by Winnipeg in 1979. Still open: whether he played 14 or 16 games in 1971, which a game-by-game record would settle. In a 2015 Stampeders piece he recalled missing two games in 14 years, and that has not been squared with the season tables. The Hall, CFLapedia and the Blue Bombers name the 1972 lineman award, while the Alberta hall, Pro Football Archives and the 2015 piece name a defensive award. The Hall's own page and the other sources also differ on his induction year, 1986 and 1985. Sources disagree on his birth year and birthplace, so the story gives neither. We found no record of a Huntingdon County sports hall of fame selection, so none appears here.

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