Vicki Hall is a big proponent of football imitating life.
As a Postmedia columnist, she often wrote about that in her coverage of the Canadian Football League, including stories centring on the Calgary Stampeders and the then-Edmonton Eskimos.
And it was at the forefront of the Calgarian’s thank-you Tuesday to the Stampeders for their informal presentation of a Canadian Football Hall of Fame plaque awarded to the decorated journalist at McMahon Stadium.
“Yeah … people who liked my writing and people who didn’t would tell you that I did a lot of football-is-life-kind-of analogy,” said the 51-year-old Hall, who became the first woman inducted into the hall’s media wing. “That was something that I did and sometimes pressed it too much.
“But a year ago, it was just a regular September day, and I went for a routine ultrasound, and by the end of the day, they told me that I had an eight-centimetre tumour and it was ovarian, and so it didn’t look great,” continued Hall. “And I remember thinking how our A.J., my son, and I going to do this alone. We’re alone. We live in Calgary, and we’re alone. Don’t have family here. We’re alone.
“And what I soon realized is that we weren’t alone. We weren’t alone at all — that life is a team sport.”
The ensuing surgery to help right her health came in the days ahead of her induction into the hall of fame, keeping her from being on-site in Hamilton for the November ceremony at the annual Football Reporters of Canada Grey Cup breakfast.
Her absence prompted the Stampeders to step up for a proper honouring of Hall a year later.
“When I met her, the one thing that stood out — first and foremost — was her knowledge of the game,” said Stampeders GM/head coach Dave Dickenson. “And that was certainly a different time back then. But this lady knew what she was talking about, and her passion for football, you could definitely see came through in the forefront.
“I really like Vicki, and I think she’s awesome,” continued Dickenson, a fellow Canadian football hall-of-famer himself. “She’s always treated me fairly — some articles maybe she wrote them differently than others. She’s an outstanding journalist and a person who deserves the recognition and is also a great person.”
Hall, a journalism and communications graduate of the University of Regina, spent 16 years covering CFL’s Alberta teams for first the Edmonton Journal, and then the Calgary Herald.
She’s worked for CBC and cfl.ca, covering the CFL as well, and was the first female president of the FRC.
These days she’s teaching journalism at SAIT in Calgary.
She’s also thinking about life, as she’s prone to do.
“A good friend of the football community, Ted Wyman, passed away this weekend,” said Hall, of the longtime Winnipeg Sun and Postmedia journalist. “I’m really thinking about him today.
“One of the things he used to say to me was, ‘Vicky, I can’t believe that they pay us to do this.’ And he’s right — I can’t believe that they paid us to do that and for me to do that. It’s just such an honour.”
In a way, it’s football and life coming together — again — for Hall.
All of it reminds Hall that she’s had a team looking out for her over the years.
“People from Calgary, my friends, people from my son’s school, SuperHEROS hockey program, my family at SAIT … they all came when I needed them,” said Hall, recalling last year’s health scare. “We had food dropped at our door. A.J. was driven to practice when I couldn’t and was stuck on the couch.
“I realized that we aren’t alone and that I was completely wrong and that it is a team sport and maybe I had the team with me all along. I just didn’t realize it, and that’s what’s important.
“So today, I’m just really glad to have so many members of our team here,” added Hall. “And I’m thinking of my team in the CFL — all those beat reporters who were my family on the road. We weren’t alone then either, and we aren’t alone now.
“So thanks for this.”
Thank you, Vicki.