Angelo Mosca obit

 

Former CFL star, pro wrestler Angelo Mosca dies at 84

 He was not on the list.

Angelo Mosca was a legend on the football field North of the border and in the professional wrestling ring.

The five-time Grey Cup champion and Canadian Football died Saturday after long battle with Alzheimer’s.

Per his wife, Helen:

    It is with great sadness that the family of Angelo Mosca announce his passing . . . after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s. Angelo was a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather as well as friend to so many.”

Mosca was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s shortly after his 78th birthday in 2015.

Sportsnet.ca offered a look into his colorful and sometimes controversial career.

    A five-time all-star, Mosca appeared in nine Grey Cup games but gained national notoriety for his vicious hit on Fleming in the ’63 contest. Fleming took the ball on a pitchout and was running to his right. He had been tackled just inside the sidelines and was lying on his stomach when Mosca came flying over top the Lions’ player. Fleming took a minute before rolling over and appearing visibly stunned. No penalty was called on the play but many _ including then Lions quarterback Kapp – felt Mosca’s hit was not only late but dirty.

    With Fleming no longer able to play, Hamilton went on to win the Grey Cup 21-10 and further enhance Mosca’s reputation as the CFL’s meanest player, something he later promoted during his pro wrestling days as bad boy “King Kong” Mosca.

    Kapp never shook Mosca’s hand following the ’63 Grey Cup. But he and the Lions gained some revenge by downing Mosca and the Ticats 34-24 in the ’64 title game at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium for the B.C. club’s first-ever CFL championship.

Years later, there was an incident between Mosca and Kapp that went viral.

Mosca attended the University of Notre Dame and was drafted by the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles in 1959 in the 30th round (350th overall). He had already decided to play in the CFL, in 1958 for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was traded to the Ottawa Rough Riders for Hardiman Cureton on August 15, 1960, and played for the Rough Riders in 1960 and 1961 before joining the Montreal Alouettes in 1962 for 5 games. He played his remaining years, 1962 to 1972 in Hamilton. He was a five-time all star.

Mosca played in nine Grey Cup games, more than any other player in CFL history, tied with his teammate John Barrow. Mosca's teams won five Grey Cup games, one with the Ottawa Rough Riders and four with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He is infamous for the 51st Grey Cup game out-of-bounds and late hit on BC Lions star running back Willie Fleming. With Fleming out of the game, the Tiger-Cats went on to win the Grey Cup and Mosca's reputation as being the meanest CFL player grew. It was a reputation he later promoted as the notorious professional wrestler "King Kong" Mosca.

On August 25, 2015, the Tiger-Cats announced that they would retire Mosca's jersey number 68. This is only the second jersey number the club has retired, the other being Hall of Fame quarterback Bernie Faloney's number 10.

Mosca was brought into wrestling by Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn. He began wrestling in the off-season, and became a full-time wrestler after his retirement from football. He wrestled all across North America, always at or near the top of the card, and almost always as a heel, even in Toronto until the late 1970s, then he became a face, and in the early 1980s, the lead face. He often used a sleeper as his finisher in later years.

In 1981 in the World Wrestling Federation, Mosca wrestled as (often – in a reversal of his character in Canada) as the promotion's most hated heel due to his brutal style. He became a top challenger to WWF Champion Bob Backlund's World Championship, but was not successful in winning the belt. He also engaged in a feud with Pat Patterson, a part-time wrestler who also did color commentary on the WWF's syndicated programs, after Mosca attacked Patterson at a television taping with a water pitcher; Patterson had grown disgusted with Mosca's rulebreaking tactics and, setting off the attack, publicly thanked a referee for disqualifying Mosca for refusing to pin his jobber opponent.