It wasn’t pretty, but it was Canadian Football League history.
The B.C. Lions beat the Toronto Argonauts 23-17 Saturday at B.C. Place Stadium to give their head coach Wally Buono the all-time league record for coaching wins.
The Lions’ fifth win of 2009 was the 232nd in Buono’s career, which is one more than Don Matthews. Matthews, who started his head coaching career in B.C. in 1983, was among the 27,515 fans at the game and congratulated Buono.
Inconsistent B.C. improved to 5-6 with only one touchdown, a one-yard rush by Martell Mallett in the first quarter. Kicker Sean Whyte accounted for the rest of B.C. scoring with five field goals in six tries and a convert. The 3-8 Argos managed a rushing touchdown and took advantage of a a Whyte fumble to score another.
Italy-born Buono grew up in Montreal and was a linebacker for the Alouettes. He coached 1990 to 2002 for the Calgary Stampeders and won three Grey Cups before joining the Lions in 2003.
"I'm not beating Don Matthews, I'm enhancing what he accomplished, just like he enhanced what Frank Clair accomplished,” Buono said recently. “When you're breaking a record what you're doing really is acknowledging the person before you that set the standard.”
Buono said he doesn’t remember his first win, but he does remember the first game he coached: a 38-38 tie at B.C. Place on July 13, 1990 when Doug Flutie was the B.C. quarterback.
“Flutie magic, the last play of the game,” Buono said. “A Hail Mary (pass) got the touchdown, went into overtime and it ended up being a tie. I remember the first point, I don't remember the first win.”
Buono’s Stamps recovered to win four in a row before losing to the Eskimos. Calgary finished first in the West, but lost the West final. The 2009 Lions, by comparison, are the league’s most inconsistent team.
“One day at a time, one year at a time, that's how you have to approach it, there's nothing promised to you beyond that,” he said. “I've always been fortunate and enjoyed everywhere I've been and had no regrets.”
