Joey Pal graduated from Sir George William University with a B.Comm degree (Sir George William and Loyola merged to form what is today called Concordia University in Montreal.). Pal was a Flying Wing for the Montreal Alouttes and Hamilton Tigers from 1947 to 1957. The term Flying Wing has since vanished from the CFL football vocabulary, but it later became Flanker and today Pal would likely have been called a Slot Back. Pal was born in Hamilton and played his first year of senior ball as it was called then with the hometown Tigers of the IRFU / Big Four in 1947. Pal joined the Alouettes in 1948 and then returned to the Tigers in 1949. For that season, the Tigers had switched leagues with the other Hamilton team, the Wildcats, and were playing in the ORFU. Pal returned to the Alouettes in 1950 and remained with them then until his retirement in 1957. That one season swtich back to Hamilton in 1949 meant Pal missed the Montreal Grey Cup win. He would play in three more Grey Cups in 1954, 1955 and 1956, but unfortunately for Pal and the Alouettes, they were all losses to Edmonton.
Pal was a three time East All-Star at Flying Wing (1954, 1955, and 1956) - there were no CFL All-Stars until 1962. Pal was also named the Outstanding Canadian for Montreal in 1954. Unfortunately, the East did not keep individual stats until 1954, so his career totals of 127 catches for 2448 yards don't include his first 5 seasons in the CFL from 1947 to 1953. Pal was a big part of the powerful Montreal teams of the mid to late 1950s where he teamed up with star ends Hal Patterson and Red O'Quinn to catch passes from QB Sam (The Rifle) Etcheverry. Like many players of that era, Pal saw acton on both sides of the ball. In 1955 for example, Pal set career highs with 42 catches for 802 yards and also had two interceptions. Pal was also used as a punt and kickofrf returner with his career highlight in that facet of the game coming on an 81 yard kickoff return for a TD in 1956.
Joey Pal passed away on Friday, October 13, 2012.
Joey Pal In Team Picture of 1956 Montreal Als - November 20, 1956
Obituary for Joey Pal - October 15, 2012
| Year | Team | GP | TC | Yds | Avg | TD | Long | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Long | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | HTG | 10 | 0 | 10 | |||||||||
| 1948 | MON | 11 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| 1949 | HTG | ||||||||||||
| 1950 | MON | 11 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| 1951 | MON | 8 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
| 1952 | MON | 12 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
| 1953 | MON | 13 | 6 | 30 | |||||||||
| 1954 | MON | 14 | 2 | 28 | 14 | 0 | 24 | 36 | 681 | 18.9 | 6 | 63 | 30 |
| 1955 | MON | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 802 | 18.7 | 12 | 47 | 60 |
| 1956 | MON | 14 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 35 | 684 | 19.6 | 6 | 64 | 42 |
| 1957 | MON | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 281 | 21.6 | 2 | 43 | 12 |
The East (IRFU / Big Four) only started keeping individual stats other than scroing in 1954.
Touchdowns until 1956 were worth only 5 points.
| Year | Team | KOR | Yds | Avg | TD | Long | PR | Yds | Avg | TD | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | HTG | ||||||||||
| 1948 | MON | ||||||||||
| 1949 | HTG | ||||||||||
| 1950 | MON | ||||||||||
| 1951 | MON | ||||||||||
| 1952 | MON | ||||||||||
| 1953 | MON | ||||||||||
| 1954 | MON | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 488 | 7.4 | 0 | 23 |
| 1955 | MON | 5 | 85 | 17 | 0 | 26 | 52 | 425 | 8.2 | 0 | 47 |
| 1956 | MON | 4 | 155 | 38.8 | 1 | 81 | 28 | 240 | 8.6 | 0 | 20 |
| 1957 | MON | 2 | 30 | 15 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Year | Team | Int | Yds | Avg | TDInt | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | HTG | |||||
| 1948 | MON | |||||
| 1949 | HTG | |||||
| 1950 | MON | |||||
| 1951 | MON | |||||
| 1952 | MON | |||||
| 1953 | MON | |||||
| 1954 | MON | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1955 | MON | 2 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| 1956 | MON | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1957 | MON | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
