Football: Former Mountie takes fans on a musical ride

Many three-down devotees, diehard Canadian football fans, know The CFL sessions, the invention of a performer named Henry Svec.

Svec's shtick was to advertise that he was to perform folk songs which had been recorded by 1970s-era CFL players. He's performing in the Toronto area and The Sunday Star caught up with him:

"Svec is real and is still surprised that a lot of people still fall for his little musical-theatre hoax.

" ... People kept showing up, maybe expecting to hear words penned by their CFL heroes from 30 years ago. Maybe a league that once had two teams with the same name can make people believe anything.

" 'I've stopped trying to fake it,' says Svec, a 27-year-old University of Western Ontario teaching assistant and part-time singer. 'Most people got it, but too many were taking it seriously.' "

What people might not been aware of prior to reading the Star article is that Svec is a "former Mount Allison University linebacker." There is no readily handy way to double-check the details of his playing career unless you have a photographic memory and/or a copy of the roster of every CIS football team from the past decade (no on both counts, honest). Of course, it is legitimate, but in the spirit of the thing, it is more fun to believe the "former Mount Allison University linebacker" was just another bit of layering.

It would be like something straight from Thomas Pynchon, or How I Met Your Mother. All the best to Henry Svec. He's putting smiles on people's faces and that counts for a lot.

Related:
Football folk's a fake, and a passing fancy (Chris Zelkovich, The Toronto Star)