In 1956, Edmonton became known as Gettysburg.

Don Getty, the Canadian kid quarterback, who went on to become a premier of the province of Alberta, came home the hero of the Grey Cup game.

Getty, who died early Friday morning after a long illness, survived most of his teammates from the 1954-55-56 three-in-a-row Edmonton Eskimos but that is the one major memory of his 11-year football career, mostly as a back-up quarterback to Jackie Parker, that they’d all have.

Head coach Pop Ivy had an inspired idea as he took the team into the third game of a best-of-three Western Final series that year and it resulted in Edmonton defeating Saskatchewan 51-7 to advance to the Grey Cup in Toronto.

Ivy decided to start young Getty at quarterback in that deciding game instead of Jackie Parker, who he used as halfback. And when the Grey Cup game came, Ivy decided to do the same thing.

- Related: Former Alberta premier Don Getty passes away

In retrospect, it was a heck of a conversation between a guy who would go on to be premier of Alberta and the guy who would go on to become the Lieutenant Governor of the same province.

During the week, Kwong kidded the kid.

“Getty, you lose this game, and I'll cut off your supply of opium.”

Getty, who years ago told your correspondent that anecdote, said Ivy made the decision because of injuries.

“We had some guys hurt and Pop decided to go with Jackie at halfback and move me to quarterback for the third and deciding game of the final against Saskatchewan. We scored fifty points that day. In the Grey Cup, we beat Montreal 50-27. That was 101 points with a rookie Canadian at quarterback.

“The secret of my success? I had Johnny Bright, Normie Kwong, Rollie Miles and Jackie Parker in my backfield. Jackie Parker never had a backfield like that,” Getty also quipped in one of our many interviews over the years, far too many of them on an occasion like this when in search of a comment about a teammate who had died.

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It was interesting the way it worked, said Johnny Bright, also in a long-ago interview with this columnist.

“When Pop Ivy decided to play Getty at quarterback, the whole team sucked it up for Getty because we knew what it meant to him being the first Canadian to quarterback a modern-day Grey Cup champion. We ran harder, we blocked harder and we worked harder. We knew the kid was lacking in experience but we also thought he could do the job. The guys gave a little bit extra blocking so we could protect him more.”

The Eskimos won that Grey Cup game 50-27.

Getty was only in his second season in 1956. He would go on to play through to 1965.

Quarterback of the University of Western Ontario Mustangs in college, winning two football championships, and won three more playing basketball in 1952, 1953 and 1954.

A week after his graduation in the spring of 1955, Getty married his high school sweetheart, Margaret, and headed to Edmonton in his old Buick with a professional football contract in his pocket. He arrived at training camp to find a place with the team that had won the franchise’s first Grey Cup in November of 1954 with a legend-in-the-making, Jackie Parker, at quarterback.

While a back-up quarterback to Parker for much of his career, because of Parker’s ability to play halfback, Getty received plenty of playing time.

In five of his seasons he attempted more than 100 passes including completing 116 of 198 for 2,080 yards in 1959.

Twice selected Edmonton’s nominee for most outstanding Canadian, Getty was a finalist for the Schenley Awards in the category in 1959, losing out to Russ Jackson of the Ottawa Rough Riders.

One day after Getty’s career was over, an old Eskimo by the name of Peter Lougheed convinced him to run in the provincial election. Getty won and went on to succeed Lougheed as Premier.