He was sitting on the back deck working on a crossword puzzle while enjoying a lovely afternoon outside on Thursday afternoon when the call came. When the call finally came.

Forty-eight years after he threw his final pass and walked off the football field as the greatest homegrown product ever to play in the Canadian Football League, Russ Jackson heard that he will be honoured by his city.

A new football field being built at a huge new community park being constructed at West Fifth and Stone Church will be named after him. He'll soon join the giants of this city's sports history — Harry Howell, Pat Quinn, Dave Andreychuk, Jimmy Thompson and a few others — by having his name permanently etched on the local landscape.

"It's really neat, I guess that's the simple word," the soon-to-be-81-year-old says. "But it's a real honour to think you're being honoured by the city in a special way."

It's never happened before. Not for him.

Canadian university football has the Russ Jackson Award for a player who's great on the field, in the classroom and in the community. And once upon a time there was a math scholarship named after him in Ottawa — he became a highly regarded educator after he left football — but it was for Grade 13 students. When that grade died, so did the award.

But as for a field or a building or a street bearing his name? Nothing. Not even in the capital where he played the entirety of his legendary 12-year career and won three Grey Cups while being named the CFL's most-outstanding player three times.

"As far as I know," he quips.

Enter William Connell City-Wide Park. The spot that is presently under construction will soon be transformed into a 49-acre community hub with lit soccer fields, tennis courts, a basketball court, a splash pad, walking trails, and a field house with change rooms. And a lighted football field.

As city staff and some councillors contemplated and debated what to name after Jackson, Ward 8 Coun. Terry Whitehead — in whose ward the park lies — thought of this project and raised his hand.

"I said, 'I've got just the place to be considered,'" he says.

Once it was agreed upon, he got on the phone to the legend and broke the good news. Thrilled as he was with Thursday's call, the former player says his kids were even more excited.

Some will argue a more-appropriate place to honour him would have been somewhere in Westdale where Jackson grew up and where he learned to play the game. However, there really aren't that many appropriate possibilities. Yes, his old high school is getting a new field, but it would've been rather awkward to name that after him the same week it became public that Westdale is unlikely to have a football team next season.

Besides, waiting forever for a perfect location is far less important than actually getting something done. It's been too long already. He's not going to be around forever. So kudos to those city staff and council who finally ended the wait and did something now so he could enjoy and appreciate it.

Among all this discussion, it's important to point out that Jackson — who's as good a person as he was a football player and has been a terrific ambassador for his hometown — never used the word finally when discussing the process.

To the contrary, he says he never thought about it. It never dawned on him that there might eventually be something named after him. Not even when he was standing as anonymously as he could at the renaming of the Harry Howell Arena a few years ago, watching his childhood friend get recognized.

People around here have already done many nice things to honour him, he says. He's in Westdale Secondary's hall of fame, he's in the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame, and recently he was inducted into the Hamilton Gallery of Distinction. Not to mention a phalanx of other halls and similar places all across the country.

Of course, those are all run by independent groups rather than by the city itself. That small difference makes this announcement so special. The place he grew up is about to officially enshrine him in a permanent way. Again, he drops the word neat.

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So why did it take so long? When pressed for a theory, he thinks for a few seconds.

"Maybe they had a little bias against someone who played against their team," he offers.

The huge laugh that follows lets you know he's joking.