In 1966, a couple of Montreal youths slipped into Percival Molson Stadium and made their way to the Ottawa Rough Riders’ locker room, where they picked their way through a bunch of gear, including helmets and jerseys. One of the stolen jerseys belonged to Rough Rider great Jay Roberts, a tight end for the team in the 1960s and a two-time Grey Cup winner in 1968 and 1969.
For 57 years, that jersey was lost to history. That was until Roberts’ son Jed received a random direct message from a stranger in Quebec.
The message was simple enough, stating that the stranger’s stepfather had been a part of the group that broke into Ottawa’s dressing room and that he believed it was long overdue that the jersey made its way back to where it belonged. The stranger — who prefers to remain anonymous — then mailed the jersey to Edmonton, where Jed resides.
“When it arrived in the mail, it was pretty emotional,” Jed told 3DownNation this week.
“I don’t really have any of my father’s stuff from that time in his life because in the 1970s when his second marriage ended, his ex-wife put all his football stuff into a chest and left it out in their yard in Dallas, Texas. Everything was taken or destroyed. All the stuff he’d meant for me to have was just gone.”
In the ‘66 @CFL season, Ottawa played @MTLAlouettes twice in Montreal. During 1 of those games, some kids broke into the Ott locker room and stole several home jerseys. My dad’s #76 jersey was among them. Today (57 yrs later) the jersey arrived home. *Worn by my son.#cfl #family pic.twitter.com/7ezZXwkPfR
— Jed Roberts (@jedrock43) June 28, 2023
The first thing that struck Jed when the jersey arrived was how small it was.
“It’s one of those old Rawlings cotton jerseys, size 46. It must’ve shrunk over the years because given that my dad was six-foot-five, I expected it to be a bit bigger”.
The other thing that stood out was the excellent condition of it. Clearly, the person who had the jersey for so many decades took good care of it. Jed marvelled at the fact that there are no holes in it and that you can still see grass stains on the shoulders.
“I really wasn’t expecting it to look so good. It’s as if my dad just put it on yesterday” Jed said.
As for what he plans to do with the jersey, Jed hasn’t made up his mind quite yet. In the coming weeks, he’ll be heading to New Hampshire to visit his sisters, and he’s planning to bring the jersey with him to show them. He might leave it with them, or he might keep it. If he does, he’ll get it framed and put it in his son’s room.
“He’s already got some of my old stuff so it would be nice to add a special family heirloom in there,” Jed said, referencing his own 13-year CFL career with Edmonton.
More than anything Jed is grateful to have something from his father’s CFL career back in the family. The reaction to the story since he tweeted out a picture of his son in the jersey has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It’s a cool story that you don’t see every day. And it proves that there are still good people out there that want to make sure that, at the end of the day, the right thing gets done.”
