Countless deserving athletes slip through the cracks of the publicity mills and that’s a pity. Now and then you get a chance to provide a few of the belated accolades such accomplished people deserve. That’s the welcome case with Hal Patterson. He’s the former Kansas University three-sport star who earned the title of Prince Hal while reigning as a pass-grabbing king of the Canadian Football League.

The Montreal Alouettes paid Hal the franchise’s ultimate honor this past Nov. 21 when the Als retired his No. 75 jersey. A 1971 CFL Hall of Fame inductee, Patterson played 1954-60 with the Alouettes, teaming with quarterback Sam Etcheverry as a devastating duo. Etcheverry later shifted to the NFL. Pat eventually won Grey Cup championships with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, ’63, ’65 and ’67. The Rozel Kangaroo still holds a number of CFL receiving records including a 338-yard total for 11 catches in one game.

I’m grateful to Eltrude Hall of Sublette for the update on Prince Hal. Her late husband, Ed Hall, played football and basketball at KU (’42), then was a successful Garden City Junior College coach. He greatly influenced the 6-2, 190-pound Hal to come to KU. While here for 1951-52 and ’52-53, Pat was a brilliant do-everything footballer, started for the ’53 Kansas NCAA basketball runnerup and lettered as a baseball shortstop.

Born in Garden City, Pat listed Rozel as home while at KU. His ability to soar brought the inevitable kangaroo comparison, the Rozel ’Roo.

Patterson was drafted in the 14th NFL round by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1954 but opted for Canada where another Jayhawk, linebacker Willie Pless, also became a legend. Both made brilliant choices. Sadly you can’t find much of anything about Pat’s brilliant 14-year Canadian career in the KU media guides.

In the fall of ’52, Prince Hal was a key man on a great Kansas football team that finished 7-3 but could, with luck, have been 9-1. He could run, catch and leap over the moon. Came 1953 and a 2-8 season and Pat was used as an end, defensive back, even running back as KU struggled painfully.

Pogo-stick Pat could propel skyward as if he’d been turpentine-goosed. As a junior, he was the second leading rebounder on KU’s great basketball team where 6-9 B.H. Born was the lone starter taller than the 6-2 Hal. He also starred for the ’54 Jayhawk court team.

Never was an all-league choice from the mix of many Jayhawk stars back then, but he was as good as those so honored.

Pat was the 32nd three-sport letterman in KU history, only the third in the previous two decades. Despite his brilliance in Canada, Patterson never got anything in the States like the coverage up north. It was only periodically, like during the Grey Cup title battles, that he commanded the hint of a spotlight. Everything was NFL in those formative days for league television after the New York-Baltimore thriller of 1958. Seldom any CFL coverage.

In recent times, Patterson, now 77, has been engaged in farming in the Highway 156 locale of Larned and Burdett. As usual, he dodges the spotlight. Last I looked he had an unlisted phone number. You contrast somebody like this with the overbearing trash-talk showoffs of today and appreciate even more what Hal Patterson did in his own quiet way.

It’s a delight to give him a little overdue credit.