Joe Barnes (born December 18, 1951) was an all-star quarterback in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a c ...

College career

Barnes was a graduate of

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sy ...

, playing from 1971 to 1973, and was inducted into the Texas Tech Athletic Hall of Honor in 1986.

Professional career

Barnes was drafted by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

of the NFL in 1974 in the 13th round (316th overall.) He played only 2 games for

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

in 1974, completing 2 of 9 passes, and punting once for 27 yards. He moved to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

in 1976 and began a five-year stint with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes ( French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Cana ...

. He began by sharing quarterback duties with

Sonny Wade Jesse "Sonny" Wade (born April 1, 1947) is a former All-American football player at Emory & Henry College in Virginia. He played professionally for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League from 1969 to 1978. High school Wade attend ...

, but mostly took over in 1978, when he threw for 1177 yards, and in 1979, when he added 2456 yards. He won a

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

in 1977 and was quarterback for the 1978 and 1979 Cup losses to the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Comm ...

. He lost his starting quarterback job in 1980 to

Gerry Dattilio Gerry Dattilio (born June 11, 1953) is a former professional Canadian football quarterback in the Canadian Football League. Early years Dattilio played his high school football with the Chomedey Chiefs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when ...

after six games, and was traded to the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in ...

. Again, he shared quarterback duties for the

Green Riders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

with

John Hufnagel John Coleman Hufnagel (born September 13, 1951) is the president and general manager of the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. He was previously the Stampeders' head coach and played quarterback for fifteen professional season ...

, and after the 1981 season headed to

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. It was with the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the CFL East Division, East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based i ...

that Barnes enjoyed his greatest success in the team's run and shoot offence. At first, due to injury and the excellent play of Condredge Holloway, Barnes played sparingly in 1982. Starting in 1983, he worked in tandem with Holloway. For two seasons, the tandem combined for over 5,000 yards. In 1983 Holloway passed for 3184 yards and Barnes, 2274. The next season the numbers reversed, with Barnes passing for 3128 yards and Holloway, 2231. Barnes helped lead

to a long-awaited

victory in 1983. As was his style, he came off the bench in the second half and engineered the game-winning drive and TD, a pass to

Cedric Minter Cedric Alwyn Minter (born November 13, 1958), is a former professional football player, an award-winning running back in the Canadian Football League. After his playing career, Minter became an educator and is currently a junior high school assis ...

, in the final minutes. He was named the

Grey Cup Most Valuable Player The Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is awarded annually since 1959 to the player of the winning team who deemed to have had the best performance in the Grey Cup Game, the Canadian Football League's championship game. This award is pre ...

for his heroics. In 1984, he was named an all-star. In 1985, he was traded to the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-o ...

but the team struggled for wins. After 11 games he was returned to Montreal in a trade, now with the Montreal Concordes, and played with the briefly renamed and reborn Alouettes in 1986. Barnes was known for his unpredictable and effective scrambling.

Personal life

His senior year, he dated Dianna Delp. They were married in June 1974 and have 2 children and 4 granddaughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Joe 1951 births Living people American football quarterbacks American players of Canadian football Canadian football quarterbacks Calgary Stampeders players Chicago Bears players Montreal Alouettes players Montreal Concordes players Saskatchewan Roughriders players Texas Tech Red Raiders football players Toronto Argonauts players Sportspeople from Fort Worth, Texas People from Poughkeepsie, New York Players of American football from Texas