HAMILTON -- Larry Highbaugh had to wait forever to get in. But after taking the tour of the honoured members room, where the busts of his five-in-a-row Edmonton Eskimos teammates reside, he's glad it took awhile. "Who is that scary-looking guy beside this guy who is supposed to be Warren Moon?'' he asked.

"My gawd! It's James Parker!

"I walked past Warren Moon three times and I didn't know it was Warren Moon.''

I took him over to show him the bust of Hugh Campbell.

"No way,'' he said.

A lot of Highbaugh's glory-gang teammates don't look a bit like themselves because at the time they went in, the new guy they hired to do the busts couldn't make Northern Dancer look like a horse.

But a few minutes later, when recent replacement sculptor Gino Cavicchioli unveiled Highbaugh's bust to induct him Cal Murphy, Dan Yochum, Lui Passaglia and Ben Zambiasi into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame here yesterday, Highbaugh was delighted.

'IT LOOKS BETTER THAN ME!'

"It looks better than me!'' enthused the six-time winner of the Grey Cup. "I mean, I'm older now. It looks great. The features are great. It's amazing what they can do with clay.''

Steel, actually.

Murphy, who was an assistant coach with the five-in-a- row Eskimos, was pleased with his as well.

"That's pretty good,'' he said. "It looks like me. Definitely some of those other guys I wouldn't recognize.''

Murphy had seen some of the other busts and decided, instead of sending pictures in, he'd show up and pose for Cavicchioli in person on a trip through here as a scout for the Indianapolis Colts, for whom he works at age 72.

"He invited me over and took me to his garage next to his house. I said 'Oh, this should be good.' But when I walked in, he had skylights and it was a real first-class setup. He even had wine and cheese,'' the jovial survivor of two heart attacks and a heart transplant laughed.

The room which houses the busts is one of the most impressive of all Halls of Fame anywhere in the world. What surrounds it is garbage, one of the least impressive sports museums in existence. And the ceremony in the parking lot beside the building was pathetic, with an ATM cash machine and No Parking signs as backdrops. But if you're happy with your bust, it's pretty heady stuff to see it placed there in that wonderful, wonderful room.

"People here have told me the reason it took me so long to get in was that it was because I played for that great team. They told me if I'd been with another team, I would have been in 10-12 years ago,'' said Highbaugh.

"There were so many great players to get in here,'' he said of Moon, Parker, Tom Wilkinson, George McGowan, Ron Estay, Brian Kelly, Tom Scott, Dave Cutler, Dan Kepley and Dave Fennell.

"I still think there are others who could go in. Words can't describe that team. One of the great strengths was the Canadian content. A bunch of those guys should be in here, too. I don't think you'll ever see a team like that put together again.''

But it's not just the guys who, he played with, but the other greats, like legend Angelo Mosca, who presented him with his Hall of Fame jacket, that get to you when you see your bust in that room.

"When you walk in here and realize that they've been playing Canadian football for about 100 years and how many players there have been and you're one of about 200 with your bust in here ... that's when it really hits you,'' said Highbaugh.

It was Murphy who delivered possibly the greatest compliment of Highbaugh's career here yesterday.

"There aren't many guys in here who could play so successfully in all three phases of the game. He was a great return man on special teams, was an outstanding man in the defensive secondary and he could also go in and get the job done as a receiver. And he could also rush a punter or a kicker. He was the first I ever saw who could do that.''

MURPHY HAD A GREAT CAREER

If Highbaugh thinks he has a lot of company with that five-in-a-row team, which includes Campbell and GM Norm Kimball, how about the man who coached the B.C. Lions, was an assistant with Marv Levy in Montreal to win a Grey Cup with the Als the year before he won the five in Edmonton? A head coach who would deliver the Winnipeg Blue Bombers with their first Grey Cup in 22 years in 1984 and two more in 1988 and 1990?

"I'm going in with three players I coached,'' Murphy said of Highbaugh, Passaglia and Yochum.

"And then there's Zambiasi who tried to keep us all out of here,'' he said of the Tiger-Cat great.

"My high school football coach, Greg Kabat, is in here. Eagle Keys hired me. Bobby Ackles fired me. Hugh hired me. One day I'll have to walk around here and count up the number of guys I worked with as coaches and general managers, and coached as players. There's a lot of them.''

Some of them even look like themselves.