Eley had a short but productive three year career with the BC Lions from 1972 to 1974.  In his rookie season, Eley was the the speedy halfback counterpart to the bruising Jim Evenson at fullback as he 517 yards on 105 carries.  Eley also led the West in kickoff returns in his rookie season 1033 yards.  In 1973, with Evenson gone to Ottawa, Eley formed a backfield tandem wiith the new FB, Johnny Musson with Musso getting the bulk of the carries and Eley ending up with just 72 carries for 373 yards.  In 1974, Musso got injured, and Eley sw the ball a lot more often with 191 carries for  1176 yards.  In a rare occurance, rushing for over 1000 yards was not good enough to even lead his own team in rushing.  Lou Harris rang up 1229 yards as the replacement for Musso.  Harris finished third in rushing in the West and Eley was fourth, giving BC one of the best 1-2 running punches in the history of the CFL.  Actually it was a 1-2-3 punch as Musso had rushed for over 1000 yards the previous season.  After 1974, however, Eley and the Lions could not come to terms on a contract and Eley neer returned to the Lions as BC felt their running game was in good hands with Harris and Musso.  Ironically, the Lions lost Musso for the 1975 season as he was sold to a team in the new WFL.