Legendary Winnipeg Blue Bomber coach Bud Grant's name was added to those of QB Ken Ploen, OL Chris Walby, FB Gerry James, WR Milt Stegall, QB Dieter Brock and HB Leo Lewis.on the Blue Bombers' Ring of Honour at halftime of a game against the Edmonton Eskimos that took place in late September 2016:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/General%20Album%203001/Bud%20Gr_zpsonbtd997.jpg)
Here are some excerpts from Bud's life and phenomenal career:
1. He had poliomyelitis as a kid. He accordingly took up sports to help strengthen his leg muscles!
2. He lettered in three sports at the University of Minnesota - football, basketball and baseball! Twice he was All Big-Ten in football.
3. He was drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1950. But he was also drafted in the fourth round by the Minneapolis Lakers though! He chose basketball and played 35 games for the Lakers in the latter part of the 1949-50 season. He stayed with the Lakers for one more season playing 61 games in 1950-51.
4. He then realized he would never achieve much in the NBA. He elected to switch to football and joined the Philadelphia Eagles for the 1951 season. He played defensive end that season leading the Eagles in sacks.
5. He switched to wide receiver for the 1952 season and was second in the NFL in receiving yards with 997! He then thought he merited a healthy salary increase. The Eagles disagreed and told Grant to take it or leave it. He opted to leave it, and instead signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for more money.
6. He played both defensive back and offensive end for the Blue Bombers for the next four seasons. He led the Western Interprovincial Football Union in receiving yardage in 1953 and 1956, pass receptions in 1953, 1954 and 1956, and was named a W.I.F.U. all-star in 1953, 1954 and 1956.
7. He still holds the CFL record for most interceptions in a playoff game with five!
8. In 1957 he was named the head coach of the Blue Bombers at the age of 29! When later asked how long it took his former teammates to realize that he was now the boss, he replied "About five minutes."
9. He coached the Blue Bombers to a Grey Cup berth that very first year in 1957 and then again in 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962 and 1965 with the Blue Bombers emerging triumphant in 1958, 1959, 1961 and 1962. Ironically all six of those Blue Bomber Grey Cup games were against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
10. The tradition of Blue Bomber linemen playing games in sub-zero November temperatures with bare arms against their similarly bare armed rivals with the Edmonton Eskimos may have originated during Bud Grant's tenure in the 1950's. Simple intimidation "What, you call this cold? Welcome to Canada, sissy boy." Those were the days when the Western final was a best of three game affair played over the course of eight days. Football players were tough in those days.
11. He was offered the job of head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in 1961. He turned it down at the time, but relented and accepted the position in 1967. He was voted NFL Coach of the Year in 1969.
12. Upon joining the Vikings, he engineered a rare trade between teams in separate leagues when he acquired QB Joe Kapp from the British Columbia Lions in exchange for Canadian WR Jim Young. Young would go on to earn the appellate "Dirty Thirty" with the Lions and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame after retirement.
13. He wouldn't allow heaters along the Viking sidelines during games. He wanted his players to stay focused on winning the game and not warming up by the heaters. When you saw the Vikings standing like ice giants along the sideline in their purple cloaks while the other team huddled miserably by their heaters, it was pretty obvious which team would win the game!
14. He coached the Minnesota Vikings to Super Bowl appearances in the 1969, 1973, 1974 and 1976 NFL seasons.
15. When many players took to celebrating TDs with outlandish antics in the end zone in the late 1970's, Viking players did not. When a reporter asked Bud whether there was a team rule prohibiting such celebrations, his reply was "No, there's no such rule. They just better not."
16. Bud Grant didn't like to see players fidgeting during the national anthem. He thought that standing respectfully at attention would earn not just the respect of the fans but also of the players on the other team. He accordingly had giant defensive end and National Guardsmen Carl Eller lead his Viking teammates in national anthem practices.
17. The player Bud Grant considered to be the best he ever coached in either league was Leo Lewis who played halfback for the Blue Bombers between the years 1955 and 1966. Leo had rushed for 8861 yards with a remarkable average of 6.6 yards per carry. You can therefore imagine Bud's astonishment in 1981 when he was told that a fellow named Leo Lewis had walked into the Vikings' training camp asking for a tryout. The applicant was the son of the Leo Lewis that Bud had coached in Winnipeg. Leo Lewis III not only made the roster that year but played for the Vikings as a wide receiver and punt returner until 1991.
18. Bud Grant had a fear of flying. His Blue Bombers and Vikings always flew to their games though. "The players sleep more restfully in a hotel than they do on a train. I don't matter." was his explanation. 'Nuff said.
19. Bud Grant was a great believer in roster depth. When asked about the factors behind his successful career as a head coach, he replied "A good wife, a good dog and a good QB."
20. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994.
21. A statue of Bud Grant was unveiled outside Winnipeg's Investors Group Field in October 2014.
Here are some scans of CFL cards from my collection featuring Bud Grant:
1954 Blue Ribbon
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c51e3d-3d26-43cb-b0e1-701c992d60b1/f49aaea3-9703-4987-b78a-bc90f09bf0c4.jpg) (https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c51e3d-3d26-43cb-b0e1-701c992d60b1/fd8eb97a-c325-449b-978c-0b161c287f73.jpg)
1963 CFL Coins
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/CFL20Coins3_zpsqophbr73.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/CFL20Coins4_zpsgzyclyiy.jpg)
1964 Nalley's CFL Coins
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/Nalleys20Coins2_zpsrb0mtxrp.jpg)
8)
A request from Balkticfox to revive this thread.
A mythical sporting icon. A true legend in my eyes. So proud he led our Bombers to so much success in the golden years. I'm always in ah of Bud Grant.
No one else had his team standing on the line at attention during the national anthem. No one else banned heaters from the sideline in subzero temperatures. Bud instilled discipline and smarts in his teams like no one else. He demanded more than any coach in the league and knew how to get us to live up to that high standard. He demanded smart players—team players—and never, ever compromised that. -Fran Tarkenton
Same kind of players MOS prefers.
"Another difference between the two games is the field of play. In Canada, fields are longer and wider, and the end zones are 25 yards deep. As such, you could be on the 3-yard line and still throw a 25-yard pass for a touchdown.
Canadian football also has the single point, which can only be scored by the punting team, kickoff team, or field goal team if the kick is missed. If you punt the ball in the end zone, the receiving team has to run the ball out. If they fail, they give up a point. This adds significant strategy to the game."
-Bud Grant in his book I Did It My way
Quote from: Balticfox on June 21, 2018, 05:26:00 PM17. Bud Grant had a fear of flying. His Blue Bombers (and of course Vikings) always flew to their games though. "The players sleep more restfully in a hotel than they do on a train. I don't matter." was his explanation.
In his book he tells a story of an allstar game in Vancouver
The next day, the six of us from Winnipeg went over our packet of instructions for our arrival in Vancouver. I recall looking at our return ticket and noticing that we were not scheduled to return until the Sunday night following the game, which was to be played on a Saturday night. That meant we would be left in Vancouver all day Sunday with a day to kill, just waiting around for our return flight to Winnipeg. It didn't sound like a lot of fun to me.
After we landed, I just happened to walk by the ticket counter, so I inquired about getting an earlier flight back to Winnipeg. I was told there was a morning flight but that it was a full. I asked to be put on a waiting list; they put me on it but cautioned me that there was little chance I'd make it. In any event, I left my name and hotel phone number. In fact, I asked them to put my teammates' names on the waiting list, too. ...
the phone rang. It was the airline. They said, "Mr. Grant, there is space on the airplane to return earlier on Sunday to Winnipeg if you still want to make the change." In fact, they could accommodate all of us. I told her that was fine and headed out the door, eager to give my teammates the good news.The Bombers all made that early flight except one. The plane they were supposed to be on crashed into a mountain.
Quote from: ModAdmin on November 23, 2025, 07:03:02 AMA request from Balticfox to revive this thread.
Thank you for reviving this thread but it's not the one. The one I wanted to revive dealt specifically with what became of Winnipeg based Hunter's Potato Chips which was one of the companies that issued the 1963 CFL coins.
;)
Quote from: GOLDMEMBER on November 23, 2025, 02:17:57 PMA mythical sporting icon. A true legend in my eyes. So proud he led our Bombers to so much success in the golden years.
Bud Grant R.I.P. (20 May 1927 - 11 March 2023)(https://hosting.photobucket.com/6fa1aee1-cda5-4a75-acb5-f5287f1d5803/d9e3b8c6-c314-4e45-8823-c4be8fa2af6a.jpg)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c51e3d-3d26-43cb-b0e1-701c992d60b1/6342b902-6698-428d-a318-573d5c60ca53.jpg)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c51e3d-3d26-43cb-b0e1-701c992d60b1/82825473-d4a5-48ac-8896-a7f8248851d1.jpeg)
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Quote from: Waffler on November 23, 2025, 03:00:20 PMIn his book he tells a story of an allstar game in Vancouver
The next day, the six of us from Winnipeg went over our packet of instructions for our arrival in Vancouver. I recall looking at our return ticket and noticing that we were not scheduled to return until the Sunday night following the game, which was to be played on a Saturday night. That meant we would be left in Vancouver all day Sunday with a day to kill, just waiting around for our return flight to Winnipeg. It didn't sound like a lot of fun to me.
After we landed, I just happened to walk by the ticket counter, so I inquired about getting an earlier flight back to Winnipeg. I was told there was a morning flight but that it was a full. I asked to be put on a waiting list; they put me on it but cautioned me that there was little chance I'd make it. In any event, I left my name and hotel phone number. In fact, I asked them to put my teammates' names on the waiting list, too. ...
the phone rang. It was the airline. They said, "Mr. Grant, there is space on the airplane to return earlier on Sunday to Winnipeg if you still want to make the change." In fact, they could accommodate all of us. I told her that was fine and headed out the door, eager to give my teammates the good news.
The Bombers all made that early flight except one. The plane they were supposed to be on crashed into a mountain.
The plane, Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, crashed into Slesse Mountain about thirty kilometres southeast of Chilliwack on 9 December 1956 killing all 62 people onboard. Among them were these CFL stars:
Cal Jones (23) - Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman
Mel Becket (27) - Saskatchewan Roughriders centre and tight end
Mario DeMarco (32) - Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive lineman
Gordon Sturtridge (27) - Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive end
Ray Syrnyk (22) - Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive lineman
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