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#21
Blue Bomber & CFL Discussion Forum / Re: Historic Football Fields o...
Last post by DM83 - March 16, 2026, 08:01:02 AMVery cool.
I am a retiring (soon) history teacher, so many places make me have second looks.
Being a Bomber fan since Wally Gabler and Dave Rainey graced our field, and having played for the Bisons., in an alumni game we played some of the ex Bombers including Doug Strong, Gene Lakusiak, amongst others..
I remember training camps at the old Canada Packers site, St. James High school, the Rods field and later, when they went to Brandon. However, The best site was St.Johns Ravenscourt. What a beautiful site. I had attended the Dave Keon- Billy Harris hockey school, there a few years before the team was there for training camp.
This is a good list. I mentioned going to the Canada Packers site to some of my 70 year old contemporaries and they didn't know that the team was nomadic back in the 60's or 70's
Interestingly or weird Jim Spavital was the head coach during the Ravenscourt tenure. As we watched from the sidelines, he gathered the troops together, and he supposedly had a team rule/policy of no standing around with " hands on their hips", and when he got them huddled together, they or he chanted G.A.T.A and repeated it a few times, as the team joined in the chant. I was told it meant "Get after their *****".
Anyway, how about a list of where the team practiced, training camps. I could only imagine what the American imports thought about practicing on that Canada Packers field. What a dump.
I am a retiring (soon) history teacher, so many places make me have second looks.
Being a Bomber fan since Wally Gabler and Dave Rainey graced our field, and having played for the Bisons., in an alumni game we played some of the ex Bombers including Doug Strong, Gene Lakusiak, amongst others..
I remember training camps at the old Canada Packers site, St. James High school, the Rods field and later, when they went to Brandon. However, The best site was St.Johns Ravenscourt. What a beautiful site. I had attended the Dave Keon- Billy Harris hockey school, there a few years before the team was there for training camp.
This is a good list. I mentioned going to the Canada Packers site to some of my 70 year old contemporaries and they didn't know that the team was nomadic back in the 60's or 70's
Interestingly or weird Jim Spavital was the head coach during the Ravenscourt tenure. As we watched from the sidelines, he gathered the troops together, and he supposedly had a team rule/policy of no standing around with " hands on their hips", and when he got them huddled together, they or he chanted G.A.T.A and repeated it a few times, as the team joined in the chant. I was told it meant "Get after their *****".
Anyway, how about a list of where the team practiced, training camps. I could only imagine what the American imports thought about practicing on that Canada Packers field. What a dump.
#22
Offside Forum / Re: Winnipeg Jets Discussion -...
Last post by JockitchwithRich - March 16, 2026, 02:43:09 AMWell done .Com, you were wonderful again
Though I really like our captain, it bothers me that he's given two skilled offensive wingers, but he's a checker, not a puck distributor. For me, Barron has better hands, speed and shows
a real decent offensive game.
Though I really like our captain, it bothers me that he's given two skilled offensive wingers, but he's a checker, not a puck distributor. For me, Barron has better hands, speed and shows
a real decent offensive game.
#23
Blue Bomber & CFL Discussion Forum / Re: Historic Football Fields o...
Last post by Stats Junkie - March 16, 2026, 01:36:16 AMYes, this is first of a series of posts about the historical fields used by Winnipeg football teams at the senior/pro level.
It is something I've been thinking about doing for some time and got inspired by Ed Tait's 10 lists in 10 days.
It is something I've been thinking about doing for some time and got inspired by Ed Tait's 10 lists in 10 days.
#24
Blue Bomber & CFL Discussion Forum / 10 Lists in 10 Days | Rushing ...
Last post by ModAdmin - March 16, 2026, 01:27:17 AM10 Lists in 10 Days | Rushing Leaders
He was nicknamed 'Blink' — as in blink and you might miss him — and yet Charles Roberts career with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was precariously close to being over before the end of rookie training camp in 2001.
Yes, his hall of fame career might have been kaput before he found traction and in the blink of an eye.
"When I first got up there, I really had to stick with it because in the first week, week and a half, I was ready to go home," Roberts told bluebombers.com in an interview in 2024. "It was a different place, and I had never been so far away from home.
"I was always considered 'the guy' when I was playing in college and when I got up there it became real that I was just someone trying out for the team. And being the littlest guy on the field, I didn't even think I had a chance, so I was ready to leave but somehow, some way, I stuck with it and here we are now."
Here we are now is with Roberts considered among the best ball carriers in Canadian Football League history and certainly in the annals of the Blue Bombers, where he ranks first in all-time rushing yards and leads off the latest in our '10 Lists in 10 Days' series.
A star at Sacramento State, Roberts came north as NFL teams shied away from his diminutive stature at 5-6, 175 pounds. He arrived in Winnipeg to see a depth chart crowded with Troy Mills, Eric Blount and Robert Pollard.
The Blue Bombers, seeing Roberts' immense skills, opted to keep three running backs and asked him to augment his role as a part-time running back as the kick returner. He fought off his initial doubts to win the CFL's Most Outstanding Special Teams Player Award in 2001 while being a runner-up in the Most Outstanding Rookie Player department.
"When you get up there it's easy to think that there isn't anybody in your corner," Roberts recalled. "You're in the rookie locker room at the old stadium and that wasn't a pleasant place to be. It just wasn't what I envisioned as a pro but a week later they moved me into the main locker room, and I got a little bit more comfortable.
"It was having that fear of failure, or not wanting to be a disappointment for everyone that had been looking forward to me doing great things. It was mentally difficult for me to make the decision to stay. When I think about it, Lyle Bauer (then president and CEO) – rest in peace – was instrumental in talking to me and reassuring me. They didn't tell me I was going to make the team, but he and Brendan Taman (Assistant GM) and Coach Ritchie – also rest in peace – really helped me.
"It's super-sad that Lyle and Coach Ritchie are gone now because they were so instrumental in my success. I'm appreciative of all those guys for that."
The rest of the article can be read here...
https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/03/15/10-lists-in-10-days-rushing-leaders/
He was nicknamed 'Blink' — as in blink and you might miss him — and yet Charles Roberts career with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was precariously close to being over before the end of rookie training camp in 2001.
Yes, his hall of fame career might have been kaput before he found traction and in the blink of an eye.
"When I first got up there, I really had to stick with it because in the first week, week and a half, I was ready to go home," Roberts told bluebombers.com in an interview in 2024. "It was a different place, and I had never been so far away from home.
"I was always considered 'the guy' when I was playing in college and when I got up there it became real that I was just someone trying out for the team. And being the littlest guy on the field, I didn't even think I had a chance, so I was ready to leave but somehow, some way, I stuck with it and here we are now."
Here we are now is with Roberts considered among the best ball carriers in Canadian Football League history and certainly in the annals of the Blue Bombers, where he ranks first in all-time rushing yards and leads off the latest in our '10 Lists in 10 Days' series.
A star at Sacramento State, Roberts came north as NFL teams shied away from his diminutive stature at 5-6, 175 pounds. He arrived in Winnipeg to see a depth chart crowded with Troy Mills, Eric Blount and Robert Pollard.
The Blue Bombers, seeing Roberts' immense skills, opted to keep three running backs and asked him to augment his role as a part-time running back as the kick returner. He fought off his initial doubts to win the CFL's Most Outstanding Special Teams Player Award in 2001 while being a runner-up in the Most Outstanding Rookie Player department.
"When you get up there it's easy to think that there isn't anybody in your corner," Roberts recalled. "You're in the rookie locker room at the old stadium and that wasn't a pleasant place to be. It just wasn't what I envisioned as a pro but a week later they moved me into the main locker room, and I got a little bit more comfortable.
"It was having that fear of failure, or not wanting to be a disappointment for everyone that had been looking forward to me doing great things. It was mentally difficult for me to make the decision to stay. When I think about it, Lyle Bauer (then president and CEO) – rest in peace – was instrumental in talking to me and reassuring me. They didn't tell me I was going to make the team, but he and Brendan Taman (Assistant GM) and Coach Ritchie – also rest in peace – really helped me.
"It's super-sad that Lyle and Coach Ritchie are gone now because they were so instrumental in my success. I'm appreciative of all those guys for that."
The rest of the article can be read here...
https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/03/15/10-lists-in-10-days-rushing-leaders/
#25
Blue Bomber & CFL Discussion Forum / 10 Lists in 10 Days | Intercep...
Last post by ModAdmin - March 16, 2026, 01:23:51 AM10 Lists in 10 Days | Interception Leaders
Rod Hill arrived in Winnipeg prior to the 1988 Canadian Football League season with an already long list of meaty credentials.
He was a first-round selection of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1982 NFL Draft, 25th overall, had been traded to the Buffalo Bills. And over the course of his days down south he appeared in 44 games, including time with the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Raiders.
All that after starring at the University of Kentucky during his college days.
Hill, with 47 interceptions, tops the list of Blue Bomber defenders with the most picks in the latest instalment of our '10 Lists in 10 Days' series.
A few facts about Hill's 47 picks:
-He had seven in '88, his first in the CFL and then had 12 in both 1989 and 1990.
-During a win over Hamilton in September of 1990 Hill picked off five passes — FIVE — to set a new CFL record. (Of note: Blue Bomber legend Bud Grant holds the CFL playoff record with five interceptions in a win over Hamilton in 1953 — four years before he became the team's head coach).
-Hill's dozen interceptions in '89 led the CFL, but his 12 a year later was second most to teammate Less Browne, who had 14 picks manning the opposite corner.
Just to put the two guys in double-digit in interceptions total in perspective — no one in the entire CFL has reached 10 since Browne followed up his 14-pick season with 10 more in 1991.
Yet, when he came north in 1988 to man one of the two cornerback spots, it should be said Hill provided an already stout Blue Bombers defence with a lockdown defender who had a knack for picking off passes and en route to becoming a key contributor on Grey Cup championship teams in 1988 and 1990....
The rest of the article can be read here...
https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/03/14/10-lists-in-10-days-interception-leaders/
Rod Hill arrived in Winnipeg prior to the 1988 Canadian Football League season with an already long list of meaty credentials.
He was a first-round selection of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1982 NFL Draft, 25th overall, had been traded to the Buffalo Bills. And over the course of his days down south he appeared in 44 games, including time with the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Raiders.
All that after starring at the University of Kentucky during his college days.
Hill, with 47 interceptions, tops the list of Blue Bomber defenders with the most picks in the latest instalment of our '10 Lists in 10 Days' series.
A few facts about Hill's 47 picks:
-He had seven in '88, his first in the CFL and then had 12 in both 1989 and 1990.
-During a win over Hamilton in September of 1990 Hill picked off five passes — FIVE — to set a new CFL record. (Of note: Blue Bomber legend Bud Grant holds the CFL playoff record with five interceptions in a win over Hamilton in 1953 — four years before he became the team's head coach).
-Hill's dozen interceptions in '89 led the CFL, but his 12 a year later was second most to teammate Less Browne, who had 14 picks manning the opposite corner.
Just to put the two guys in double-digit in interceptions total in perspective — no one in the entire CFL has reached 10 since Browne followed up his 14-pick season with 10 more in 1991.
Yet, when he came north in 1988 to man one of the two cornerback spots, it should be said Hill provided an already stout Blue Bombers defence with a lockdown defender who had a knack for picking off passes and en route to becoming a key contributor on Grey Cup championship teams in 1988 and 1990....
The rest of the article can be read here...
https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/03/14/10-lists-in-10-days-interception-leaders/
#26
Blue Bomber & CFL Discussion Forum / 10 Lists in 10 Days | Single G...
Last post by ModAdmin - March 16, 2026, 01:18:49 AM10 Lists in 10 Days | Single Game Passing
One of the greatest single-game individual performances in Canadian Football League history — and the greatest amongst quarterbacks in this grand ol' loop — opened with Matt Dunigan handing the ball off twice to Blaise Bryant.
And then Bob Cameron was trotted out to punt.
What then followed that night on July 14, 1994, at Winnipeg Stadium was the most prolific passing performance in both the history of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the CFL.
Dunigan would finish the night — the Blue Bombers 1994 home opener — completing 33-of-52 passes for five touchdowns against two interceptions and an astonishing 713 yards passing.
That ain't no misprint: 7-1-3.
"What a crazy night," Dunigan told yours truly for a Winnipeg Free Press story on the 20-year anniversary of the feat in July of 2014. "It just felt like a basketball player who sees the hoop and it looks like it's 10 feet wide or a baseball player who is seeing the ball coming out of the pitcher's hand and it looks like a softball coming at you. When you're in that zone it's like, 'Oh yeah... this is good.'
"That night we all felt like, 'Do we have to stop? Can we play a couple more quarters?'"
His incredible accomplishment seemed like a good place to start our '10 Lists in 10 Days' series, highlighting some of the best performances in Blue Bombers history over the next week and a bit.
Dunigan's record-setting night came in a rematch of the 1993 Grey Cup — a 33-23 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos — as the Blue Bombers exacted a bit of revenge in a 50-35 win. His 713-yard effort eclipsed the CFL record of 601, set by Danny Barrett of the B.C. Lions just 11 months earlier which, in turn, had bested Sam Etcheverry's mark of 586 which had stood since 1954.
He also smashed his own team mark for passing yards in a game of 467, set in 1992.
That same night two Blue Bombers receivers would break the club record for receiving yards in a game, with Alfred Jackson finishing with 308 yards and David Williams with 240.
Dunigan had just 88 yards passing at the end of the first quarter but was up to 322 by halftime. And with Edmonton keeping the game close right to the final moments, the veteran pivot was kept in the game and kept filling the air with passes.
In the final minute, he went from 699 yards passing to 713 on a 14-yard completion to Allan Boyko....
Th rest of the article is here...
https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/03/13/10-lists-in-10-days-single-game-passing/
One of the greatest single-game individual performances in Canadian Football League history — and the greatest amongst quarterbacks in this grand ol' loop — opened with Matt Dunigan handing the ball off twice to Blaise Bryant.
And then Bob Cameron was trotted out to punt.
What then followed that night on July 14, 1994, at Winnipeg Stadium was the most prolific passing performance in both the history of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the CFL.
Dunigan would finish the night — the Blue Bombers 1994 home opener — completing 33-of-52 passes for five touchdowns against two interceptions and an astonishing 713 yards passing.
That ain't no misprint: 7-1-3.
"What a crazy night," Dunigan told yours truly for a Winnipeg Free Press story on the 20-year anniversary of the feat in July of 2014. "It just felt like a basketball player who sees the hoop and it looks like it's 10 feet wide or a baseball player who is seeing the ball coming out of the pitcher's hand and it looks like a softball coming at you. When you're in that zone it's like, 'Oh yeah... this is good.'
"That night we all felt like, 'Do we have to stop? Can we play a couple more quarters?'"
His incredible accomplishment seemed like a good place to start our '10 Lists in 10 Days' series, highlighting some of the best performances in Blue Bombers history over the next week and a bit.
Dunigan's record-setting night came in a rematch of the 1993 Grey Cup — a 33-23 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos — as the Blue Bombers exacted a bit of revenge in a 50-35 win. His 713-yard effort eclipsed the CFL record of 601, set by Danny Barrett of the B.C. Lions just 11 months earlier which, in turn, had bested Sam Etcheverry's mark of 586 which had stood since 1954.
He also smashed his own team mark for passing yards in a game of 467, set in 1992.
That same night two Blue Bombers receivers would break the club record for receiving yards in a game, with Alfred Jackson finishing with 308 yards and David Williams with 240.
Dunigan had just 88 yards passing at the end of the first quarter but was up to 322 by halftime. And with Edmonton keeping the game close right to the final moments, the veteran pivot was kept in the game and kept filling the air with passes.
In the final minute, he went from 699 yards passing to 713 on a 14-yard completion to Allan Boyko....
Th rest of the article is here...
https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/03/13/10-lists-in-10-days-single-game-passing/
#27
Blue Bomber & CFL Discussion Forum / Re: Historic Football Fields o...
Last post by Big Daddy - March 15, 2026, 09:23:40 PMHey Stats Junkie - not sure what this is, but I like it! Is this the first part in a series, and you are going to continue? I hope so, loving this history. Thank you!
#28
Offside Forum / Re: Winnipeg Jets Discussion -...
Last post by Pigskin - March 15, 2026, 08:42:36 PMComrie was lights out again tonight.
#29
Blue Bomber & CFL Discussion Forum / Re: Condell's Max-Pro(tection)
Last post by Pete - March 15, 2026, 08:21:54 PMI like the idea of max protect and counting on our high end receivers to get open. Why not draft or recruit a tightend fullback type to on this. I like Ike and Petersen but haven't been impressed with their blocking skills.
By bringing in a big body with these skills also gives Zac an outlet opportunity. The other opportunity is where the opposing defense looks like they are blitzing he can move in tighter. If they fake he can run a route.
By bringing in a big body with these skills also gives Zac an outlet opportunity. The other opportunity is where the opposing defense looks like they are blitzing he can move in tighter. If they fake he can run a route.
#30
Blue Bomber & CFL Discussion Forum / Re: Cfl draft
Last post by Pete - March 15, 2026, 08:15:41 PMQuote from: theaardvark on March 15, 2026, 03:02:08 PMBest. Player. Available.but if the best player available in the first two rounds is a linebacker. do we really need to add when we just drafted Smith and Shay ly?
Yes, OL pipe needs filling.
But we have depth just about everywhere else.
So we go after the guy that will make the most difference in camp.
After round 3, flyers... scoop up anyone with NFL aspirations.
to me the first two picks have to be where we have a need. If Elad doesn't look like he'll be in the nfl then its a good pick. Having a cdn at safety or corner means we aren't locked into another position such as with Kramdl or Lawton.
We really need to extend Wallace or we could be desperate for cdn oline next year and would have to use our first pick there.