Joe Poplawski

[BBRT]

Good Morning All - Do any of you remember when Joe Pop had to attempt a FG (Not sure who our regular FG kicker was) but I seem to remember the event and was discussing the event with my buddies. It was a very long time ago so might need some help from the golden oldies here. Note I got my first taste of Bomber Football in 1971 when I moved to the Peg from Dallas (wifey was from the Peg and wanted to go home). Been a Bomber fan ever since.

[Waffler]

Yes! Joe Pascucci recently posted highlights of this game

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMfZlv_g0Lg/

or

https://x.com/Pascucci015/status/1948359966005318098


jpascucci015
OTD in Blue Bombers History July 24, 1986. Trevor Kennerd is injured recovering opening kickoff. Joe Poplawski, in the final season of his CFHoF career, literally steps up to boot his first field goal and 3 converts as Blue Bombers beat the Stampeders 25-20

[BBRT]

Yes! Joe Pascucci recently posted highlights of this game

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMfZlv_g0Lg/

or

https://x.com/Pascucci015/status/1948359966005318098


jpascucci015
OTD in Blue Bombers History July 24, 1986. Trevor Kennerd is injured recovering opening kickoff. Joe Poplawski, in the final season of his CFHoF career, literally steps up to boot his first field goal and 3 converts as Blue Bombers beat the Stampeders 25-20

thanks for the feedback - great to see the clip!

[Blue In BC]

There was a game where our punter was injured. That forced us into kicking every punt as though it was a FG attempt. It's very odd to see that from your own 20 yard line ( example ).

This was a long time ago and I thought that was Joe Pop kicking against the Stamps. Anybody remember that game?

[bwiser]

If I remember correctly Poplawski was left footed and in a game against Ottawa he completely fooled the Ottawa defenders by kicking a perfect short kick to Gord Patterson, which he caught in stride and nearly broke it. The Bombers went on to win that game.

[The Zipp]

dude - don't scare me like that, i saw the thread title and thought the absolute worst.

one of my all time favorites growing up!!

[Waffler]

2017 Free Press article breaking down the short kick.


The miracle at Lansdowne Park
Former Blue Bomber players and coaches still marvel at an improbable comeback in 1978 game

The memories of that day in Ottawa, almost 39 years ago, are still
clear and focused.

It was a comeback so improbable, so ingenious in its conception and so
perfect in its execution (well, almost perfect), Joe Poplawski can
laugh about the thrill of it all.

He was a 21-year-old wide receiver, fresh off the campus of the
University of Alberta, and he was tearing up the Canadian Football
League in his rookie season with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. But on
Sept. 9, 1978, with the clock winding down in the fourth quarter and
the Blue Bombers trailing the Ottawa Rough Riders 29-17 at Lansdowne
Park, it looked like it was lights-out for the Winnipeggers.

Then something miraculous happened.

A 10-yard touchdown pass from Ralph Brock (he had yet to morph into
Dieter) to Poplawski, with a Bernie Ruoff convert, pulled the Blue
Bombers to within five points with 62 seconds left in the game.
Poplawski had caught the ball at the back of the end zone and was sent
reeling into the field-goal netting by Ottawa defender Ken Downing.
That foolish move, borne out of frustration, resulted in a roughing
penalty that moved the Winnipeg kickoff from the Blue Bombers' 45
(as was the rule in those days) to the Ottawa 50.

Then things got really interesting.

Winnipeg head coach Ray Jauch sent out his kickoff team with
Poplawski, not Ruoff, as his intended kicker. Star Bombers wide
receiver Mike Holmes, meanwhile, was part of the "hands" team on
short kickoff attempts while Rough Riders head coach George Brancato
countered with tight-end extraordinaire Tony Gabriel.

In that era, squib kicks were unheard of as part of any short kickoff
repertoire.

"It was always 'chip it in the air and let the best athletes come
down with the football,' and it would have been Holmes versus
Gabriel," Poplawski recalls. "But things didn't work out that
way because of the shift that Ottawa undertook."

Holmes set up on the far left of Poplawski as the teams assembled for
the kickoff; Gabriel took his position just across from Holmes.

"Mike, I'm 99 per cent sure, would have been on that recovery team
anyways because his vertical (leap) was so good and Tony Gabriel
probably would've been on their recovery team as well because he was
so tall and he was on that side," Poplawski says.

Jauch had been plotting for such a situation from the beginning of the
season, working on the details in practice and drawing on
Poplawski's soccer background and dexterity with both feet.

"I had talked to Joe previously about practising kicking with his
left foot on short kickoffs," says Jauch, now 79, retired and living
in Waxhaw, N.C. "He could do that very well. Being a soccer player,
I knew he could kick with either foot. The circumstance came up in the
game. The funny part of it was there was a television camera on my
side of the field, and so we were on the side of the field where if he
kicked with his right foot, the ball would come our way.

"So to create a diversion, I started hollering at the television
camera guy to get the camera out of the way in case the ball comes
over and people are going to run into it. I don't know if they
shifted over or not, but I gave Poplawski the signal to kick it over
to the other side, which we had worked on and had a signal for. He
kicked it perfect."

Poplawski also followed Jauch's two-digit numbering system for
short-kick scenarios. It enabled him to pinpoint the direction and
location of the kick, calling it out to his teammates just before he
was ready to strike the ball.

"The first digit was the distance I was going to kick and it was
always 10 yards, so the first number was always going to be one,
sometimes you'd chip it 20 or 30 yards so it would be a two or a
three and the second digit would be where (it was going) from left to
right," Poplawski says.

"So '11' would have been 10 yards downfield on the left-hand
side. And so, I was given the opportunity to call out what I would
like to see. Well, I was going to be calling out a number and I
wasn't absolutely sure and then, suddenly, I saw there was a
shifting of the Ottawa coverage team. And so, it became pretty simple
for me to call out '19.'"

Gordie Patterson, Winnipeg's crafty slotback, was lined up on the
right side of the formation and caught the ball on a dead run. Then,
inexplicably, he fell down on the Ottawa 34-yard line.

"It was a perfect kick," says Patterson, now a 66-year-old
vice-president and investment adviser with RBC in Calgary. "The only
thing I did wrong was I wanted to make sure I caught the ball before I
ran, but I could have probably caught the ball and run downfield quite
a ways.

"He just put a perfect flip wedge about 15 yards deep and there was
nobody around but me. I caught it on the fly, but I went down and held
it. In retrospect, if I'd have been a real athlete, I would've
just kept running. We ended up scoring on a nice drive."

The setup had been virtually flawless. From Jauch's misdirection
(the Ottawa coverage team was completely baffled, shifting over
completely as he yelled at the CTV camera operator) to Poplawski's
perfectly placed boot (he set up slightly left of the ball and hit a
fluid chip to an ideal spot).

"It wasn't like we were totally unprepared for it, but execution
is another part of the game," Poplawski says. "Everything fell
into place. I'm still trying to remember if there was one guy in
front of me or shaded to the right, but there was nobody over on
Gordie. He was wide open.

"He wanted to make sure he caught it, and I was thinking, 'Get up
and run Gordie! Get up and run.' But he didn't."

It didn't matter.

Two plays and an Ottawa offside penalty later, the Blue Bombers took
the lead with 38 seconds left. Jim Washington, the club's superb
tailback, rambled 29 yards to the Rough Riders' five-yard line and
then got the ball again from Brock for the winning score. Only 38
seconds were left on the clock. Poplawski had caught seven of
Brock's passes for 81 yards, increasing his league-leading number of
catches to 45 as the Bombers improved their record to 5-4.

The Riders, destined to lose in the East Division final that season,
fell to 7-2.

"We lost our poise," Brancato complained to reporters after the
game. "The guys just went to sleep. I don't care who was kicking,
where he kicked or anything. We design things so both sides of the
field will be covered. That No. 75 (Canadian Dan Fournier) wasn't
even watching the ball. He was looking to the other side.

"Of course we should have won. We had an 11-point lead in the last
three minutes and simply blew it."

It was bedlam in the cramped Winnipeg locker room after the final
whistle as the Bombers celebrated their improbable comeback.

"Jauch brought us all together... and you know how Ray could spin a
story. (With) that big smile of his, he said, 'I've never seen
anything like this,' and it was his tradition to give the game ball
to one (player) each game," Poplawski says. "And Dieter had such a
great game. He said, 'We only give out one, and this time it's
going to be shared between Dieter and Joe Pop.' Ralph stood up and
for me, he was my idol... when he stands up and says, 'No, this
one's not mine, it's Joe Pop's,' and he gives it to me, I
thought, 'Holy smokes, this is something very special for me.'"

Later that season, Poplawski gifted the game ball to Tim Allan, an
undersized backup offensive lineman and friend on the 1978 squad.

"He was the 'Rudy' of the football team," says Poplawski.
"He never saw the field. I don't know if he dressed for a game....
He was such a team guy, he worked his *** off in every practice. I
think he may have dressed for two or three games, but he didn't see
the field much. All of us rookie Canadians hung out together.

"I gave the ball to him. I said to Tim, 'You're the greatest
teammate. If you never get a chance, you'll always be remembered as
one of us. Here you go.'"

Poplawski has never forgotten that game nor his former teammate,
although they fell out of touch after Allen was released later that
season. But earlier this summer, Poplawski got a surprise in his
mailbox. He received that same game ball, with Poplawski's original
inscription, in a package from Allan, now a retired teacher in the
Toronto area.

Jauch, for his part, loves his place in CFL lore and the part he
played in that memorable game so long ago.

"I never had a guy who kicked with either foot, and that was unique
to Joe," he says. "I always get a kick out of telling that
story."

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

[dd]

Joe Pop #71, my favourite Bomber reciever of all time, and a classy guy ta boot!!!

[Stats Junkie]

July 24, 1986 – In game 4 of the 1986 season, Trevor Kennerd injured his back when he recovered the opening kickoff. Joe Poplawski handled the field goal and converts for the rest of the game while Randy Fabi took over the kickoff chores.

Winnipeg signed Paul Osbaldiston who handled the kicking for the next 5 games. Osbaldiston went 5/5, including a kick from 51 yards out, in his first game. Many in the media proclaimed Osbaldiston as the kicker of the future. Osbaldiston struggled with his kicking over the next 4 games going a combined 4/10.

In his third game with the Blue Bombers, Paul Osbaldiston lost the kickoff duties as Randy Fabi took over in the second half of that game. One story that I read at some point suggests that Cal Murphy had lost all confidence in Osbaldiston prior to his 5th and final game in Winnipeg. Apparently Coach Cal told QB Tom Clements before the game that if Winnipeg was 3rd and medium between the 35 and 45 yard lines to be ready to gamble.

After 5 games as a Blue Bomber Paul Osbaldiston was released and the Bombers went with Joe Poplawski handling the field goal and convert duties while Randy Fabi continued to do the kickoffs. This would last for 3 games. The Blue Bombers lost some range with Poplawski on field goal duty but at least he kicked the ball straight.

Sept 11, 1986 - in game 2 of 3 with the Poplawski / Fabi combo, Joe Poplawski had some of the best kicks of his short career as a kicker. Poplawski connected on wind aided kicks of 45 and 42 yards in the game. On the final play of the first half, Poplawski took a lateral from QB John Hufnagel and punted the ball through the back of the end zone for a 75 yard single – it was the Bombers longest punt of the season. Randy Fabi suffered an injury in the game and Poplawski took over the kickoff duties as well. Joe Pop's 68 yard kickoff was the longest of the season by Blue Bomber to that point. The only kick that Poplawski remembered was the FG attempt he missed into a gale force wind on the final play of the game.

Joe Poplawski's final game as a kicker was Sept 18, 1986. Once again, Fabi got injured but this time it was Mike Hameluck who performed the final kickoff of the game.

Poplawski mentioned how difficult it was to play receiver and do the kicking in the same game. Quite often Poplawski would sit out the 2nd down plays once the team got into FG range so that he had time to rest and prepare for a field goal attempt. He also talked about how much energy it took to do a kickoff which is why he was just the backup to the backup.

In total, Joe Poplawski was 8/10 on field goals and a perfect 14/14 on converts.

Paul Osbaldiston finished 9/15 as a field goal kicker for Winnipeg.

[GOLDMEMBER]

dude - don't scare me like that, i saw the thread title and thought the absolute worst.

one of my all time favorites growing up!!

I thought the same. Perhaps more detailed topic titles could help our sanity.