Fans celebrate ’90 Cup champs

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This article was published 02/07/2015 (3753 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It isn’t hard to pick Chris Walby out of a lineup.

The former Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman is a large man by anyone’s standards, the kind of size that demands respect whenever he walks into a room. Or, as was the case Thursday night, even a large open space.

But it wasn’t his intimidating stature that made him pop out of a crowd of hundreds but the line of people that at one point looked to be a permanent attachment of his body.

There Walby was, on the eve of the Bombers’ home opener, in the middle of a group of fans, young and old, signing autographs, posing for pictures and even embracing his admirers with open arms, hugging anyone and everyone willing to steal a rare moment with their old idol.

“I’m actually humbled that they still, for an old guy like me, an old fossil, they still line up for me,” said Walby, who dismissed his half-hour meet-and-greet quota like he did opposing defensive lineman during his 16-year CFL career, sticking around well over an hour later to make sure he got everyone.

“Growing up in the North End, being a kid from Winnipeg is a huge part of it. And I love and respected the fact that we aren’t playing unless we have fans.”

Walby was just one of a number of Winnipeg’s 1990 Grey Cup-winning team plunked in chairs signing autographs before the game.

Like the team did for the 1988 Cup champs, the 25-year reunion for the ’90 champions was given special recognition during a break between the third and fourth quarter Thursday’s game.

One by one, fans took turns getting everything from jerseys to footballs to even game-day programs dating back to the Bombers glory years of the mid-’80s and early ’90s, signed.

Theresa Zacharias proudly stateed she’s been a fan for every one of her 58 years. Now a third generation Blue and Gold supporter, she marvelled at the chance to meet some of the players she remembers watching, even when she was forced to move to enemy territory.

“Thirty-nine years in Saskatchewan and I stayed true blue,” she said.

Asked what it meant to get the chance to meet some of her favourite players, her appreciation started to ooze.

“It’s a dream come true meeting these guys. It’s one thing to watch them on TV over the years but it’s something else to meet them in person and they’re just unbelievably nice guys.”

The group included the likes of former defensive coach Dave Ritchie, offensive lineman Bob Molle, quarterback Danny McManus, running back Terry Cochrane, punter Bob Cameron and kicker Trevor Kennerd to name a few.

“The 1950s and ’60s are known as the glory years for the Blue Bombers but the end of the ’80s and early ’90s were something else,” said Kennerd.

“For me, it was an absolute treat and a joy and an honour just to be on that team.”

But as great as it was for fans to cheer for the Bombers’ last Grey Cup victory, it also provided a stark reminder of the team’s current 25-year drought, something Kennerd used as an opportunity to remind current Bombers fans of the past.

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“We know exactly what the current Blue Bomber players are feeling and thinking because in the early ’80s or late ’70s, when a lot of these guys came to Winnipeg, this team was on a 22-year Grey Cup drought,” said Kennard, before closing with a bit of hope.

“The teams over the last 25 years have been good. This 2015 Winnipeg Blue Bomber team, they have to realize they can do it, they can play in the Grey Cup game this year.”

But until that happens, glory remains in the rear-view mirror.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.