Legendary Bombers player, coach Grant headed to Ring of Honour

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/09/2016 (3355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The greatest head coach to ever roam the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ sideline will be inducted into the club’s Ring of Honour Friday night.

Bud Grant becomes the seventh inductee into the team’s newly-minted shrine honouring the club’s all-time greats at Investors Group Field. Grant’s name will hang alongside those of Chris Walby, Ken Ploen, Milt Stegall and the man Grant called the best player he ever coached, Leo Lewis, above the suites in the stadium’s 200-level.

In 2014, the team erected a statue of Grant outside the Bombers Store at IGF.

“I enjoyed playing so much. I enjoyed Winnipeg so much. I enjoyed my teammates so much. I enjoyed the atmosphere around the Bombers, Canadian football… everything,” Grant said in a release from the club Monday. “The town, the people… It wasn’t only the football, it was the whole experience.”

Before he led the club to four Grey Cup championships as the team’s field general, Grant played four seasons in blue and gold beginning in 1953 and was named a West Division All-Star three times. As a player, Grant still holds the CFL’s playoff record for most interceptions in a game with five, set on Oct. 28, 1953.

After retiring from the game in 1956, Grant assumed the controls as the team’s head coach and found immediate success leading the Bombers to the first of six Grey Cup appearances under his tutelage in 1957.

The 89-year-old racked up 102 regular season wins (118 total including playoffs) — a club record that still stands — and was named the CFL’s top coach in 1965.

“Bud Grant is not only a legend around these parts, but a legend in Minnesota and across both the CFL and NFL as well,” Bombers president and CEO Wade Miller said in the release. “After his career here in Winnipeg, he left for the Vikings and became an icon with that franchise, too. He is the first coach in history to appear in both the Grey Cup and Super Bowl. His accomplishments are truly incredible, and we couldn’t be happier to add his name to the Ring of Honour.”

Grant left the Bombers in 1966 to become the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL. There, he would lead the Vikings to four Super Bowls, the first coach in NFL history to do so. In 1976, Grant was named the NFL coach of the year. He remains the most successful coach in Vikings history.

Following Grant’s induction on Friday, the Bombers will add two more names to the Ring of Honour at their final two home games of the season. The club will continue to add names — one a year — beginning next season.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @scottbilleck

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott 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.