Bombers add QB Jack Jacobs to ring of honour at IGF

Posted: 1:13 PM CDT Monday, Jul. 10, 2017

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have named quarterback Jack Jacobs, an all-time great, as the 10th inductee to the CFL club's ring of honour at Investors Group Field.

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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have named quarterback Jack Jacobs, an all-time great, as the 10th inductee to the CFL club's ring of honour at Investors Group Field.

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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have named quarterback Jack Jacobs, an all-time great, as the 10th inductee to the CFL club’s ring of honour at Investors Group Field.

Jacobs arrived in Winnipeg in 1950 after a seven-year career in the NFL (Cleveland Rams, Washington Redskins and Green Bay Packers) and became the first quarterback in pro football to throw for 3,000 yards and 30 touchdowns in a season (3,248 and 33 in 1951).

The Bombers went 46-27-3 with Jacobs at the controls, appearing in two Grey Cups (1950 and 1953) but losing both, and by the time he retired from football, Jacobs was the Bombers’ all-time leading passer. He was a CFL all-star in 1950, ’51 and ’52.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Jack Jacobs, circa 1953. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Jacobs’ heroics generated fan interest in the club and, in turn, helped grow momentum for the construction of Winnipeg Stadium at Polo Park, which opened in 1953. The stadium was dubbed “the House that Jack Built.”

“Jack Jacobs revived a football town that had been craving an electrifying player for years,” club president and CEO Wade Miller said in a release. “With Jack’s help, the attendance at home games over his career more than doubled, making the construction of a new, larger stadium possible.”

Jacobs was part of the inaugural class of inductees when the Canadian Football Hall of Fame opened its doors in 1963. He was also in the first class of the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame, which opened in 1984. Jacobs, from Holdenville, Okla., died in 1974 at the age of 54. He is also a member of the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.

Jacobs will be the only inductee this season. One alumnus will be added to the club’s ring of honour each year.

The first nine names were announced when the Bombers unveiled the ring of honour last season: Herb Gray, Leo Lewis, Milt Stegall, Ken Ploen, Chris Walby, Gerry James, Dieter Brock, Bud Grant and Doug Brown were the inaugural honourees.