Inductees seal spot in history

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This article was published 21/03/2018 (2944 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the snow melting and football in the air as CFL Week gets underway in Winnipeg, the Manitoba Football Hall of Fame saw it as the perfect time to announce its class of 2018.

The inductees — including four players, three coaches, two officials and two teams — were made official in a small ceremony Wednesday at the Manitoba Sport Hall of Fame.

“The inductees this year, our committee reviewed several inductees and the inductees were unanimous in terms of getting inducted into the Hall this year,” said Bud Ulrich, chairman of the Hall. “They played such a significant role in contributing to the game of football. Manitoba has a vast knowledge of those kind of people who have contributed to the game.”

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie was honoured as one of the four players. Knowing Ambrosie would be in his hometown for CFL Week — a five-day event that honours CFL players of the past, present and future and which kicked off Wednesday and goes through Sunday — the committee was sure to accommodate the league’s top official.

“To be selected and acknowledged for something you’ve done… it is an honour,” Ambrosie said. “You’re in a very small and rarefied air and I try to enjoy that because it is an acknowledgment of a lot of hard work. But for me, the biggest thing is the people that helped me get here.”

Growing up in Winnipeg, Ambrosie played his minor football with the East Side Eagles, the East Kildonan Lions and the St. Vital Mustangs before spending four years at the University of Manitoba. He went on to play in the CFL, where he played with the Calgary Stampeders (1985-87), Toronto Argonauts (1987-88) and Edmonton Eskimos (1989-93), where he won a Grey Cup in his final year.

Three other players also entered the Hall on Wednesday: Israel Idonije, another former Bison who went on to play 11 seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Chicago Bears; Gary Rosolowich, who was considered to be one of the best running backs ever to play in the Winnipeg High School Football League (WHSFL) and went on to play for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers; and Rick Koswin, who first had stops with the Sisler Spartans and Bisons before also making the jump to the CFL, with the Bombers.

Rick Hudson, Paul Normandeau and Richard Wowchuk rounded out the inductees in the coach’s category. Hudson has his fingerprints all over the WHSFL, beginning as a coach with Sisler, where he won several titles, and then as the league’s commissioner. As commissioner, he’s credited with introducing “tiering” into the league, which resulted in substantial growth of teams and players.

Normandeau began coaching six-man and bantam football with the Winakwa C.C. in 1971.

He moved on to Churchill High School (1975-76, 1979-87), winning championships in 1981 and 1983, before leading the Kelvin Clippers (1988-01), where he also won two titles, St. Paul’s High School and finally West Kildonan Collegiate.

Wowchuk, the current MLA for Swan River, first started playing football in Swan Valley, where he returned to coach for 32 years. He led the Swan Valley Secondary School to the rural provincial title in 1993 and 1996.

Perhaps there is no football official more prominent in the province over the past four decades than Ken Lazaruk, who was a CFL official for 32 years and participated in 11 Grey Cup games.

He has spent the past nine years as the league’s supervisor of officials for games in Winnipeg and Regina.

Bob Toth rounds out the officials category. Toth, due to failing health, was honoured last September.

He spent his entire life playing and giving back to the game before his death last year. Not to be confused for a one-trick pony, Toth also excelled at track, as well as hockey and baseball.

With a number of former members of the team in the crowd, loud applause erupted when the 1956 Daniel McIntyre Maroons were announced. A powerhouse for years, it was the 1956 team that stood out among the others for going undefeated that year.

The 1968 and 1969 St. Vital Senior Bulldogs rounded out the day of inductees. After finishing as the runner-up in 1967, the Bulldogs were back-to-back national champions the next two years, including the final national title at the senior level in 1969.

“I listen to these people talk about their experiences and you realize how rich of a history we have with football in this province,” said Bill Johnson, executive director of Football Manitoba. “It’s amazing some of the accomplishments these people have had and how deep-rooted their legacies are.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @jeffkhamilton