Big Blue brace for Leos

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This article was published 05/11/2023 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have found their date for the Western Final, with the B.C. Lions booking their ticket to IG Field after defeating the Calgary Stampeders in the division’s semifinal Saturday evening.

It’s the second straight year the first-place Bombers will meet the second-place Lions for a chance to play in the Grey Cup. Winnipeg earned that honour last year with a 28-20 victory before falling to the Toronto Argonauts by a point in the championship game.

While it’s the second time the Bombers will play B.C. in as many years, it’s the fourth consecutive Western final they’ll be a part of. It’s a streak that first began with a win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2019, with the Bombers going on to defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to snap their Grey Cup drought after 29 years.

In fact, dating back to the 1958 season, the first official CFL season, the Bombers have played in 30 division finals — split between the West and East — and earned 16 wins, resulting in nine Grey Cups. The Bombers are hoping to add a 13th league title in 2023, a victory that would cement this era’s team as a CFL dynasty.

But rather than look too far ahead, let’s take a glance back at some of the more memorable Finals the Bombers have been a part of. There were plenty of options, but we’ve narrowed it down to the top five.

1) 2019 West Final — Score: Winnipeg 20 @ Saskatchewan 13

This isn’t recency bias. The 2019 West Final was not only among the most entertaining and nail-biting affairs ever to be played, the fact it came after a dominating road win in Calgary against the Stampeders in the semifinal the week before made the victory all the more impressive.

Playing in front of a sold-out crowd at Mosaic Stadium, the Bombers led right down to the wire, before narrowly escaping with the win after a late surge from the Riders.

“It was like watching a thriller movie and the suspenseful part lasts six minutes and you just want to see what happens,” Bombers receiver Drew Wolitarksy said at the time. “It’s a crazy feeling and I don’t know any other thing I’ve ever done that I could use to express it.”

“I think my heart stopped and went again like three or four times,” added receiver Nic Demski. “I was just kind of playing peek-a-boo with myself, covering one eye and seeing what was going on out there.”

A Bombers game-sealing interception was called back. Then a missed interception led to a Riders completed pass and a new set of downs with seconds remaining on the clock, the home side trailing by just a TD.

But despite three attempts at finding the end zone, the Bombers defence proved to be too much to handle. The game ultimately ended with then-Saskatchewan QB Cody Fajardo connecting with the crossbar of the uprights, immediately making it a dead play.

The Bombers would go on to beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, in Calgary, to snap their Grey Cup drought of nearly 30 years.

2) 1984 West Final — Score: Winnipeg 31 @ B.C. 14

This was another victory for the Bombers in enemy territory, with BC Place packed to the back rows, just hundreds short of 60,000. The Lions finished two points ahead of the Bombers in the West standings, with the season-series split one game apiece.

The Bombers were riding high off a 55-20 victory over Edmonton in the semifinal a week earlier, and they managed to carry that momentum into their tilt with the Lions. The Bombers, who were led by a three-touchdown performance from QB Tom Clements, led 17-7 at halftime before allowing just seven points to the Lions in the final 30 minutes, including none in the fourth quarter.

The win was significant for many reasons, but none greater than the fact it had been 19 years since the Bombers had punched their ticket to the Grey Cup, last playing in the championship game in 1965, in what’s widely known as the “Wind Bowl.” To show their appreciation, fans showed up to the Winnipeg airport to welcome the boys home, with police estimating between 2,500-3,500 people.

“We lost about a dozen ceiling tiles because a few of the fans were throwing around a football and volleyball,” then-terminal manager George Elliott told the Free Press at the time. “We lost four benches and the base of an advertising sign was broken, but really, nothing expensive was lost.”

The Bombers capped the season off with a dominating 47-17 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Grey Cup, giving Winnipeg its first championship since 1962.

3) 1962 West Final (Best of three series) — Game 1: Winnipeg 14 @ Calgary 20; Game 2: Winnipeg 19 vs. Calgary 11; Game 3: Winnipeg 12 vs. Stampeders 7.

This was during the era where the winner of the West final was determined over a best-of-three series, with the first game played in Calgary before moving to Winnipeg for the final two. It’s important to note that all three games were played over a single week, between Nov. 17-24.

Calgary took the first game, followed by a Winnipeg victory in the second tilt, setting up an exciting winner-takes-all Game 3 in the River City. In what has a serious have-to-see-it-to-believe-it feel, the Bombers won the game on the final play, when, following a missed field, Harvey Wylie’s attempt to punt the ball out of the end zone — a move that would have preserved a one-point victory — instead resulted in a game-clinching touchdown for Winnipeg.

The lede for the game story by Winnipeg Free Press reporter Hal Sigurdson went as follows: “Harvey Wylie is intelligent, talented, forthright, imaginative and courteous. Today he probably wishes he were dead.”

The Bombers would go on to beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 28-27, in the Grey Cup.

4) 1958 West Final (Best of three series) — Game 1: Winnipeg 30 @ Edmonton; Game 2: Winnipeg 7 vs. Edmonton 7; Game 3: Winnipeg 23 vs. Edmonton 7

This year marked the first official CFL season following the merger between the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union and the Western Interprovincial Football Union. After each team earned identical 30-7 victories while playing on the road, Winnipeg claimed the best-of-three series with a 23-7 win at home.

The victory is widely known as the end of Edmonton’s dominance in the three-down game at the time. Edmonton finished atop the Western Division standings for five straight years, between 1953 and 1957, winning the Grey Cup three times over that stretch.

But in ’58, the Elks finished second and would finish second for four straight years, unable to win another Grey Cup until the 1975 season. As for the Bombers, it was the beginning of the dominating Bud Grant era, with Winnipeg winning the Grey Cup four times in five years, between 1958 and 1962.

5) 1988 East Final — Score: Winnipeg 27 @ Toronto 11

This one breaks from the West theme, moving over to the East, a division the Bombers have competed in for several years over the club’s history. What stood out most from this game was how heavily favoured the Argonauts were, having finished the ’88 season a CFL-best 14-4, while the Bombers finished second in the East at 9-9.

In what was the final game played at Exhibition Stadium, the Bombers weren’t just good, they were dominant for much of the 60 minutes. There were plenty of standout performances on the day, including a solid effort from QB Sean Salisbury, but few had as big an impact as cornerback Rod Hill, who finished with a tackle, a blocked punt, a fumble recovery, a touchdown, a knock down and an interception.

“Just another day at the office for Rod,” a grinning head coach Mike Riley told the Free Press after the game. “I’m not surprised, though, he’s been doing it all season.”

What made it particularly sweet for the Blue and Gold was that it avenged the year before, when the Bombers hosted the Argos in the East final and lost. Winnipeg completed the run with a Grey Cup victory, narrowly edging the 10-8 B.C. Lions by the slimmest of margins, 22-21, in Ottawa.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jeffkhamilton