The story behind the photo: Winnipeg Blue Bombers alumnus Stan Mikawos By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 12:00 PM CST Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025

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In this installment of the Story Behind the Photo series, Free Press sports reporter Joshua Frey-Sam takes Winnipeg Blue Bombers alumnus Stan Mikawos down memory lane, with the Bombers legend explaining the story behind three photos from his career.

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Josh: Hey, what’s going on everybody? Josh Frey-Sam here with the Winnipeg Free Press, back with another installment of our Winnipeg Blue Bombers alumni series as a part of our rollout to Grey Cup 112 right here at Princess Auto Stadium.

Pleased to be joined by a gentleman who is no stranger to this suite, probably for most of his career referred to as underrated, but certainly not unappreciated by this organization and the fanbase. He spent 15 years right here in the Manitoba capital playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a three-time Great Cup champion, 1993 East Division All-Star, Stan Mikawos.

Stan: Pleasure.

Josh: Thank you very much for joining me here today, man. So, Stan, the game here is simple today. I got three pictures for you from three different moments in your career, and I’m hoping you can just kind of take us on a trip down memory lane if you would.

Stan: If I can remember.

Josh: Yeah, right. I’m sure it’ll conjure up some decent memories.

Stan: It’s been a while.

Josh: That’s fair, man. Hey, so the first one here we got is from 1984 Grey Cup, and this is a game in which you and the Bombers won handily over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. I’ll give that for you to look over.

Now, this is probably one of the more memorable photos from this game because this is you, Stan, scoring a touchdown. A big man scoring a touchdown is certainly not a common thing.

Can you take us back to that play for starters? What are you thinking when you see the ball on the ground, and then what are you thinking as you run and you actually reach the end zone and you say, ‘Oh man, I just scored a touchdown in the Grey Cup?’

Stan: Yeah. Well, that was my third year with the Bombers, and I remember the play like it was yesterday. Just getting off the line, I saw Tyrone Jones rushing the quarterback, Dieter Brock, from the side, and as I was approaching, Dieter dropped the ball.

I picked it up, scooped it up, and ran, and I had some, you know, Tony Norman and a few other guys blocking for me. I thought I ran 80, 70, 80 yards, but that was more like 20 yards.

It was a turning point for the game, and after that we pretty well took the momentum and won the game. It was, yeah, the highlight of my career, my life.

Josh: Right. And I was going to ask you about — I want to ask you about that in just a second — had you scored before then ever in a football game, and have you scored since then in a football game?

Stan: That’s not our position. That’s not our job. Yeah, I did. In college. In college, I did. Yeah, it was a similar type of play in college, but nothing here, but, you know, we’re not paid to be —

Josh: Of course, of course.

Stan: — running backs. But yeah, no, it was quite the game, yeah.

Josh: You mentioned for you, you call it the highlight of your career. Is that fair to say, then, it certainly does rank at the top for you? I mean, obviously, you’re a three-time Grey Cup champion. You’ve accomplished a lot as teams, you’ve accomplished a lot as an individual, of course. That does, it seems like, rank pretty high for you, then, in your career.

Stan: On a personal level, you know, I mean, it’s something, you know, like you say, turning point of the game, you know. And we hadn’t won the Grey Cup — I think it was for about 23 years prior to. So yeah, right after that, once again, we won the game, and I was kind of the hero for the day.

Josh: Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, hey, Stan, that was a great one. Let’s go from what I think is a good photo to what I think is a great photo here.

This is 1990, we go from your first Grey Cup victory to now your third and final one. This is in the locker room after the 1990 Grey Cup win over Edmonton. Another runaway victory for you guys, 50-11 over Edmonton in that one. And this is you hoisting the silver mug while getting soaked with champagne.

Stan: Yes.

Josh: You’ve been a part of three — you’ve been inside three locker rooms after winning it all. Can you describe for us, what is that feeling inside a locker room after a win?

Stan: The euphoria is amazing. You know, obviously, you work hard all year to get to that position. And that team, that year, we had a powerhouse defence and I think, I can’t remember if we scored two touchdowns, but anyway, we controlled the game. And it was something, you know, the friendships you build to this day, we still talk — a lot of the guys still talk to each other, and it’s, you can’t describe it.

Josh: Right.

Stan: It’s, you know, it’s something that you work for your whole season.

Josh: You talked about the friendships with that. And that 1990 season, a solid season. I think you guys went 12-6 in the regular season, you guys have a Most Outstanding Defensive Player on your team, you have a Coach of the Year on your team. A lot of great stuff happens in that season. But I’m wondering, what comes to your mind when you think about that 1990 season? What is maybe the most memorable thing for you?

Stan: For the ’90 season, just the defence, you know, a great battle, the defensive players that we had that year. It was just phenomenal. I mean, it was just — basically, you know, we controlled the game, our destiny at that time. And that was quite the, yeah, quite the moment. A lot of guys I still, once again, still talk to, and it was an experience that was just great.

Josh: No question. No question. I’ll grab that one back from you. Let’s go on to our final picture here. And this is — we’re fast forwarding now to June of 2000. This is the day that you were inducted officially into the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Hall of Fame.

You are beside Chris Walby, Earle Hiebert as a part of that induction class. You’ve got a really cool story in your own right in the fact that you’re born in Poland, you come over to Winnipeg, you turned out to not be so bad at football, and you obviously make a career out of that. Thinking about all of that, what did that day mean to you to actually — for it to culminate in an induction?

Stan: Well, it was a proud moment for me, you know, being a Winnipegger, a kid from the city and playing my whole career for the Bombers.

Josh: Right.

Stan: Yeah. And once again, Chris and I are still really good friends. It was an honour. You know, it was quite the honour and, you know, to have, like I say, to be honoured in that way, especially a young kid from another country and coming over here, right?

Josh: Yeah.

Stan: I’m not saying, ‘Woe is me,’ but it was good. It was something to be cherished, that’s for sure.

Josh: Absolutely. I want to finish on this note — you say it’s something to be cherished. When you were playing, I mentioned at the top, you were a guy I think a lot of people would call underrated, but certainly not unappreciated. How did you want to be remembered while you were playing?

Stan: You know, our defence was pretty regimented. My position was my position. I had those responsibilities and I just wanted to be, you know, just the guy that did the job in the middle. The tough guy that did it. The tough Polack that did the job.

Josh: Oh, you got your hard hat on and you go to your work boots and you go to work every day.

Stan: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. It was a great career – 15 years on the same team – you’re not gonna see too much of that going on anymore, but yeah.

Josh: That’s fantastic. Stan, man, thank you very much for the time. I really appreciate it. That’s going to do it for us on this edition of our Winnipeg Blue Bombers Alumni Series.

As a part of our wrap up to Great Cup 112 right here at Princess Auto Stadium, ladies and gentlemen, be sure to check back at winnipegfreepress.com all week for new editions. We’ll see you guys next time.