Boom Boom Benson was a pure all-rounder

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This article was published 14/05/2014 (4212 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lorne Benson is best remembered by Winnipeg sports fans as a running back with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

In 1952, he was named rookie-of-the-year in the West. In 1953, Benson set a CFL playoff record that still stands by scoring six touchdowns in a semi-final against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The legendary broadcaster Cactus Jack Wells reportedly tagged him with the nickname “Boom Boom” for his rough, tough style of play. Torn ligaments early in the 1956 season led to the end of  his Bombers career.

Benson was born in Riverton, Man., in 1930. Being born there qualified him for consideration by the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame for induction at a special Interlake regional induction dinner on May 24 in Selkirk. The selection committee decided to honour him as an all-round athlete in recognition of his accomplishments in several sports, not just football.
Boom Boom grew up in Winnipeg’s West End, north of Portage Avenue. Like most boys of the time, he played several sports and even boxed. In 1948, he played baseball for Morse Place Monarchs and pitched in the Greater Winnipeg Junior League all-star game. That fall, Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate won the Winnipeg High School Football championship with Benson an all-star at halfback. Moving to junior football, he helped Weston Wildcats win the Manitoba championship the next season and was the junior league’s MVP in 1950.

His pitching arm earned him a trip to a Washington Senators tryout camp and stints in Grandview and with the Calgary Purity 99 team. Benson played defence in hockey and won the 1952-53 Winniboine Intermediate League title with Winnipeg Kings. A hard-hitting infielder in fastball, he played senior A during the 1960s with Monte Casino Legion, Merchant’s Hotel and Concord Motor Hotel. In 1967, the short-staffed Molson Canadians team added Benson as pickup for the playoff round of the Canadian championship in Saskatoon. With Benson playing first base in the final game, Canadians won our province’s only national senior men’s title.  
One day at the West End Memorial diamond, Manitoba Softball hall-of-famer Lorne Jasper, of Kiewel Seals, slid into third base a little too aggressively for the quick-tempered Benson. When Benson went after Jasper, Kiewels manager Claude Gagnon grabbed Benson in the hope of stopping him. Softball HOF president Al Sharpe, who played for Seals, confirmed the tale.
“We can still picture Claude holding onto Boom Boom around the ankles and being dragged behind him as he tried to get to Lorne,” Sharpe said.

Benson also curled and reached the men’s provincial championship with Lyle Henry’s Strathcona team in 1962. He later skipped his own rink and once scored an eight-ender in a club game.

Did Benson win a Manitoba boxing title? Did he play defence for the senior Winnipeg Maroons?

Did he pitch three consecutive no-hitters in junior baseball and pro for the Vancouver Mounties?

Did he coach Churchill to 28 straight victories and a northern Manitoba intermediate hockey title? His biography in the 1999 edition of Who’s Who in Canadian Sport says he did — but did he?

Determining what is fact and what is fiction is difficult when it comes to Benson’s sports career and the stories that go with it.

Benson died in Innisfail, Alta., in 2012 but family members from as far away as California will be in Selkirk for his HOF induction.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com