Golden years of the Blue and Gold

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/11/2018 (2878 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Football fans remember the late 1950s and the early 1960s as the glory years of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

After the 1956 season, Bud Grant, a 29 year old with no coaching experience, was given the head coaching position. Under his leadership, the Bombers reached the Grey Cup final in 1957 but lost 32-7 to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

In 1958, the team had a record of 13-3 and finished 12-4 the next season. Winnipeg went on to win the Grey Cup both years with victories over Hamilton.

It looked like more of the same in 1960. The Bombers had their best-ever regular season with 14 wins and just two losses, which included a streak of 10 victories. In order to reach a fourth straight Canadian final, the team had to eliminate the Edmonton Eskimos in a best-of-three Western final.  The Eskimos had built a dynasty in the mid-1950s and superstars Jackie Parker, Johnny Bright, Normie Kwong and Rollie Miles were still around.

In the first game in Edmonton, the visitors won 22-16 but star quarterback Kenny Ploen suffered a broken bone in his right hand. He had to sit out the second game in Winnipeg, so rookie quarterback Vernon Cole replaced him. The Eskimos prevailed 10-5 to force a third and deciding game at Winnipeg Stadium five days later on Nov. 19. Despite his heavily bandaged throwing hand, Ploen was given the controls by Grant.

The contest was a struggle for both teams with almost no offence. Late in the fourth quarter, the score was 2-1 — that’s no typo — for the Bombers.

In trying to run down the clock, Ploen called a quarterback keeper on a third-down, short-yardage play on the team’s 30-yard line.

In his history book, Blue Bombers 1930-1990 60 Years and Running, Jack Matheson simply described the play as Ploen being mugged by Gino Francas. The ball popped loose and Miles recovered for Edmonton. Parker faked a quick kick for a single and his pass to Jo-Bob Smith got the ball into field goal territory. With 10 seconds left, Tommy-Joe Coffey, who had missed earlier from 19 yards and was 0-5 for the series, kicked a field goal for a 4-2 Eskimos victory.

Nov. 19, 1960 is remembered as a dark day in the Bombers history. Winnipeg Free Press reporter Hal Sigurdson described the crowd of 18,600 as “unbelieving and stunned” as they left the stadium.
I was there, with my father Trevor, and still remember the feeling vividly. In writing about the game in Bob Irving’s book titled Blue & Gold, broadcaster Roger Currie described himself, as a 13-year-old, being inconsolable and unable to speak for several hours after the game.

Still led by the coaching leadership of Grant and the quarterbacking of Ploen, the Bombers brought the Grey Cup back to Winnipeg in 1961, beating the Tiger-Cats 21-14 in overtime.

The 1962 Grey Cup is known as the Fog Bowl. Visibility was so poor in the fourth quarter of the game in Toronto that it was suspended and concluded the following day. Winnipeg won its fourth title in five years, 28-27 over Hamilton.  

What may have made those teams so special in Blue Bomber lore was the strong Canadian contingent that lived in Manitoba year-round. Many American imports also made Winnipeg their permanent home. The Canadians in the lineup included George Druxman, Ed Kotowich, Cornel Piper, Steve Patrick, Roger Savoie, Gordie Rowland, Ron Latourelle, Norm Rauhaus, Cec Luining, Gerry James, Henry Janzen, Nick Miller and Ron Meadmore.

Sadly, both Piper and Rowland passed away this fall.

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