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

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

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

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

Pleased to be joined by today by a man who brought a lot of fans to their feet over the course of his five seasons with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a two-time Grey Cup champion, two-time CFL All-Star and the club’s all-time interception leader with 47, Rod Hill. Rod, thank you very much for joining me, man.

Rod: Thank you for asking me.

Josh: Absolutely. Rod, today’s pretty simple, probably a lot more simple than anything you had to do on a football field. We’re gonna to be talking about three different moments from your career and all I ask of you is to take us on a trip down memory lane if you would.

Rod: I can do that.

Josh: All right, let’s do it then. First one we’re going to start with is a really nice photo from 1989, a regular-season (game). I’ll give this to you to have a look over.

This is a game against the Calgary Stampeders in 1989 in which you are doing what you do best and that is breaking up passes. Take us back to ’89 because I feel like that’s in a way a forgotten season with a lot of Bomber fans. You guys had the Grey Cup in ’88, you had the Grey Cup in ’90, and then this middle season in ’89, take us back to that one. Didn’t yield a Grey Cup, yielded your first All-Star nod though. What do you remember from ’89?

Rod: Disappointment, because the Grey Cup was actually held here in ’89.

Josh: Okay.

Rod: And we weren’t able to make that final swing. That was very disappointing for me and my teammates. But ’89 — it definitely was a motivation for going into 1990.

Josh: Yeah.

Rod: I think some people believe in 1988 we might have been a fluke and in 1989 we played well but we just wasn’t really that good to get over the hump. In 1990 we were overwhelming for sure.

Josh: Right. What was the motivation like? You mention the ’88 Grey Cup. Did you guys have — you mentioned disappointing, the confidence, it must have been really high for you guys going into ’89, though, right?

Rod: For sure.

Josh: I mean the confidence, the motivation, all that. Could you maybe just speak to that?

Rod: I think the biggest part was — we needed to settle that quarterback position. And once we get that quarterback’s position settled in 1990, that solved all our problems. But in 1989 we was trying to figure out who we were. We were 9-9 in 1988. 1989 we had our ups and downs. We just weren’t consistent. A lot of injuries as well. But in 1990 they came together for sure.

Josh: Let’s — I’ll grab that one back from you. Let’s move on to number two here. And this is a really nice photo from 1990.

Now this — the last one did not yield a Grey Cup but this one did yield a Grey Cup this season.

This is from the regular-season game in August against B.C., a game in which you had an interception. One of your 12 interceptions on that season. And I think you had five in one game that season as a part of, in one game, pardon me, as a part of an All-Star worthy campaign. How much fun was that 1990 season? You had Les Brown on the — you had Les Brown on the other side catching 14 interceptions as well.

Rod: Yes, Les had 14.

Josh: You guys were taking the ball away at unprecedented rates.

Rod: I think Greg Battle had maybe five or six, James West might have four or five, (Darryl) Sampson. I mean it was a very good defence. I think, I’m pretty sure there’s better football players than we were, but we were a very good football team on defence. There’s no question about that.

Josh: No question.

Rod: Tyrone Jones and Greg Battle and Paul Randolph. I mean, those guys could play.

Josh: Yeah. I was just talking to Brandon Alexander for this series and B.A. talked about the fact that in 2021, that team had a feeling early on that they were just destined for the Grey Cup. And it was simple as that. I’m wondering with 1990, did you guys have a similar feeling of that? And how early on did you have that feeling that you guys were maybe the team to beat?

Rod: I think once we came out of training camp as a defensive team, we knew we were good. And, you know, some people always get frustrated about, ‘Oh, the offence made a play.’ We just get excited when the offence made a mistake because we can go back out there and play. That was our motto: ‘Let’s go play.’

Josh: Yeah, no doubt. And that 1990 season, obviously special for a lot of reasons. And that leads us to our last picture here.

That is going to lead us to what is — it’s really the photo, Rod. I mean, this is, when people think about you, people from the Bombers, Bombers fans around that time, when they think about you, this might be the image that is burned into their memory forever.

I feel like I can hear this picture. I feel like I can hear you. Take us back to that moment. You hoisting the silver mug over your head after a runaway victory against Edmonton in Vancouver there. Take us back to that moment. And what were you feeling in that moment?

Rod: I think — our offence was so overwhelming that day as far as putting up 55 points and our defence played super football. Greg Battle played probably one of the best games I’ve seen a football player play. I was so excited for my teammates and how we had won that. I just — I don’t know why I just grabbed it and start getting excited because it was overwhelming. No question about that.

Josh: Yeah.

Rod: And we were the underdogs coming in.

Josh: But you guys — that wasn’t even close.

Rod: No, that wasn’t close. That was, that was a track meet.

Josh: No doubt. I wanted to also ask you — and we can finish up on this — you obviously have two to your name and on your resumé, two Grey Cups. Number two to number one, again, that’s such a — that’s such a well-known shot of you. How did number two compared to number one?

Rod: I think — I think the second one was, was better for me in 1990. I think it was better for all my teammates as well, because we were really disappointed in 1989 season.

Josh: Yeah.

Rod: I mean, that was kind of heartfelt, especially with the Grey Cup being in Winnipeg and we had high expectations myself. We just didn’t meet him. But in 1990, we were firing on all cylinders. There’s no question about that. We were a very good football team.

Josh: No question. Rod —

Rod: Thank you.

Josh: — that’s all I have for you, man. I appreciate you taking out some time. That’s going to do it for us on this edition of our Winnipeg Blue Bombers alumni series as a part of our ramp up to Grey Cup 112 right here at Princess Auto Stadium. We’ll see you guys next time.

Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.

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