Modest James had big impact

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This article was published 21/07/2016 (3365 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Gerry James spoke modestly about his induction into the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ Ring of Honour Thursday night at Investors Group Field.

“Either the Bombers have done a great selling job on what I accomplished or the fans have pretty darn good memories,” the fomer Bombers running back and kicker said after receiving a standing ovation from the Winnipeg faithful. “There’s a lot of young fans out there.”

His accomplishments with the club are anything but modest and require no sales job. Small impact? Not so much.

James, 81, won four Grey Cups during the club’s glory days in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was the first man to receive the Most Outstanding Canadian award, an honour he won twice. He led the team in rushing in three seasons, ranks fourth all-time in touchdowns and fifth in rushing yards over an 11-year career with the club.

“We were lucky to get 10 carries a game, there were three or four running backs here at the time,” James said. “We had a great group of guys. Our Canadian talent was incredible.”

A two-sport pro, James also won the Memorial Cup in 1955 and played 149 games in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He is, and probably will forever be, the only player to play in the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup final in the same season.

A tough guy, James remembers a particular rivalry with New York Rangers forward Eddie Shack.

“I caught him with his head down one night at Maple Leaf Gardens,” James said, grinning slightly. “He went up in the air and fell on his head and had to get stitches. Back then, you’d play the same team 14 times a year, so the next night we were in New York and I got run from behind and it was Eddie Shack.

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“He nailed me into the boards and I threw my gloves off. I was skating forward and he was skating backward and I hadn’t hit him yet. He was skating backward faster than I was forward. I never got a hold of him.”

James’ biggest regret was something out of his control.

Despite being named the league’s top Canadian twice, he was never handed the Tommy Lumsden Memorial Trophy for best Canadian on the Winnipeg roster.

“I always wanted it,” he said. “Tom and I used to go to practice together. In the 1953 season we rode together to every game. I always tried to do something in his honour (Lumsden, 25, died in 1955) and I never quite accomplished that.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @scottbilleck

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.