Bombers taking Grey Cup on trans-continental journey

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This article was published 27/01/2022 (1411 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It looked like Chris Kolankowski’s professional football career was over.

After three years with the Toronto Argonauts, the Etobicoke, Ont., native was released prior to the 2019 season’s training camp. Kolankowski waited, and then waited some more, but nobody picked up the phone and offered him a contract. The best his agent could do for him was suggest he attend a Winnipeg Blue Bombers free agent camp in September in Cincinnati, Ohio.

You don’t often hear of Canadians driving down south to get a look from CFL teams. It wasn’t the ideal opportunity, but it was something.

“I just needed to do whatever I could to get in front of some people to show them that I could still play,” Kolankowski told the Free Press in a phone interview.

The trip ended up being worthwhile. Three months after the Blue and Gold hoisted the Grey Cup over their heads for the first time in 28 years, the club signed Kolankowski to a deal for 2020. Thanks to the cancelled season, Kolankowski was forced to head into 2021 training camp coming off two years without football. The 29-year-old York University product felt some rust, but was able to knock enough of it off to get signed to the practice roster and that’s where he would remain for the majority of the season. He ended up dressing for two regular season games and was on the active roster for the Grey Cup victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Kolankowski — who also won a Grey Cup with the Argos in 2017 — might not be a household name in Bomberland, but he’s a prime example of how winning a championship means something to everyone that was along for the journey, no matter what their role on the team was.

“I had to pick up a couple jobs to keep income coming in while I was training for football. One was good experience, one was decent money, but they were both just miserable jobs. You’d have to work 12 hours then go work out after that. So to be on the field after we won the Grey Cup, it was surreal thinking about all those days where I had to be out of the house for 16 hours before getting home, waking up and doing it all over again,” said Kolankowski, who signed a two-year extension with the Bombers earlier this month.

“The first time I won it was really special because 2017 was my first Grey Cup. But this one is just special because of the group we have in the locker room and the journey to get to that point.”

One of the perks of being a champion is getting to spend a day with the Grey Cup and it was Kolankowski’s turn Wednesday. Kolankowski’s older brother Michael is a cop in Toronto so he started the day by bringing it down to the police station. From there, Kolankowski showcased it to his former club football coach Russ Hoff and his current group of players before ending the day on a heated bar patio with friends (Ontario currently forbids indoor dining).

He also had quite a few Argos fans express to him their appreciation for the Bombers spoiling Hamilton’s Grey Cup party.

“I got a lot of that,” Kolankowski said with a laugh.

“My mom’s retired but the people she used to work with are Argos season ticket holders. So, when I brought it to my parents’ house in the evening for a couple hours they came by and were like ‘Thank god you guys won it.’”

The Grey Cup has been making the rounds since the Bombers prevailed 33-25 in overtime on Dec. 12. It went on a trip to Texas for defensive ends Jackson Jeffcoat and Willie Jefferson to spend some time with the trophy. It has also made the rounds in Winnipeg as Andrew Harris got a chance to take a video of himself eating Corn Pops out of it and Nic Demski shared it with some up-and-comers at a youth football training session. The Cup is now on an east coast tour and will likely head out west in February. The current plan is for Zach Collaros to eventually get a turn with it in his hometown of Steubenville, Ohio, as well. Thursday was running back Johnny Augustine’s time with the top prize in three-down football. The Niagara, Ont., resident enjoyed it with his godchildren, took it to his high school, drove it out to Hamilton for Neil Lumsden, his old running backs coach at the University of Guelph, before ending the night with some of his closest friends and family members.

“Hey, if I had it for a week I would spread it out,” Augustine said while driving back from Hamilton.

“But one day? I gotta do what I gotta do.”

It was a dream come true for Augustine as he remembers back in 2012 when offensive lineman Chris Van Zeyl — who, in an odd coincidence, plays for Hamilton now — won the Grey Cup with Toronto. Van Zeyl brought the cup to his alma mater Notre Dame College School — the same high school that Augustine attended.

“I said to myself that I wanted to do the same thing one day,” Augustine said.

“To go there, see old teachers and see the young guys, that was very special to me.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31