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Bombers to induct Bud Grant into Ring of Honour, a much-deserved addition

Bombers to induct Bud Grant into Ring of Honour, a much-deserved addition

H.P. "Bud" Grant is one of the most legendary coaches and figures in CFL history, and he'll get some much-deserved extra recognition from his old team Friday when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers induct him into their Ring of Honour. There's already a statue of Grant in front of Investors Group Field, but it's more than fitting to have Grant inducted into the team's Ring of Honour (which is new this year) as well. He's just the seventh inductee, and he's a truly deserving one for what he did for the Bombers.

Grant first came to Winnipeg as a receiver in 1953 after two successful NFL seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. He led the Eagles in sacks as a defensive lineman in 1951, then switched to offence and was the NFL's second-leading receiver in 1952 with 997 yards on fifty-six catches, but wasn't impressed with their contract offer after the season and left to take a better offer from the Bombers.

Grant had four great receiving seasons with Winnipeg, leading the Western Conference in catches in 1953, 1954 and 1956, earning three all-star nods, and leading the conference in yards in 1953 and 1956. He also played well on defence, recording a still-standing record of five interceptions in a single playoff game in 1953. What's particularly remarkable, though, is how he narrowly missed the 1956 plane crash that killed five CFL stars, and how that led to him getting a head coaching job at age 29. Here's more on that, from the Bombers' Ed Tait:

Back in the 1950s, the Canadian Football League held an all-star game in Vancouver after the regular season. Grant, as one of the league’s best, was selected to play. But Grant changed his plans to head out to Vancouver earlier and the original flight on which he was scheduled to depart – Trans Canada Air Lines Flight 810 crashed into Mount Slesse, killing all 62 passengers, including Bomber Calvin Jones.

In the days following that tragedy, and while still in Vancouver, Grant got a phone call from then-Bomber president Jim Russell.

“They said they wanted to see me when I got back to Winnipeg,” Grant recalled. “My family had already gone to Minneapolis and I was anxious to get home… but they didn’t tell me what they wanted to talk to me about. I thought I had probably been traded. Who knows what goes through your mind.

“But it ended up that they asked me if I was interested in coaching. I was not prepared for that question. I had just had a good year, I was on the top of my game and I was just 29 years old. I said, ‘Well, you’ve got to let me think about that a little bit. I’ll go home and talk to you in a couple of days.’ I started to think about how long I could play. I was still in good shape and had won a receiving title but decided to give it a try. They said they would give me a two-year contract and I told them I only wanted one. I said, ‘If I don’t like coaching or I’m not any good at it, this would allow me to still play.’

“They said, ‘Well, we like that better, too.’ I got a one-year contract for $1,000 more than I was making as a player.”

It seems pretty unusual to tab a 29-year-old star receiver as a head coach and make him the youngest coach in CFL history, but Grant told Tait his involvement in mediating disputes between players and previous head coach Allie Sherman may have played a role:

“There’s a little background here, too. Allie Sherman, the coach before me, had been fired when I was at the all-star game in Vancouver. Now, Allie was a fella from New York and he just didn’t understand Midwestern Canadians or Midwestern Americans. He knew football, but he had a very brash personality. He had favourites, I was one of them and we talked football a lot, but the coach can’t do that.

“But he was really tough on the Canadian guys,” Grant continued. “A lot of those Canadian guys had not played college football and he was very impatient with them, he called them down a lot and he used language that I never used. The players, the Canadian players primarily, were going to strike. There was a meeting in the locker room without the coaches and, I’m selfish now because if they strike I lose my job and I don’t get paid. I said, ‘Hey, we can’t quit. If you’ve got a grievance, I will talk to Coach Sherman and let’s see if we can settle this without a strike.’

“I guess it got back to the executive that I had something to do with helping avoid the strike and Jim Russell thought I’d be a good coach. I’m speculating a little bit here, but I must have made an impression in the basement that night because they offered me that contract.”

It's certainly a good thing for the Bombers that they did, as Grant went on to be not only one of the most successful coaches in Winnipeg history, but one of the most successful in CFL history. He coached Winnipeg from 1957-1966, posted a franchise record of 90 wins, won four Grey Cups, and his .632 winning percentage is fourth-best in team history amongst those who coached at least a season. Grant led the Bombers to a 90-52-2 mark overall, winning Grey Cups in 1958, 1959, 1961 and 1962, and his tenure is remembered as perhaps the highest-water mark in the history of that franchise. As Grant told Tait, he had to do a lot of what today would be the general manager's job as well, finding and recruiting players from all over. He did an exceptional job of it, and led Winnipeg to incredible success, earning a place in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame along the way.

Of course, Grant did much more than just shine in the CFL. Before taking up professional football, he played three sports in high school, joined the Navy during the Second World War, played on the Paul Brown-coached team at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, and then played football, basketball and baseball for the University of Minnesota, earning two All-Big Ten nods in football. Despite the Eagles taking him in the first round of the 1950 NFL draft, Grant opted for professional basketball at first, spending two seasons with the Minneapolis Lakers and winning a championship with them in 1950. He then headed to the NFL, then to the CFL, and then returned to the NFL as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in 1967, leading them to a 161-99-5 record overall, plus eleven division titles and four Super Bowl appearances and earning induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Still, despite his many accomplishments since then, the 89-year-old Grant fondly remembers his time in the CFL:

“I made a lot of friends up there, I loved it up there,” said Grant, who had planned a hunting trip in Amaranth and Stony Mountain before the Ring of Honour ceremony this Friday.

“The whole experience left quite an imprint on me. I enjoyed playing so much. I enjoyed Winnipeg so much. I enjoyed my teammates so much. I enjoyed the atmosphere around the Bombers, Canadian football… everything. The town, the people. It wasn’t only the football, it was the whole experience.”

It's great to see the Bombers induct Grant into the Ring of Honour. He's a franchise legend, and one worthy of being placed with those other names. This is a fitting honour for a man who played a key role in the success of both the Bombers and the CFL as a whole, and one who should be remembered for that as well as all his NFL success.