This is it! What Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans have been waiting eight years for.
Celebrating Grey Cup Sunday with their beloved Blue and Gold playing in the championship game, and Bomber Nation is hoping Mike O’Shea’s troops can pull off a minor upset, and provide this town and province with a reason to hold a victory parade for the first time since the 50-11 blowout of Edmonton back in 1990 at BC Place Stadium.
The 680 CJOB Broadcast crew of Bob Irving, Doug Brown, Christian Aumell, and Greg Mackling are in Calgary for Grey Cup week — and they will anchor the Pregame show from 3-5 p.m. on Sunday.
They will then bring you post-game analysis and reaction from Calgary, and here in Winnipeg immediately following the game at about 8:30 p.m.
So without further adieu, we present our final edition of the Five Things You Should Know from Director of Digital Content for Bluebombers.com, Ed Tait.
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
1. The Bombers and Tiger-Cats meet Sunday in the 107th Grey Cup in what should be a dandy showdown featuring two iconic Canadian Football League franchises. This will be the 11th time, dating back to 1935, when the two clubs were known as the ‘Winnipegs’ and ‘Tigers’ that these two teams will be pitted against each other for the Grey Cup.
Winnipeg has a 6-4 record in championship games against Hamilton, including owning the Ticats during the glory years of the late ’50s-early ’60s with wins in 1958, 1959, 1961 and 1962. The two teams also met in the 1957 and 1965 Grey Cups during that era, with those two games won by the Ticats. The last Grey Cup featuring these two teams was in 1984, with the Bombers ending what was then their longest championship drought, at 22 years.
2. The 100-plus years of the Grey Cup means there have been a number of memorable games — so memorable, in fact, that they have earned nicknames. The Bombers lost to Toronto in the 1950 title game, known as ‘The Mud Bowl’ because of awful field conditions and have also played in the ‘Fog Bowl’ — which took two days to complete because of the fog that shrouded old Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, while the 1965 game was dubbed ‘The Wind Bowl’ for fairly obvious reasons.
This year’s game also has a nickname, although it has nothing to do with icky weather conditions. The 107th Grey Cup has been dubbed ‘The Drought Bowl’ because it features the two franchises with the longest current championship droughts in the league, with Hamilton last winning in 1999 and the Bombers in 1990.
3. The Bombers bring a three-game win streak into this Sunday, having won their final regular-season game against Calgary, then knocking off the Stamps in the Western Semi-Final and the Saskatchewan Roughriders in last week’s Western Final. Winnipeg is trying to become the first third-place team to win the Grey Cup since the 2005 Edmonton Eskimos. The Ticats, meanwhile, are on a seven-game heater and are 11-1 in their last 12.
4. Winnipeg lost both its matchups with Hamilton this year, falling 23-15 in late July in their first loss of the season after a 5-0 start and then 33-13 in late September. Worth noting here is this: Matt Nichols started the first game at quarterback for the Bombers; Chris Streveler the second. Zach Collaros will take the first snap on Sunday and is 3-0 as a starter for the Bombers, including last week’s win over his old team, the Riders. Collaros, we must point out, also played for the Ticats.
5. Key players to keep an eye on in Sunday’s game:
- Bombers defensive end Willie Jefferson, the club’s Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Defensive Player;
- Running back Andrew Harris, who led the CFL in rushing for a third season this year;
- Ticat linebacker Simoni Lawrence, the trash-talking playmaker at the heart of the Hamilton defence;
- Ticat receiver Brandon Banks — Speedy B — who is arguably the most-electrifying player in the entire league;
- Bombers kicker Justin Medlock, who has hit 20 straight field goals going into Sunday’s game.
Next: Win or lose, the Bombers will be chartering home Monday after the Grey Cup.
Fans seeking season tickets for 2020 should call 204-784-7448 or visit bluebombers.com/tickets.
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