Canadian Football Hall of Famers:

• Bud Grant (1983; as a builder)

Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Famers:

• Bud Grant (1984; as a builder)

CFL All-Stars:

• Joe Fleming (1998)

Division All-Stars:

• Neill Armstrong (1951, 1953)
• Bud Grant (1953, 1954, 1956, 1957)
• Loyd Lewis (1993)
• Joe Fleming (1998, 2004)

Bomber Team Awards:

• Most Outstanding Defensive Player – Darrell Patterson, 1986; Loyd Lewis, 1994; Joe Fleming, 1998

He Wore It Well:

Bud Grant, WR, DB, 1953-56

Football fans know Bud Grant as the stoic sideline presence who coached the Bombers to four Grey Cup championships and has a bronze statue honouring him outside Investors Group Field. He’s also remembered as the face of the Minnesota Vikings for decades and a member of both the Canadian Football and Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But Grant was also an exceptional athlete long before he pulled on a headset with the Bombers. He was a three-sport athlete – baseball, football and basketball – at the University of Minnesota who was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles and the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA, winning a championship in 1950. He was a defensive end with the Eagles, switched to receiver and then came to the Bombers.

A four-time West all-star as a receiver – the CFL didn’t start selecting a league all-star team until 1962 – Grant also still holds the league record for most interceptions in a playoff game, with five, set against Saskatchewan in 1953.

FYI:

Neill Armstrong also came to the Bombers from the Philadelphia Eagles, heading north two years prior to Grant. He helped the Eagles win NFL titles in 1948 and 1949 and then did two stretches with the Bombers, in 1951 and again in 1953-54. He began coaching professionally in 1962 with the Houston Oilers and then came back to the CFL to serve as the head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos from 1964-69 before joining Grant’s Vikings staff. He was the Chicago Bears head coach from 1978-81 before spending 1982-89 with the Dallas Cowboys.