Bombers Retired Numbers

[Noeller]

It comes up on here often.....which numbers are retired, or "retired" by the Bombers. Ed Tait is doing a wonderful series on who's worn which numbers over the years http://www.bluebombers.com/blue-by-the-numbers/ And if you haven't been following along, you should be. Here's a little tidbit from it, that will come in handy to help quell future debates:

 

 

The Bombers haven’t formally retired numbers, but the following are officially no longer available to players:

11 – Worn by hall of famer Ken Ploen, the face of this franchise during his playing days from 1957-67 and later into his retirement. Ploen also wore 89, as did many players of that era who played both sides of the ball.

28 – Jeff Nicklin was a decorated Bomber from 1934-40 before becoming a decorated soldier in World War II, passing away on the battlefield in 1945. The winner of the Most Outstanding Player Award in the West Division is annually presented with the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy.

75 – As a tribute to Tommy Lumsden, who played end, defensive end, tackle and guard for the Bombers from 1951-54 but passed away at the age of 25 in a Winnipeg hospital while suffering a gall bladder attack near Beausejour. The Tommy Lumsden Trophy is presented annually to the Bombers’ top Canadian player.

That information is passed down from one equipment manager to the next and Brad Fotty, who has been in the position since 1990, has since put Walby’s 63 and Stegall’s 85 out of commission. The same was done for Bob Cameron’s 6, but when the club signed quarterback Dominique Davis – who asked for that number – the hall of fame punter gave his thumbs up for it to be brought back.

Other numbers – like Doug Brown’s 97 or the 1 worn by Roberts – are not available for a few years after their retirement as a sign of respect, but with close to 90 players brought in annually to training camp, football teams simply can’t retire the numbers of all their greats.

Once a player is signed by or traded to the Bombers, he is asked for his top three number choices. CFL veterans get first choice in an unofficial priority list, followed by NFL veterans, draft choices and rookies

[Taynted_Fayth]

On 05/12/2016 at 10:03 AM, Noeller said:

It comes up on here often.....which numbers are retired, or "retired" by the Bombers. Ed Tait is doing a wonderful series on who's worn which numbers over the years http://www.bluebombers.com/blue-by-the-numbers/ And if you haven't been following along, you should be. Here's a little tidbit from it, that will come in handy to help quell future debates:

 

 

The Bombers haven’t formally retired numbers, but the following are officially no longer available to players:

11 – Worn by hall of famer Ken Ploen, the face of this franchise during his playing days from 1957-67 and later into his retirement. Ploen also wore 89, as did many players of that era who played both sides of the ball.

28 – Jeff Nicklin was a decorated Bomber from 1934-40 before becoming a decorated soldier in World War II, passing away on the battlefield in 1945. The winner of the Most Outstanding Player Award in the West Division is annually presented with the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy.

75 – As a tribute to Tommy Lumsden, who played end, defensive end, tackle and guard for the Bombers from 1951-54 but passed away at the age of 25 in a Winnipeg hospital while suffering a gall bladder attack near Beausejour. The Tommy Lumsden Trophy is presented annually to the Bombers’ top Canadian player.

That information is passed down from one equipment manager to the next and Brad Fotty, who has been in the position since 1990, has since put Walby’s 63 and Stegall’s 85 out of commission. The same was done for Bob Cameron’s 6, but when the club signed quarterback Dominique Davis – who asked for that number – the hall of fame punter gave his thumbs up for it to be brought back.

Other numbers – like Doug Brown’s 97 or the 1 worn by Roberts – are not available for a few years after their retirement as a sign of respect, but with close to 90 players brought in annually to training camp, football teams simply can’t retire the numbers of all their greats.

Once a player is signed by or traded to the Bombers, he is asked for his top three number choices. CFL veterans get first choice in an unofficial priority list, followed by NFL veterans, draft choices and rookies

I thought #1 was worn pretty soon after Roberts got traded to BC, the name of the player escapes me but it sparked this topic at the time. 

[kelownabomberfan]

 

[Jimmy Pop]

In football it makes no sense at all to retire numbers.  The rosters are far too big. 

Taking a number out of circulation makes much more sense.  Should you need #85 for a practice squad guy or even a preseason game, I don't see the big deal. Doesn't diminish what that player meant to the big Blue.

[JohnnyOnTheSpot]

28 has been worn since Nicklen played.  Paul Markle wore it in 1972. It must have been taken out of circulation some time after that.

[johnzo]

Yeah, Wylie Turner was #28 too, back in the eighties.

[Dragon37]

I think all three were only taken out of use in the last ten years. 

 

[SpeedFlex27]

Steinhauer to Fresno State as DC? I guess teams passed on him & he grew tired of waiting to be a head coach. He'll do well down there. Now what bright coach will be hired to be the DC in Hamilton? We're all hoping it's Ritchie Hall.

[SpeedFlex27]

Toronto FC players complaining that the condition of the field at BMO was the reason they lost to Seattle in the league final. Soccer players are Divas anyway as they are always faking injuries. The MLS has a lot of blame in this. Playing the championship game in mid December may be the reason the field was in poor shape as it could never recover from the Grey Cup. How ridiculous. Grass doesn't grow in December in Canada & the Northern US. They should start & end the season a month earlier.

[Noeller]

9 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Steinhauer to Fresno State as DC? I guess teams passed on him & he grew tired of waiting to be a head coach. He'll do well down there. Now what bright coach will be hired to be the DC in Hamilton? We're all hoping it's Ritchie Hall.

Would Fresno DC pay more than HC in the CFL?

[bigg jay]

32 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Would Fresno DC pay more than HC in the CFL?

Their DC made $228k USD in 2015 (just over 300k Canadian) so it's possible that it could be in the ball park for a rookie HC up here but I'm not sure what they make these days since those numbers aren't usually made public.

If he does well down there, it could open up some doors in the future to bigger schools that pay much better.

[SpeedFlex27]

10 hours ago, Noeller said:

Would Fresno DC pay more than HC in the CFL?

They might & probably do. Fresno State is a smaller program than say, USC. They wouldn't have the budget to really pay what top coordinators would make in the NCAA. But if successful, it  gets Steinhauer on the map to get a better paying gig at a bigger program & maybe even consideration for a head coaching position at some point. 

[Eternal optimist]

On 12/6/2016 at 5:39 PM, Taynted_Fayth said:

I thought #1 was worn pretty soon after Roberts got traded to BC, the name of the player escapes me but it sparked this topic at the time. 

Who is, Kito Poblah, I think?...

[ALuCsRED]

9 hours ago, Eternal optimist said:

Who is, Kito Poblah, I think?...

I'm going with Perry Floyd

[Ducky]

They should retire James Murphy's number.

[johnzo]

Definitely want to see James Murphy's #21 up on the Ring of Honor at some point. We were stacked with receivers in the eighties and he was the best of them. He accounted for pretty much all of our offense in the 1988 Grey Cup.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

On 12/5/2016 at 10:03 AM, Noeller said:

Brown’s 97 or the 1 worn by Roberts – are not available for a few years after their retirement as a sign of respect, but with close to 90 players brought in annually to training camp, football teams simply can’t retire the numbers of all their greats.

Well TOR/EDM have no problems and have more GC wins.