Nov. 18, 1984
WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS 47 HAMILTON TIGER-CATS 17
Game site: Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton.
Attendance: 60,081.
Winning coach: Cal Murphy.
The Bombers lived the life of rock stars after capturing the 1984 Grey Cup game, as it had been 22 years since the 1962 victory and 19 years since the team’s last appearance in the championship. But when the club returned home from the first-ever Grey Cup game played in Edmonton they were feted like Mick Jagger and Queen Elizabeth combined.
Little wonder. Not only had the Bombers not appeared in the title game since ’65, some very solid clubs under head coach Ray Jauch and led by Dieter Brock in the late 70s-early 80s had been the unfortunate victims of playing in the shadow of the Canadian Football League’s greatest dynasty, the Edmonton Eskimos of 1978-82.
But led by former B.C. Lions head coach and Eskimo and Alouette assistant Cal Murphy — who was in just his second season as Bomber boss — Winnipeg finished second in the West at 11-4-1 and, after dispatching Edmonton in the semifinal, waltzed into a raucous B.C. Place and upset the Lions (12-3-1) to win the division.
The Bombers, as it always seemed, met the Tiger-Cats in the title game and came face-to-face with a familiar face — quarterback Dieter Brock, who had demanded and been granted a trade a year earlier.
Ironically, Brock would sneak in for the game’s first score as the Ticats jumped ahead, but the Bombers — led by quarterback Tom Clements, who had been acquired in the Brock deal — would roar back on the icy grass at Commonwealth.
Winnipeg would set a Grey Cup record with 27 points in the second quarter (eclipsed by the 1990 Bombers, who scored 28 in one quarter) en route to a spanking of the Ticats. Clements was named the offensive MVP, running back Sean Kehoe was the top Canadian while Tyrone Jones, who set a Grey Cup record with four quarterback sacks, was the top defender.
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 47 – TDs: Willard Reaves (2), Joe Poplawski, Stan Mikawos, Jeff Boyd; FGs: Trevor Kennerd (4) converts: Kennerd (5).
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 17 – TDs: Dieter Brock, Rocky DiPietro; FG: Bernie Ruoff; converts: Ruoff (2).
