Stan Mikawos Winnipeg Blue Bombers 1986. Photo F. Scott Grant
TORONTO – They are some of the iconic moments in Grey Cup history and in Canadian sport, from Ken Ploen’s spectacular run in overtime in 1961 to Tony Gabriel slipping behind coverage to pull in a pass from Tom Clements in 1976, to Rocket Ismail speeding away from tacklers in 1991.
The Canadian Football League’s national championship has annually served up starry performances by such hall of famers, many of them recalled in vivid detail by the loop’s diehard fans.
And so when the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa REDBLACKS line up across from each other in Sunday’s 104th Grey Cup, there’s an expectation more of the same will be served up, perhaps from the arms of Bo Levi Mitchell or Henry Burris, the defensive prowess of a Charleston Hughes or Damaso Munoz, or from any one of the marquee players on two star-studded lineups.
But as we saw in last Sunday’s East Final – a coming-out party of sorts for Winnipeg product Kienan Lafrance – the Grey Cup can also be about unsung heroes; about back-ups making a single play that leads to victory, a foot soldier having his role magnified on the biggest of stages.
Yes, for as much as older Blue Bombers fans will remember Ploen’s heroics in ’61 or Greg Battle’s dominance in the last title in 1990, they will also recall Gord Rowland’s recovery of a punt block in the 1958 Grey Cup or Michael Gray’s goal line interception in 1988.
The Grey Cup has always been about those kinds of moments, most often provided by the legends of the game. But occasionally they are authored by the men further down the depth chart.
This is a story of two unsung heroes of the 1984 championship – Winnipeg’s 47-17 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
But first, some background…
Trevor Kennerd Bob Cameron 1984. Photo: Scott Grant
The Bombers’ Grey Cup championship drought had reached two-plus decades when the 1984 season opened, dating back to 1962 and the last of four championships in five years in the ‘Glory Days.’
Those Bombers still had some members of the squads that had run up against the Edmonton Eskimos dynasty of 1978-82 and were in the second year under the stewardship of Cal Murphy, the CFL’s Coach of the Year in ’83 and later to be honoured again for the same award for his work in ’84.
But the B.C. Lions were the defending West Division champions – they eliminated the Bombers in the ’83 West Final before falling to the Toronto Argonauts in the Grey Cup – and finished first in the division in ’84 at 12-3-1, two points better than the 11-4-1 Bombers.
Winnipeg would crush the Esks in the ’84 West Semi-Final and then upset the Lions 31-14 in Vancouver in the West Final a week later, in front of 59,421 at B.C. Place.
The Bombers placed 10 players on the CFL All-Star roster that year including quarterback Tom Clements, running back Willard Reaves, slotback Joe Poplawski, centre John Bonk, guard Nick Bastaja, tackle Chris Walby, linebackers Tryone Jones and Aaron Brown, and defensive backs David Shaw and Ken Hailey.
The Grey Cup matchup was a dandy, not because the Hamilton Tiger-Cats – just 6-9-1 – had upset the Argos in the East Final, but because of who was now quarterbacking them: Dieter Brock.
Brock was one of the most prolific passers in CFL history, having twice been named the league’s Most Outstanding Player – in 1980 and 1981 – as a member of the Bombers. But he wanted his contract reworked in 1983 and after a stalemate that included a holdout, was shipped to the Ticats for Clements.
That made for a marque QB matchup for the Grey Cup, even if the field was icy and the temperature a chilly -10C.
But while the game would feature two TDs by Reaves – voted the MVP – with others from Joe Poplawski and 1,000-yard receiver Jeff Boyd – two unsung heroes helped their teammates earn their championship rings.
Stan Mikawos Winnipeg Blue Bombers 1988. Photo: John Bradley
Stan Mikawos is a Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Famer now, but his first days with the Bombers, back in 1982, were hardly memorable.
“It’s my first year and Len Amey, the equipment guy at the time, comes up to give me my jersey for my first game,” began Mikawos, now a district manager for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “It’s right before the game and I look at the back of the jersey and my name is misspelled. I go to Len and say, ‘Hey Len… that’s not how you spell my name.’ And he tells me, ‘Don’t worry about it rookie, just put it on.’
“Instead of ‘M-I-K-A-W-O-S’ they spelled it ‘M-I-K-O-W-A-S’. Everybody was always screwing it up.”
Born in Gdansk, Poland, Mikawos and his family moved to Winnipeg when he was seven. He is a proud product of the Gordon Bell Panthers and was a lifelong Bomber fan when the club made him one of their two territorial exemptions (along with Milson Jones) in the 1982 draft.
Mikawos, a defensive tackle, was splitting time with veteran Doug MacIver when the 1984 season opened and on Grey Cup Sunday in Edmonton.
As heavily favoured as the Bombers were, they fell behind 14-3 as Brock ran for one score and connected with Rocky DiPietro on another while Clements, suiting up despite a rib injury, had been intercepted twice.
The Bombers withstood the early barrage and countered on a Trevor Kennerd field goal and the Poplawski score.
And that’s when Mikawos made his mark…
“It was tough conditions. The field was ice and some of the guys were wearing broomball shoes,” Mikawos recalled. “Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tyrone coming after Dieter and after he hit him, Dieter fumbled the ball… I’m not fleet of foot, but I scooped up the ball and just kept running.
“That was a big moment for me. It was about the timing of it, too. We were down, had rallied and that touchdown put us ahead, gave us momentum and we never looked back after that.
“I joke with people now that I ran for 85 yards and broke all these tackles.”
The fumble recovery TD was 22 yards, for the record, and Mikawos – he can laugh about it now – had his name mispronounced by the TV broadcast crew. Twice – once live and again on the replay.
“And if you watch the interviews after the game,” added Mikawos, “even (Chris) Walby says, ‘That Mik-a-nus guy’… he totally screwed up my name. Not much respect there, huh?”
Mikawos laughs heartily and if you know the man, you know he is completely comfortable with that. He carved out a memorable career in football’s trenches, happily deferring the spotlight to all the stars on the Bombers defences of those days.
“That game still comes up… at least with people in my generation,” Mikawos said. “It had been 22 years since we won. I remember when we landed at the airport there were so many people there we had to go off the tarmac. That was a big moment for me, for the Bombers, for the city.”
Willard Reeves Sean Kehoe Winnipeg Blue Bombers 1985. Photo: John Bradley
Sean Kehoe remembers all the good times in a CFL career that spanned six years and included two Grey Cup titles with his hometown Eskimos in 1981 and 1982 before he joined the Bombers in 1983.
He also remembers how it ended.
“Cal Murphy and I got into a bit of a ‘bun fight’ – it was kind of a joke, actually – and he ended up trading me to the Montreal Alouettes… about a week before they folded in ‘87,” began Kehoe from his office in Calgary, where he now runs an investment banking firm. “So he traded me for future considerations to a team with no future.
“At that point I thought I’d better grow up and go get a real job. I had a great run, a lot of fun and played in three Grey Cups in six years. Not bad.”
Kehoe laughs about his exit from the game now, but on that Sunday in Edmonton in 1984 he was all over the stats sheet; catching passes, returning kicks and rushing for 89 yards and earning the game’s Most Outstanding Canadian honours.
He wasn’t supposed to be that busy.
“Willard injured his shoulder in the first half and it was getting progressively worse with every run to the point where he had to be pulled from the game,” Kehoe recalled. “They moved me to tailback, which was my real position.”
Kehoe was listed as a fullback, but had game. At one time he had held the Canadian indoor record for the 60 metres, had played with Poplawski in high school, and was part of the University of Alberta’s last Vanier Cup title in 1980.
“The way I remember it a lot of Canadian guys played really well in that game,” said Kehoe. “Joe Pop was incredible. They picked me (as top Canadian), but they could have picked Joe, Stan, Trevor Kennerd, Pat Cantner or any of the offensive linemen. It’s a bit of a cliché, but there really were contributions from everyone in that game.
“What made that Grey Cup special, of course, is the back story that made it different than others. It had been so long since Winnipeg had won a championship and fans were extremely supportive. So after the many years of the Eskimos dominating the West Division, to have Winnipeg push its way to the top made it a breakthrough year for us and for the fans.”
Ottawa Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris (1) passes the ball to teammate Kienan Lafrance (27). THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Maybe it’s Kienan Lafrance that stands up again Sunday for the REDBLACKS. Or perhaps it’s a guy like Rob Cote of the Stamps. Somebody unheralded is going to pop off the page on Sunday to make a critical play at a critical moment, to be the Stan Mikawos or the Sean Kehoe of 2016.
And in the process, maybe they become part of the many legends of Grey Cup.
“I was just looking through our roster the other day – man, there were a lot of great players on that team,” said Mikawos. “Tyrone Jones, Tom Clements, Chris (Walby), Joe Pop, John Hufnagel…
“But think about it, that game is over 30 years ago now. It’s one of those plays that when people talk about past Grey Cups, or that one in particular, they think about. I was just fortunate to be the guy on the scene. Right time, right place.”
