CFL Award Winners:

• Dr. Beattie-Martin Trophy (Outstanding Canadian Rookie, West Division) – Lorne Benson, 1952

Bomber Award Winners

• Ed Kotowich Good Guy Award — Jake Thomas, 2017

He Wore It Well:

Jake Thomas, DT, 2012-Present

A fourth-round draft pick of the Bombers in 2012, Thomas has been a consistent and durable contributor to the club and is currently the longest-serving member of the team. Now a two-time Grey Cup champion, he was awarded with the Ed Kotowich Good Guy Award in 2017, acknowledging a player who has ‘excellent football ability, is a leader in the locker room, and shows outstanding effort in the community.’

Thomas was a AUS Conference All-Star and Second Team All-Canadian in 2011, his last with the Acadia Axemen and also played for Team Canada at the 2011 IFAF World Championships in Austria.

Notable:

Geoff Crain started at quarterback for the Bombers in a win over Saskatchewan on September 28, 1953 and completed eight of 16 passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns. The significance of this little nugget? It marked the last time a Canadian started at quarterback for the Bombers in a regular-season game.

Crain was a multi-sport star at McGill and was drafted by both the Bombers of the Western Inter-provincial Football Union and the Toronto Argonauts of the Interprovincial Rugby Union in 1953 (before the merger that led to the creation of the Canadian Football League). Crain selected the Bombers and backed up Jack Jacobs and Joe Zaleski. Crain would make one other start that season and did throw a touchdown pass to Ernie Becker in the playoffs and dressed for the 1953 Grey Cup game.

Crain had an engineering degree from McGill and in 1954 began working in the field in Ottawa for his family’s firm. The Bombers waived him so he could play at home, but the Argos insisted they held his IRFU rights, forcing the Rough Riders to make a deal for him. He left the game after 1955 after an offseason diagnosis of diabetes.

FYI:

Lorne ‘Boom-Boom’ Benson was highlighted at #85.