Ken Nielsen was inducted into the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame in 1987
Ken ‘Doc’ Nielsen came to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers just after the ‘Glory Years’ of the late 1950s/early 1960s yet still managed to carve out a hall of fame career during a period when the club struggled.
Originally selected by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the third round in the 1965 Canadian Football League Draft, Nielsen was picked up by the Blue Bombers during the ’65 season.
He caught 14 passes for 263 yards and two touchdowns in his rookie season and then morphed into a sensational receiver over the next five seasons.
Nielsen had 44 receptions for 719 yards and a career high 11 TDs in 1966 and then posted back-to-back 1,000-yard campaigns in 1967-1968, finishing with 76 catches for 1,121 yards and nine scores in ’67 — he was named the Blue Bombers Most Outstanding Player that season — and 68 receptions for 1,031 yards and five TDs in ’68.
His work in the 1968 season earned him the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian Player award, becoming the second homegrown Blue Bomber to be saluted after Gerry James won the same award in 1954 and 1957.
A two-time CFL All-Star in 1968 and 1969, Nielsen playedin the 1965 Grey Cup with the Blue Bombers — he caught a 109-yard TD from Ken Ploen in that game — but never won a championship. The club struggled from 1966-70 and went ust 12-51-1 over the final four years of his days in Winnipeg.
OTD in Blue Bombers History Nov 20, 1965 third and deciding game of the Western Final. The Bombers upset the favoured Calgary Stampeders 19-12. Thanks in large part to one play from their own one yard line as Ken Ploen and Ken Nielsen play pitch and catch for a 109 yard touchdown pic.twitter.com/OomjUaBUuK
— Joe Pascucci (@Pascucci015) November 20, 2024
Nielsen was one of the stars of those years, though, and was named the team’s top Canadian for four consecutive seasons. A product of Hanna, Alberta, Nielsen suffered a neck injury in 1970 that forced him to retire and turn his focus to his work as a dentist in his adopted hometown of Winnipeg.
He was inducted into the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame in 1987.
Nielsen retired to Kamloops, B.C. and passed away on November 17, 2025.
