Bud Grant Statue Unveiled in Winnipeg

[JohnH19]

The Blue Bombers organization unveiled a Bud Grant statue at Investors Group Field on Thursday. Bud himself was scheduled to attend the event so I made a point of being there and I, along with some others, was lucky enough to get his autograph.

Bud's speech was terrific as he rattled off the names of so many of the players, stars and reserves, that contributed to the success of the teams he coached and played with in his 14 years here. One accidental omission in his speech was the great Leo Lewis whom he has stated was the greatest player he ever coached, north or south of the border. He also made a couple of humorous hunting references. He still has a great passion for that sport at the age of 87. He walks with a stoop but he's still sharp as a tack! It was a great event and I'm glad I was there.

Here's the Winnipeg Free Press and Winnipeg Sun coverage of the event:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports ... 12872.html

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/10/23/l ... ue-bombers

[BD Sullivan]

Good to see he's still healthy enough to make the trip, and sharp enough to recall the many memorable events of his career.

[Reaser]

Very cool, John.

In a way it makes up for the current Bombers season.

[Ronfitch]

Good to see he's still healthy enough to make the trip, and sharp enough to recall the many memorable events of his career.

Bud's still pretty solid. This summer, he had his final garage sale. He's had several of them and he was hauling out new boxes from deep into his house each day for this year's sale. Still hunts and fishes, from what I understand.

[JohnH19]

Very cool, John.

In a way it makes up for the current Bombers season.

Yeah, things have been all downhill after a promising 5-1 smoke and mirrors start.

It sure was cool to be standing next to THE man. I'm sure my dad, who passed away a couple of weeks after the 1980 division winning Hail Mary from Tommy Kramer to Ahmad Rashad against Cleveland, was looking down and smiling.

[argofan87]

The Bombers can't keep Drew Willy upright. What did they allow last night? 10 sacks?

[JohnH19]

It's not all on the O-line. Willy has lost his early season confidence. He's holding on to the ball waaay too long. He reminded me of Rob Johnson last night.

[Reaser]

It's not all on the O-line. Willy has lost his early season confidence. He's holding on to the ball waaay too long. He reminded me of Rob Johnson last night.

So I take it that Willypeg is no longer a 'thing' locally ... ?

[Gary Najman]

When you see the teams that Grant coached north of the border, they had many NFL quality players like QB Ken Ploen, RB Leo Lewis, T Frank Rigney, DE Herb Gray and DT Buddy Tinsley. All of them are inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and at one time were drafted by NFL clubs.