The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at Princess Auto Stadium.
Leo Everett Lewis Jr. was an American gridiron football player and coach. He played college football as a running back for Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, from 1951 to 1954 and professionally with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1955 to 1966. He served as the head football coach at his alma mater, Lincoln, from 1973 to 1975.
Gerald Sydney Halter, was a Canadian sports executive and lawyer. He served as the first commissioner of the Canadian Football League from 1958 to 1966, and was president of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada from 1938 to 1946.
Charles Roberts is an American former professional football running back who played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL). In 2024 he was inducted into the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ Ring of Honour.
Jack Jacobs, nicknamed "Indian Jack", was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and Western Interprovincial Football Union. He was a charter member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, inducted in 1963.
Melvin "Fritz" Hanson was a Canadian football player for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Calgary Stampeders. Hanson was signed by the Blue Bombers for $125 a game and free room and board, which was a considerable sum in the cash-strapped dirty thirties. Nicknamed "the Galloping Ghost", "Twinkle Toes" and "the Perham Flash", Hanson was one of the pioneers of football in Western Canada and a huge star at the time. Although he weighed only 145 pounds (66 kg) he used his incredible quickness to evade defenders. He helped lead the Blue Bombers to the first Grey Cup victory by a western Canadian team in 1935 and won again with the Bombers in 1939 and 1941. In the 1935 Grey Cup Game Hanson had an incredible 334 punt return yards on 13 returns, a record that still stands today, including a sensational 78-yard return for the winning touchdown. He played with Winnipeg from 1935 through 1946 then spent two years playing for the Calgary Stampeders, where he won a fourth Grey Cup in 1948.
Chris Walby is a retired Canadian Football League player who played the offensive tackle position almost exclusively with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He won three Grey Cups with the Bombers in 1984, 1988, and 1990. Walby was also a sportscaster with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's CFL on CBC telecasts following his retirement.
James Jessie Murphy was a receiver for eight seasons with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL).
Herbert William Gray was a Canadian Football Hall of Fame football player who in the 1950s and 1960's won four Grey Cups and played for two others; and was named the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Defensive Player of the Half Century and to the Canadian Football League's (CFL) All-Time All-Star team at defensive end. He made all-star teams as both an offensive lineman and defensive end and was the first defensive player to win the league's Outstanding Lineman award. Prior to that he was an All-American football player at the University of Texas and helped them to win a share of the 1953 Southwest Conference (SWC) Championship.
Kenneth Ploen was an American professional football player who was a quarterback for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Joe Poplawski is a former professional Canadian football receiver who played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1978 to 1986.
Willard Sheldon Reaves is an American-Canadian former professional gridiron football running back and politician. Reaves played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Canadian Football League (CFL), and for the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Redskins in the National Football League (NFL). Reaves previously served as the deputy leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party. He was twice a Manitoba Liberal Party candidate for the division of Fort Whyte in 2022 and 2023.
Robert Porter "Buddy" Tinsley was a Canadian Football League (CFL) offensive lineman for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1982, and was a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Hall of Fame, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and the Baylor University Hall of Fame.
Eddie "Dynamite" James was a running back for the Regina Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL). James was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1963 and into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 2004. The Eddie James Memorial Trophy is named after him. His son Gerry James also played for the Blue Bombers and also is inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Chester "Ches" McCance, was a Canadian football wide receiver and placekicker who played thirteen seasons in professional gridiron football, mainly for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. In 1976 he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and in 2004 he was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
Gordon Rowland was a two-sport national champion in soccer and Canadian football. He won the Challenge Trophy in soccer with Montréal Stelco and the Grey Cup in the Canadian Football League with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Arthur C. Stevenson was a Canadian football running back who played five seasons for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He helped the Blue Bombers to Grey Cup championships in 1939 and 1941. Stevenson was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1969.
Bob "Knuckles" Irving, is a Canadian former sportscaster and was the radio play-by-play voice for the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1973 until his retirement in 2021. He is also the former sports director for CJOB radio in Manitoba and a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Joseph Bernard Ryan was a Canadian football manager of the Winnipeg Winnipegs and Montreal Alouettes between the 1930s to 1940s. During his manager tenures, Ryan won the Grey Cup with Winnipeg in 1935, 1939 and 1941. He also won the Grey Cup with the Alouettes in 1949. With the Canadian Football League, Ryan worked as the general manager of the Edmonton Eskimos from 1960 to 1965. Ryan was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1968, the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1975 and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1982.
Vincent Leah was a Canadian journalist, writer and sports administrator. He wrote for The Winnipeg Tribune from 1930 to 1980, and was credited with giving the Winnipeg Blue Bombers their team's name. He established youth sports programs in Winnipeg for baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, ice hockey, and soccer; and brought Little League Baseball to Canada. The Excelsior Hockey Club he founded in 1934, won thirteen provincial championships and produced forty professional hockey players. He was widely known as "Uncle Vince", authored eight books on history and sports, and was a freelancer for the Winnipeg Free Press from 1980 to 1993.
