Tom Wilkinson (Canadian football)

Tom Wilkinson (Canadian football)

NFL player
DateOfBirth=birth date and age|1943|1|4
Birthplace=flagicon|USA Iowa
Position=Quarterback
College=University of Wyoming
DraftedYear=
DraftedRound=
Career Highlights=Y
CFLAllStar=1974, 1978, 1979
Awards=
years=1967-1970
1971
1972-1981
teams=Toronto Argonauts
British Columbia Lions
Edmonton Eskimos
CollegeHOF=
CFHOF=24&player=Wilkinson,%20Tom

Tom Wilkinson was a football quarterback for several teams in the Canadian Football League.

He was born in Iowa on January 4, 1943 but moved to Wyoming with his parents in 1945. Tom Wilkinson played high school football in the small town of Greybull, Wyoming. He is the second of three professional football players to come from this little town of 1700 in the Big Horn Basin. The others were Jim Crawford who played for the Boston Patriots of the American Football League and Brett Keisel who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was scouted as both a football and baseball player out of high school.

Football career

Wilkinson attended the University of Wyoming on a football scholarship. After he graduated there, he was signed as a quarterback by the Toronto Rifles of the Continental Football League. He played a total of 16 games for the Rifles in 1966 and 1967, throwing the ball 287 times for 141 completions with 1952 yards, 11 interceptions and 18 touchdowns. It was during 1967 he moved to the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League as a backup quarterback in 1967. He was the team's leading quarterback in 1969 throwing for 2041 yards. In 1970 Wilkinson made way for Don Jonas to lead the Argos, but still got enough playing time to throw for 1272 yards. Traded to the BC Lions in 1971, he played there for a year before being released prior to the 1972 CFL season. He was picked up by the Edmonton Eskimos and played well enough in the remaining pre-season games to make the team as a backup, but by season's end he was their top passer with 2475 yards in which he completed 177 out of 268. Wilkinson would play the balance of his career there in a two-quarterback system. First with Bruce Lemmerman and then with Warren Moon. Oddly enough, after his first professional seasons, when he was considered to be rather injury prone, Wilkinson was never to miss a game during his 10 years with the Eskimos.

"Wilkie" was a western conference and CFL all-star quarterback in 1974, 1978 and 1979. He won the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award in 1974.

He first led the Eskimos to a Grey Cup victory in 1975, an especially sweet triumph after disappointing losses in the championship game in 1973 and 1974. After quarterbacking the Eskimos during one more Grey Cup loss in 1977, Wilkinson became an integral part of the 5-time Grey Cup champion Eskimo dynasty from 1978 through 1981, the last two years acting as a backup to Moon.

Including his time with the Rifles, Wilkinson contributed 24,531 passing yards on 1754 completions from 2949 attempts and with 137 interceptions to 172 touchdowns. Although not known for his running abilities he also added 1250 rushing yards on 352 runs with 13 touchdowns.

He retired after the Eskimos' 1981 Grey Cup Championship year. Tom Wilkinson was the inaugural player honoured on the Edmonton Eskimo's "Wall of Fame" at Commonwealth Stadium in 1982.

After retirement

He was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame as a Player, May 2, 1987. He was the head coach of the University of Alberta Golden Bears until 2001. In 2004, he was announced as the first president of the North American Indoor Football League, [cite web | url = http://www.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/Arena/2004/06/16/501844.html | accessdate = 2006-11-30 | title = Loopy launch | author = Terry Jones | publisher = Edmonton Sun | date = 2004-06-16] a Canadian indoor football league that failed to launch and never played a single game.

References

# Official CFL Stats 1967 to 1981
# Ronald A. Ferroni, the 2001 Unofficial Football Encyclopedia, Hamilton 2001.

External links

* [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/features/si50/states/wyoming/greatest/ The 50 Greatest Wyoming Sports Figures]
* [http://www.argonauts.ca/Argos/History/ArgoHeroes/2004/11/10/708692.html Argo Heros - Tom Wilkinson]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Canadian Football Hall of Fame — The Canadian Football Hall of Fame is a not for profit corporation located in Hamilton, Ontario that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is an open to the public institution. It includes displays about the Canadian Football… …   Wikipedia

  • Wilkinson (surname) — Wilkinson is a surname of English origin. People named Wilkinson include:A* Adrienne Wilkinson, American actress * Alec Wilkinson, American writer * Alex Wilkinson, Australian soccer player * Alfred Robert Wilkinson, British soldier * Amanda… …   Wikipedia

  • Dave Cutler (Canadian football) — For other uses, see Dave Cutler (disambiguation). Dave Cutler Date of birth: October 17, 1945 (1945 10 17) (age 66) Place of birth: Biggar, Saskatchewan Career information …   Wikipedia

  • Don Warrington (Canadian football) — Don Warrington Date of birth: June 7, 1948(1948 06 07) Place of birth: Canada Date of death: December , 1980(1980 12 00) (aged 32) Place of death …   Wikipedia

  • Charlie Turner (Canadian football) — For other people of the same name, see Charles Turner. Charlie Turner Date of birth: December 12, 1944 (1944 12 12) (age 66) Career information Position(s): OT …   Wikipedia

  • David Green (Canadian football) — For the former NFL punter and placekicker, see Dave Green (American football). David Green Date of birth: September 7, 1953 (1953 09 07) (age 58) Place of birth: Jacksonville, North Carolina Career information …   Wikipedia

  • football — /foot bawl /, n. 1. a game in which two opposing teams of 11 players each defend goals at opposite ends of a field having goal posts at each end, with points being scored chiefly by carrying the ball across the opponent s goal line and by place… …   Universalium

  • Mike Pringle (gridiron football) — Mike Pringle Date of birth: October 1, 1967 (1967 10 01) (age 44) Place of birth: Los Angeles, California Career information Status: Retired …   Wikipedia

  • Minnesota Golden Gophers football — Current season …   Wikipedia

  • History of American football — The history of American football, a spectator sport in the United States, can be traced to early versions of rugby football. Both games have their origin in varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid 19th century, in which a… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”