Gord Rowland

Gord Rowland is one of the all-time great Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Rowland was born and raised in Montreal and besides playing football, was an excellent soccer player. In 1952, Rowland was a member of the Stelco team that won the Canbadian Senior Mens Soccer Championship  n his future home of Winnipeg. In 1953, Rowland tried out for the Bombers and didn't make the team, but returned in 1954 and made the team and would remain a Bomber for 11 seasons until 1964.

Rowland was best known as a linebacker*, but he appears in virtually every statistical catagory that was tracked during his career. Rowland saw action at running back, returned kickoffs and punts, performed kickoffs and even did some placekicking. About the only thing Rowland didn't do was throw a pass.

The Bombers enjoyed tremendous success during Rowland's career. His first  three seasons (1954-56) were dominated by the Eskimos and their three Grey Cups, but then the Bombers replaced Edmonton as the dominant team in the West.  In the next 8 years, Rowland and the Bombers playd in 5 Grey Cups, all against Hamilton as it became an almost a yearly rivalry. The Bombers won four of those matches in 1958, 1959, 1961 and 1962.

In terms of individual accomplishments, Rowland won 5 West All-Stars at linebacker (1957, 1958, 1960, 1961 and 1962) and one CFL All-Star (1962) which was the first year that CFL All-Stars were selected. Rowland was also a runner-up as the OUtstanding Canadian in 1958. Rowland recorded an impressive 31 career interceptions and 12 career fumble returns.

On Sept 3, 1960, Gordie Rowland punted (~ 60 yards) for a single on the final play of the game which completed the Bombers final minute comeback to keep their win streak alive. The punt itself doesn’t show up in the CFL stats because it was an open field kick. In this era, only kicks from scrimmage were recorded as punts. It would take until the late 1960’s for open field kicks to be included in the punting stats

On Oct 1, 1960, Rowland set a CFL record with a 90 yard kickoff. In this era, a kickoff that traveled through the end zone was penalized with a re-kick (no yardage penalty). If three successive kickoffs went through the end zone, the opposing team was awarded the ball at the point of the kickoff. The only reason that Rowland was credited with a 90 yard kickoff was that the ball touched a Calgary player before it bounced over the touchline. This kickoff rule was changed in 1970.

Gordie Rowland’s touchdowns:

  • 1954-09-20 – 50 yard interception return
  • 1957-08-15 – 15 yard pass from Kenny Ploen
  • 1958-09-06 – 8 yard pass from Kenny Ploen
  • 1958-09-13 – 40 yard interception return
  • 1959-10-17 – 40 yard interception return
  • 1961-10-23 – 7 yard fumble return
  • 1962-09-03 – 46 yard interception return

Rowland also had 2 kickoff singles:

  • 1960-10-01 – 90 yards
  • 1963-08-06

Following the end of his playing career, Rowland coached footbal, first as an assistant coach with the University of Manitoba Bisons and then minor football. Rowland was elected to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.

* The terminology used for positions when Rowland played is a bit different than today and was undergoing a transition at the time  Most teams bakc then playd a 5-4-3 defence with only 3 defensive backs. The outside linebackers were called corner linebackers. As the imortance of the passing game increased, the corner linebackers dropped the "line" and became simply the cornerbacks as teams moved to a modern 4-3-5 defence. From this, you could argue Rowland was really a defensive back and not a linebacker, and indeed in the Youtube clip below, Rowland himslef refers to himself as a defensive back.The All-Stars, however that Rowland won are listed as being for linebacker.

Gord Rowland in the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame

Gord Rowland in Wikipedia

Gord Rowland on YouTube

Bomber's Gord Rowland Local Boy in Cup - November 28, 1957

Bombers Win Thrilleron Gordie Rowland's Single - September 6, 1960

 

 

GP and Points
Year Team GP TotTD Good CG TotS PTS
1954 WPG 16 1 0 0 0 5
1955 WPG 16 0 0 0 0 0
1956 WPG 16 0 0 0 0 0
1957 WPG 16 1 0 0 0 6
1958 WPG 16 2 0 0 0 12
1959 WPG 13 1 0 0 0 6
1960 WPG 16 0 0 0 2 2
1961 WPG 16 1 0 0 0 6
1962 WPG 14 1 0 0 0 6
1963 WPG 16 0 0 3 1 4
1964 WPG 8 0 0 0 0 0

 

Inerceptions and Fumble Returns
Year Team Int Yds Avg TDInt Long FR Yds Avg TD Long FF
1954 WPG 2 72 36 1
3

0

1955 WPG 6 34 5.7 0
2

0

1956 WPG 5 54 10.8 0
2 0 0 0 0
1957 WPG 3 15 5 0
0 0 0 0 0
1958 WPG 6 122 20.3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
1959 WPG 3 42 14

0 0 0 0 0
1960 WPG 3 14 4.7 0
1 0 0 0 0
1961 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1962 WPG 3 42 14 1
2

0

1963 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 1

0

1964 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

 

Kickoffs and Punting
Year Team KO Yds Avg Long S P Yds Avg Long S
1954 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1955 WPG 7 365 52.1 61 0 0 0 0 0 0
1956 WPG 3 73 24.3 47 0 0 0 0 0 0
1957 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1958 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 1 47 47 47 0
1959 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1960 WPG 71 3702 52.1 90 0 0 0 0 0 0
1961 WPG 49 2047 41.7 69 0 0 0 0 0 0
1962 WPG 47 1869 39.7 65 0 0 0 0 0 0
1963 WPG 30 1273 42.4 85 0 0 0 0 0 0
1964 WPG 8 217 27.1 55 0 0 0 0 0 0

 

Kickoff and Punt Returns
Year Team KOR Yds Avg TD Long PR Yds Avg TD Long
1954 WPG 13 257 19.7 0 30 51 435 8.5 0 25
1955 WPG 5 109 21.8 0 31 49 428 8.7 0 29
1956 WPG 5 125 25 0 32 44 265 6 0 25
1957 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 54 428 7.9 0 52
1958 WPG 6 141 23.5 0 39 56 476 6.5 0 26
1959 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 2 8 4 0 7
1960 WPG 1 50 50 0 50 19 103 5.4 0 17
1961 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 11 70 6.3 0 17
1962 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 0 0
1963 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 37 178 4.8 0 20
1964 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

 

Rushing and Receiving
Year Team TC Yds Avg TD Long Rec Yds Avg TD Long
1954 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 3 38 12.6 0 17
1955 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1956 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1957 WPG 1 3 3 1 3 1 15 15 0 15
1958 WPG 13 90 6.9 1 12 6 113 18.8 1 30
1959 WPG 1 9 9 1 9 0 0 0 0 0
1960 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 1 52 52 0 52
1961 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1962 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1963 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1964 WPG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

 

Fumbles
Year Team F FL
1954 WPG 2
1955 WPG 1
1956 WPG 1
1957 WPG 0
1958 WPG 2
1959 WPG 0
1960 WPG 0
1961 WPG 0
1962 WPG 0
1963 WPG 0
1964 WPG 0

 

 

 

 

Gord Rowland

Gord Rowland

Gord Rowland