Tom Casey

Tom Casey was one of those great two-way players from the 1950s.  He played in 1948 with the New York Yankees of the old AAFC before coming to Canada.  Casey played one year with the Hamilton Wildcats of the East / Big Four (they later merged with the Hamilton Tigers to form the Hamilton Tiger-Cats).  Casey came West in 1950 to play with the Bomers. He was a Western All-Star for six consecutive seasons, from 1950-52 as a running back and from 1953-55 as a defensive back.  In fact, his stats in 1952 could easily have netted him double All-Star honours.  Casey led the West in rushing in 1950, the first year there were official stats in the West, with 637 yards.  In 1952, Casey was second in the West with 7 interceptions and the following year he tied for the division lead with another 7 interceptions.  Besides playing offense and defense, Casey ran back kickoffs and punts, and his punt return average was very remarkalbe considering this was the era of no blocking on punt retunrs.  In 1952 for example, Casey averaged 10.1 yards on his punt returns and was over 8 yards on average in three other seasons.  Finally, if Winnipeg was short a punter, Casey could handle that job as well.  In his final season, in 1955, Casey was the regular punter and average a very respectable 42.7 yard average.  While with the Bombers, Casey was also attending medical school at the University of Manitoba.

Note:  The Bomber media guide lists Cases for 1956, but he does not appear in the stats or newspaper accounts.  Thee were no individual stats kept in the East until 1954.

In  1950, separate stats were not kept for kickoff and punt returns.