Grey Cup Championships: The Banners of the Blue and Gold
The Grey Cup is the oldest continuously contested trophy in North American professional sport, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have lifted it a dozen times. Each title has its own texture — a breakthrough, a dynasty, a redemption. This page is a fan's celebration of every banner in the rafters.
The Roll of Honour
The Bombers' Grey Cup championship years, as fans count them:
- 1935 — the first Western team ever to win the Grey Cup, a result that reshaped Canadian football.
- 1939 & 1941 — back-to-back-era titles that established Winnipeg as a national power.
- 1958, 1959, 1961 & 1962 — the Bud Grant dynasty, four championships in five seasons and the golden age of the franchise.
- 1984, 1988 & 1990 — a modern revival that gave a new generation its heroes.
- 2019 & 2021 — the drought-breaker and the dynasty-maker, twenty-eight years in the making and then a repeat.
1935: The Western Breakthrough
Before 1935, no team west of Ontario had ever won the Grey Cup. Winnipeg changed that with a squad that famously featured speedster Fritz Hanson, whose punt returns in miserable conditions became instant legend. The win forced the rest of the country to take Western football seriously — a legacy that endures every time the modern West Division sends a champion east.
The Bud Grant Years
The late 1950s and early 1960s belonged to Winnipeg. Under Bud Grant, with quarterback Kenny Ploen orchestrating the offence, the Bombers won four titles in five years. The 1961 final, settled in overtime, is remembered as one of the greatest Grey Cup games ever played. Grant's teams combined discipline, depth, and a distinctly prairie toughness.
2019: The Drought Ends
For 28 long years the banner count stood still. When it finally moved again in 2019, the release was seismic. Winnipeg-born running back Andrew Harris ran for the ages and was named the game's most valuable player and most valuable Canadian — a storybook ending authored by a local kid. Two years later, in 2021, the Bombers won again in overtime to prove the first title was no fluke. You can meet more of the men behind these championships among our Bomber legends, and trace the full arc on our history timeline.
Keeping Count
Fans love to argue about eras, but the banners don't lie. For the official championship record and box scores, the CFL's Grey Cup archive and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame are the authorities. Here, we simply raise a glass to every one of them.