One of the greatest single-game individual performances in Canadian Football League history — and the greatest amongst quarterbacks in this grand ol’ loop — opened with Matt Dunigan handing the ball off twice to Blaise Bryant.

And then Bob Cameron was trotted out to punt.

What then followed that night on July 14, 1994, at Winnipeg Stadium was the most prolific passing performance in both the history of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the CFL.

Dunigan would finish the night — the Blue Bombers 1994 home opener — completing 33-of-52 passes for five touchdowns against two interceptions and an astonishing 713 yards passing.

That ain’t no misprint: 7-1-3.

“What a crazy night,” Dunigan told yours truly for a Winnipeg Free Press story on the 20-year anniversary of the feat in July of 2014. “It just felt like a basketball player who sees the hoop and it looks like it’s 10 feet wide or a baseball player who is seeing the ball coming out of the pitcher’s hand and it looks like a softball coming at you. When you’re in that zone it’s like, ‘Oh yeah… this is good.’

“That night we all felt like, ‘Do we have to stop? Can we play a couple more quarters?’”

His incredible accomplishment seemed like a good place to start our ‘10 Lists in 10 Days’ series, highlighting some of the best performances in Blue Bombers history over the next week and a bit.

Dunigan’s record-setting night came in a rematch of the 1993 Grey Cup — a 33-23 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos — as the Blue Bombers exacted a bit of revenge in a 50-35 win. His 713-yard effort eclipsed the CFL record of 601, set by Danny Barrett of the B.C. Lions just 11 months earlier which, in turn, had bested Sam Etcheverry’s mark of 586 which had stood since 1954.

He also smashed his own team mark for passing yards in a game of 467, set in 1992.

That same night two Blue Bombers receivers would break the club record for receiving yards in a game, with Alfred Jackson finishing with 308 yards and David Williams with 240.

Dunigan had just 88 yards passing at the end of the first quarter but was up to 322 by halftime. And with Edmonton keeping the game close right to the final moments, the veteran pivot was kept in the game and kept filling the air with passes.

In the final minute, he went from 699 yards passing to 713 on a 14-yard completion to Allan Boyko.

“Late in the game when we were up by a couple of touchdowns Cal (Murphy, GM and head coach) told me to come out of the booth and come down to the sidelines,” said Mike Kelly, then the Blue Bombers offensive coordinator and later the head coach in an interview with me in 2014. “I came down and (former media-relations director) Kevin O’Donovan got word down to the field that Matt was sitting at 699 yards.

“A first down would have ended the game. I said to Cal, ‘He’s at 699.’ He said, ‘Do you want to throw it?’ And I said, ‘Let’s let him go one more time with it.’ I mean, I thought 601 was impossible, so to be that close to 700…”

We talked to current Blue Bombers starter Zach Collaros about Dunigan’s effort for a story last summer. Collaros’ best total as a Blue Bomber is 432, set in a win over Edmonton in late September of 2024.

“I’ve never got to 500,” said Collaros. “There’s been times when you might be on pace for that but then you come out because of the score. And I’ve seen games where the two guys are both throwing for 450. You can get to it, to 500.

“But the game has changed a bit since then, too, in that it’s almost more possession based, and coaches put more value in that.

“Still, like I said, 713 is insane.”

One more on this before we get to the list: Dunigan’s mark of 713 has really been threatened in the years since, with the highest total after that a 551-yard game by Anthony Calvillo, then with the Las Vegas Posse, later in 1994.

As well, the last CFL pivot to even eclipse the 500-yard passing mark was Ricky Ray in 2017 when he threw for 506.

Top 10 single game Blue Bombers passing performances:

1. Matt Dunigan –– 713 (33-of-52, 5 TDs/2 INTs) vs. Edmonton, July 14, 1994 — 50-35 W

2. Matt Dunigan — 467 (25-37, 2/0) vs. B.C., July 30, 1992 — 41-15 W

3. Tom Burgess — 464 (29-52, 5/1) vs Saskatchewan, September 8, 1991 — 49-41 W (OT)

4. Khari Jones — 462 (29-43, 5/2) vs Calgary, August 23, 2002 — 51-48 W (OT)

T-5. Sean Salisbury — 454 (24-47, 6/3) vs B.C., September 10, 1989 — 53-34 W

Kerwin Bell — 454 (19-28, 1/1) vs B.C., July 29, 1999 — 30-18 W

7. Kevin Glenn — 453 (30-54, 2/2) at Toronto, September 23, 2007 — 31-23 L

T- 8. Don Jonas – 450 (23-36, 3/2), vs. B.C., September 19, 1971 — 20-7 L

Dieter Brock — 450 (26-44, 1/2) at Edmonton, July 9, 1980 — 36-13 L

Ryan Dinwiddie — 450 (24-39, 1/0) vs. Calgary, July 24, 2008 — 32-28 W