{"id":549220,"date":"2026-03-20T15:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549220\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T15:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:16:11","slug":"10-lists-in-10-days-coaching-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549220\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Lists in 10 Days | Coaching wins"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have been so many historic moments over the course of 10 decades of existence for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, from the franchise\u2019s inception to a dozen Grey Cup championships, from critical wins and blockbuster trades to dramatic plays on the field.<\/p>\n

Count December 4, 2013, as one of the most significant and most important moments.<\/p>\n

That day Blue Bombers President & CEO Wade Miller and GM Kyle Walters introduced Mike O\u2019Shea as head coach following a 3-15 season and a stretch which had seen the club stumble by missing the playoffs in four of the previous five seasons.<\/p>\n

They had also rolled through six different head coaches from 2004-13 in Dave Ritchie, Jim Daley, Doug Berry, Mike Kelly, Paul LaPolice and Tim Burke before committing to O\u2019Shea.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The results didn\u2019t come instantly \u2014 the Blue Bombers did rocket to a 4-1 record in O\u2019Shea\u2019s first five games as the boss \u2014 but the team missed the playoffs again in 2014-15 with 7-11 and 5-13 records.<\/p>\n

Those who were paying attention did see that something was being built and since then the Blue Bombers have been one of the Canadian Football League\u2019s elite organizations with nine straight playoff appearances and double-digit win seasons, two Grey Cup titles and five consecutive championship game appearances from 2019-24.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea was also twice named the CFL\u2019s Coach of the Year, in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n

His place among the Blue Bombers coaching legends was cemented with the first Grey Cup win in 2019 and is the latest in our \u201910 Lists in 10 Days\u2019 series.<\/p>\n

And over time O\u2019Shea has become the franchise leader in all-time coaching wins, having surpassed the iconic Bud Grant with a win in the 2024 Banjo Bowl. That night O\u2019Shea deflected attention away from himself and attempted to shine a spotlight on those around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just so many people that have been here for a huge chunk of it that make it easy every single day, not only to be successful but to come to work just every single day,\u201d he said that night. \u201cMy wife\u2019s standing right there\u2026 my family\u2019s been there for all of it, the 60-something losses that they feel, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it is. Over time these numbers just add up. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019re a numbers-based team, we\u2019re a process-based team. We\u2019ve got a room, a whole basement full of people that are all in on the process and the outcomes just happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Canadian Football Hall of Famer as a player with the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, O\u2019Shea was initially working in medical sales after his retirement from the game when Jim Barker, the Boatmen\u2019s GM, hired him as the special teams coordinator in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was making good money,\u201d Barker told yours truly in 2021. \u201cI remember saying, \u2018Listen, I want you to come coach and start with special teams. You\u2019ll be making less money, but it\u2019s something that could turn out good for you down the road.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought he would be a great coach. When he was on the field, he was a coach. He wasn\u2019t afraid to tell players where to be. Back in those days we had great defences, but we didn\u2019t have the smartest guys. Osh would always get them in the right place.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just that guy who watched more film, he got players together to watch film\u2026 he just had that in him. And I believe that as a player, he really loved it. He was such a perfectionist, and it was like in the back of his mind he thought, \u2018I don\u2019t want to screw these guys up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

His reputation grew even more in Toronto and by the fall of 2013 he was seen as a legit head coaching candidate \u2014 despite not having worn the big headset before.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need to have a big resum\u00e9 sometimes to take that step up to be a head coach,\u201d said Miller in a conversation with bluebombers.com in 2021. \u201cIt\u2019s about how you are as an individual, the leader that you are, how you\u2019re going to build and motivate your team and build something that\u2019s long-lasting. Mike\u2019s proven that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players say they\u2019ll go through a wall for him, but it\u2019s really based on the opposite \u2013 he\u2019ll go through the wall for\u00a0them. He\u2019ll run through a wall for each one of these guys, and that\u2019s where the difference is for him as a coach. He cares about each player like they\u2019re his family. He allows each player to be themselves as well, and that\u2019s all a player asks for from a coach. There were lots of other good coaches out there when we hired him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just Mike had these other characteristics.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of those \u2018other characteristics\u2019 have shone through over the last 11 years with O\u2019Shea being one of the cornerstones of the franchise\u2019s rebirth.<\/p>\n

Blue Bombers Top 10 all-time coaching wins:<\/p>\n

1. Mike O\u2019Shea (2014- ) \u2014 117 (117-77-0)<\/p>\n

2. Bud Grant (1957-66) \u2014 102 (102-56-2)<\/p>\n

3. Cal Murphy (1983-86; 1993-96) \u2014 86 (86-51-1)<\/p>\n

4. Dave Ritchie (1999-2004) \u2014 52 (52-44-1)<\/p>\n

5. Ray Jauch (1978-82) \u2014 45 (45-35-0)<\/p>\n

6. Mike Riley (1987-90) \u2014 40 (40-32-0)<\/p>\n

7. Bud Riley (1974-77) \u2014 34 (34-28-2)<\/p>\n

T-8. Reg Threlfall (1938-41) \u2014 28 (28-8-0)<\/p>\n

George Trafton (1951-53) \u2014 28 (28-17-1)<\/p>\n

10. Doug Berry (2006-08) \u2014 27 (27-26-1)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There have been so many historic moments over the course of 10 decades of existence for the Winnipeg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-549220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}