{"id":595898,"date":"2026-04-11T00:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595898\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T00:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:35:11","slug":"riders-defensive-star-1966-grey-cup-champion-garner-ekstran-dead-at-86-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595898\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders defensive star, 1966 Grey Cup champion Garner Ekstran dead at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d919de3b-1910-4e22-98c3-cd7f7ef8ff4e.jpg\" class=\"object-fit-cover\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive standout Garner Ekstran led the team to their first Grey Cup championship in 1966 over the Ottawa Rough Riders with six tackles. (Image Credit: Saskatchewan Roughriders\/X)<\/p>\n<p>By Scott Roblin &#8211; CKOM News<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tApr 10, 2026 | 9:30 AM\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>One of the greatest defensive players in Saskatchewan Roughriders history has died.<\/p>\n<p>The Roughriders announcing Monday the passing of longtime defensive lineman and linebacker Garner Ekstran, who died of natural causes Saturday at the age of 86 in Sedro-Woolley, Wash.<\/p>\n<p>Ekstran spent seven of his eight CFL seasons with the Roughriders between 1961 and 1967, becoming a three-time all-CFL selection and dressing in 116 career regular season and playoff games in Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n<p>He was a key member of Saskatchewan\u2019s 1966 Grey Cup champion roster, co-leading the team with six tackles including a key defensive stop which led to the game-winning touchdown in a 29-14 victory over the Ottawa Rough Riders in the 54th Grey Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive standout Garner Ekstran led the team to their first Grey Cup championship in 1966 over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-595898","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\/595898","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=595898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}