Canmore Wolverines football team wore Fabi\u2019s No. 73 on the backs of their helmets during their game against the Drumheller Titans on Saturday (Sept. 19).<\/p>\n
CANMORE \u2014 Canmore Wolverines head coach Randy Fabi will be among former Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Manitoba this week as the club honours its 1988 and 1990 Grey Cup championship teams for\u00a0its 2026 Hall of Fame induction.<\/p>\n
Fabi, a slotback, was part of the 1988 Bombers team that finished the regular season 9-9 before defeating the B.C. Lions 22-21 in the 76th Grey Cup, becoming the first .500 team in CFL history to win the championship.<\/p>\n
More than three decades later, Fabi\u2019s current players are making sure his championship pedigree\u00a0isn\u2019t going unnoticed in Canmore.<\/p>\n
Canmore Wolverines players wore Fabi\u2019s No. 73 on the backs of their helmets during their game against the Drumheller Titans on Saturday (Sept. 19), ahead of the Hall of Fame celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a little emotional,\u201d said Fabi. \u201cThey handed it out at practice the other day and I was surprised. It was very, very kind. I really like these boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fabi says he hadn\u2019t told his players about the upcoming Hall of Fame recognition.<\/p>\n
He had only informed the Wolverines coaching staff he would be away for a few days, and believes his fellow coaches came up with the idea to honour him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t tell my boys anything about my career,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When asked what it was like seeing his old number on the helmets of the players he now coaches, Fabi was emotional and paused to gather his thoughts.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou spend so much time with these kids over the years and it\u2019s just fantastic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fabi, who grew up in southern Ontario, outside of Toronto, says he had never been to Winnipeg. While he was initially hesitant about being drafted and leaving for\u00a0the province, he says it couldn\u2019t have been to\u00a0a better place and described it as a life-changing period.<\/p>\n
\u201cFantastic place to play football. Great fans, great city. It was just fantastic,\u201d said Fabi. \u201cIt changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 1988 championship was Winnipeg\u2019s ninth Grey Cup title and ended a 24-year championship drought for the franchise.<\/p>\n
Fabi, however, was quick to downplay his individual role on the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly was never a star,\u201d he said. \u201cI was just part of a good team and I have a lot of good memories and a lot of good friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
The upcoming celebration will also serve as a reunion for teammates Fabi hasn\u2019t seen in decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had fantastic players, great chemistry, but we were also fortunate to win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fabi recalled the 1988 Grey Cup as a chaotic game that came down to the final moments against B.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat game was pretty crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe beat the B.C. Lions by a point pretty well in the last minute of the game. It was crazy. The weather was bad. The game was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Bomber said his connection to Winnipeg has continued long after his playing career ended.<\/p>\n
He added that the championship has allowed him to remain connected with the organization and its alumni for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been a blessing to be able to participate with alumni in Grey Cup activities and Blue Bomber activities, all because of that one game,\u201d Fabi said.<\/p>\n
Canmore vs. Drumheller<\/p>\n
The tribute and affection for Fabi also reflects his continuous efforts to build what he calls a \u201cnew culture for football\u201d in the Bow Valley.<\/p>\n
Playing in their\u00a0season home opener, the Wolverines took on the Titans on Saturday, falling 36-6.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game, I was hoping we\u2019d do a little better today, but this is our first real game and it showed,\u201d said Fabi. \u201cWe made a lot of mistakes. We did better in the second half. We started to play like a team, but [those are] things that we can correct.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrumheller is always a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fabi said many players are unable to practice throughout the summer because of work, family vacations or other commitments. Saturday marked the first game for several Wolverines who had never played football before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is pretty well the first week we\u2019ve had all our players together to play,\u201d said Fabi.<\/p>\n
Fabi says players in the Bow Valley have traditionally joined football for the first time in Grade 11 or 12. The Wolverines are working to bring players into the program earlier, particularly in Grades 9 and 10, so football becomes part of their high school experience.<\/p>\n
The program is also working to attract more players, improve equipment and add coaches, while seeking funding for a new locker room. Fabi said the current space is inadequate for roughly 50 players.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to prepare for each week, for each game, but then you have to have a strategic long-term plan to bring more kids in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With many players joining the program with little or no experience, Fabi says coaches have to spend considerable time teaching the rules and fundamentals of what can be a complicated game.<\/p>\n
But the Wolverines\u2019 goal extends beyond what happens on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to create better adults,\u201d said Fabi. \u201cWe just want them to have fun, so they keep coming out, they keep learning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canmore Wolverines football team wore Fabi\u2019s No. 73 on the backs of their helmets during their game against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-910985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910985","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=910985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}