Matt Dunigan

Moderator: Team Captains

Post Reply

Which CFL team do you most associate Matt Dunigan with?

Edmonton Eskimos (1983-87)
9
69%
BC Lions (1988-89)
1
8%
Toronto Argonauts (1990-91)
3
23%
Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1992-94)
0
No votes
Birmingham Barracudas (1995)
0
No votes
Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1996)
0
No votes
Calgary Stampeders (2004 - as head coach)
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 13
User avatar
Robbie
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8380
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:13 pm
Location: 卑詩體育館或羅渣士體育館

Elected into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

Several good clips on his biography.


There is an inaccuracy when the narrator says that he picked up his game in 1984 when the highlights show him playing in the 1987 WDF when he threw a couple of long TD passes to Stephan Jones.



-------------------------------------------------------

A more recent article about Matt Dunigan reflecting on the ill-fated 1988 Grey Cup:
http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/11/ ... -grey-cup/
VANCOUVER — “The ones you win, you forget,” said Wally Buono, after his B.C. Lions booked their ticket to the Grey Cup game. “The ones you lose sting forever.”

Amen, says Matt Dunigan.

“I think I’ll tweet that,” said the Hall of Fame quarterback turned TSN football panellist.
He’d been asked to reflect on 1988, the last time the Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers — who will play for Earl Grey’s big silver cuspidor on Sunday — met in the Canadian Football League’s title game.

Dunigan’s high-octane Lions, 8.5-point favourites, lost 22-21 to the Sean Salisbury-led Bombers on a warm, windy evening at Ottawa’s Lansdowne Park . . . and yes, it stings to this day.

“It’s the woulda-coulda-shouldas that haunt you,” said Dunigan, reached on his cellphone Monday in Grey Cup city.

It is a personal and professional sorrow that has nagged at him for 23 years, ever since his potentially game-winning touchdown pass to Jan Carinci was tipped at the line of scrimmage and came to rest in the arms of Bombers defensive tackle Michael Gray.

“Every lineman’s dream,” said Gray, a former Lion.

B.C. had been on the Winnipeg seven-yard-line, trailing 22-19 with under two minutes left. A field goal would have tied it.

“Their defence played lights-out,” said Dunigan. “It’s the only play I remember, to be honest. I remember the play call. David Williams was one-on-one backside, and his guy fell down and David’s kind of walking in the end zone by himself. But I miss it, and the play unfolds, I try to knife it into Carinci, who had a step on his man on the crosser and Stan Mikawos gets his big mitt on the ball and . . .

“It comes down to making plays. Winnipeg was one point better than we were that day, and it’s a hard one to swallow. We didn’t capitalize on our chances, and they tend to come back and bite you in the ass.”

Mike Riley, who coached that Winnipeg team — and the one that beat Edmonton 50-11 two years later at BC Place, the last time the Bombers won the Cup — remembers it somewhat differently.

“I’ve run that thing back in slow motion,” the 58-year-old said Monday from Corvallis, Oregon, “and I’m pretty sure Michael Gray gets his hand on it, the ball pops up in the air, Bennie Thompson and (Carinci) collide at the goal-line and Michael is running back to the ball and all three of them and the ball arrive at the same time, and Michael intercepts it and saves the game.

“And the lesson is, and I use that play to teach my team: defensive linemen rushing the passer and then running after the ball. It’s rare that something happens, but it changed everybody’s lives on that play.”

Riley, who’s been head coach at Oregon State for 11 years in two stints — interrupted by a three-year sentence as San Diego Chargers’ head coach and a couple of other NFL stops — recalls in detail the circumstances leading up to the Bombers’ victory in 1988.

“Great football game. I thought Bob Cameron might have won the game for us, with his punting,” he said. “We made some plays in the first half, offensively, and that was about it. Held on defensively, punted them out of good field position.

“And then we made a very controversial call, elected to concede a safety (ahead 22-19) instead of punting it out of there, and they had a big return (by Anthony Drawhorn) but I think (Tony) Cherry took a penalty on the play. So we held them, and survived.”

Salisbury was only quarterbacking the Bombers because their regular QB, Tom Muecke, had elbow problems in mid-season.

“Yup, Muecke came out of warm-up one game, and (offensive co-ordinator) Bruce Lemmerman came to me five minutes before the game and said, ‘You better go get Salisbury, because Muecke’s out cold on the trainer’s table.’ His bursa sac on his elbow had swollen up and he’d come in to have it drained, and just passed out,” Riley said.

Salisbury — who went on to become an NFL backup and later an ESPN football commentator, before a Brett Favre-like lewd pictures scandal led to his dismissal a few years ago — did just enough the rest of that ’88 season to keep the job. He only completed 12 of 32 passes in the Grey Cup “and I think all of them were in the first half,” Riley joked.

Dunigan and Riley agree on one thing: defence won the game, and usually does in the Grey Cup.

“When we won in ’91, even with the offensive team that we had in Toronto — Pinball (Clemons), Rocket (Ismail), D.K. Smith, Paul Masotti, David Williams — we had, I think, under 10 first downs,” said Dunigan.

“What I’m saying is that each game has its own circumstances. And oftentimes, from my experience, it’s defences that control those football games, and you just try to hang on and not hurt yourself offensively.”

“It’s always comforting to go into a Grey Cup confident in what your defence has done, and can do,” Riley said.

“In that era, we were the only 3-4 defence in the country, and had such good players at linebacker with James West and Greg Battle, Paul Randolph, and earlier there was Delbert Fowler, Darrell Patterson . . . and Ty Jones, who was just the purrfect outside linebacker. He was with us the whole time, just a great, great football player.”

There was also a third-down gamble the Lions tried in the third quarter, deep in their end, that didn’t pan out, when Dunigan was stacked up at the line.

“It was a stupid decision and an insult to our defence,” West would say later.

At the time, B.C. coach Larry Donovan seemed to suggest he had bad information from the spotter’s booth, and didn’t know the Lions had needed more than a yard.

Dunigan chuckled at that.

“Whatever. We should have made it,” he said. “You’ve got to give credit to Winnipeg for making the plays when they had to because, really, things weren’t going too well for them offensively, either.”

Matter of fact, both he and Riley say, the 2011 Bombers remind them a lot of the ’88 team. Not so hot on offence, but capable of great things defensively.

The Blue Bombers begin this week as a seven-point Vegas underdog.

It’s something to think about, for the Lions.
Last edited by Robbie on Fri Sep 29, 2017 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
祝加拿大加式足球聯賽不列颠哥伦比亚卑詩雄獅隊今年贏格雷杯冠軍。此外祝溫哥華加人隊贏總統獎座·卡雲斯·甘保杯·史丹利盃。還每年祝溫哥華白頭浪隊贏美國足球大联盟杯。不要忘記每年祝溫哥華巨人贏西部冰球聯盟冠軍。
改建後的卑詩體育館於二十十一年九月三十日重新對外開放,首場體育活動為同日舉行的加拿大足球聯賽賽事,由主場的卑詩雄獅隊以三十三比二十四擊敗愛民頓愛斯基摩人隊。
祝你龍年行大運。
恭喜西雅图海鹰直到第四十八屆超級盃最終四十三比八大勝曾拿下兩次超級盃冠軍的丹佛野馬拿下隊史第一個超級盃冠軍。
User avatar
Coast Mountain Lion
Legend
Posts: 1374
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:52 pm
Location: Champlain Heights

How come there's no option for "Montreal Expos"? :tease:
User avatar
Robbie
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8380
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:13 pm
Location: 卑詩體育館或羅渣士體育館

According to the 2005 book The Canadian Football League: The Phoenix of Professional Sports Leagues by Steve O'Brien, some light is shed as to why Matt Dunigan was traded to the Toronto Argonauts in the 1989-90 off-season even though Dunigan only completed 2 of the 3 year contract he signed when he joined the Lions in 1988.

Essentially in 1990 after the Lary Kuharich joined the Lions, he was in a bidding war with Toronto GM Mike McCarthy for Doug Flutie. Kuharich and McCarthy made a deal in which he would trade Dunigan to the Argonauts for the right for the Lions to deal with Flutie.

Since Flutie was slow to develop in 1990, one is left to wonder if the Lions would have done better in the 1990 had they kept Dunigan. Maybe not as the defence was still terrible. For the Argonauts in 1990, while their offence was explosive, Dunigan himself was limited to just 8 games because of injuries. So neither side benefited too much in 1990 but in 1991, Toronto had the better deal with the Argonauts championship. And in 1996 the Argonauts still managed to bring in Doug Flutie. As such, Lions had terrible management in the early 1990's.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by Robbie on Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
祝加拿大加式足球聯賽不列颠哥伦比亚卑詩雄獅隊今年贏格雷杯冠軍。此外祝溫哥華加人隊贏總統獎座·卡雲斯·甘保杯·史丹利盃。還每年祝溫哥華白頭浪隊贏美國足球大联盟杯。不要忘記每年祝溫哥華巨人贏西部冰球聯盟冠軍。
改建後的卑詩體育館於二十十一年九月三十日重新對外開放,首場體育活動為同日舉行的加拿大足球聯賽賽事,由主場的卑詩雄獅隊以三十三比二十四擊敗愛民頓愛斯基摩人隊。
祝你龍年行大運。
恭喜西雅图海鹰直到第四十八屆超級盃最終四十三比八大勝曾拿下兩次超級盃冠軍的丹佛野馬拿下隊史第一個超級盃冠軍。
User avatar
Robbie
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8380
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:13 pm
Location: 卑詩體育館或羅渣士體育館

An old March 1990 TSN sports news on the Lions-Argonauts trade involving Matt Dunigan.



According to President & GM Joe Kapp, it was Dunigan's greed that caused him to be traded. And of course in retrospect, of the 6 players that the Lions received only one of them, Willie Pless, was useful but of course he only stayed for one year. The remaining 5 players were essentially useless with the biggest useless one was QB Rick Johnson who retired, so that was a wasted trade.
祝加拿大加式足球聯賽不列颠哥伦比亚卑詩雄獅隊今年贏格雷杯冠軍。此外祝溫哥華加人隊贏總統獎座·卡雲斯·甘保杯·史丹利盃。還每年祝溫哥華白頭浪隊贏美國足球大联盟杯。不要忘記每年祝溫哥華巨人贏西部冰球聯盟冠軍。
改建後的卑詩體育館於二十十一年九月三十日重新對外開放,首場體育活動為同日舉行的加拿大足球聯賽賽事,由主場的卑詩雄獅隊以三十三比二十四擊敗愛民頓愛斯基摩人隊。
祝你龍年行大運。
恭喜西雅图海鹰直到第四十八屆超級盃最終四十三比八大勝曾拿下兩次超級盃冠軍的丹佛野馬拿下隊史第一個超級盃冠軍。
User avatar
Robbie
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8380
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:13 pm
Location: 卑詩體育館或羅渣士體育館

Another detailed news article on why Matt Dunigan was traded from BC to Toronto on March 21, 1990.

Dunigan was supposed to received bonus money but it was a verbal agreement which was not in writing, and when Joe Kapp arrived as GM he didn't honour the oral contract that Dunigan agreed with former President Stu Kehoe. Also, the new management decided to take their chances on Doug Flutie which made Dunigan expendable.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https% ... a142150f7b

No doubt Matt Dunigan reached out to the community a whole lot in the 1989 season where the them was Good Time Football Vancouvers Lionhearted Again. There was a huge campaign with Safeway called Catch The Savings with Matt Dunigan appearing in posters selling cheap tickets at $5.99 each. As a result of reaching out to the community, Dunigan won the Tom Pate Memorial Award.

But in the end, it looks like Dunigan expected to be paid for reaching out to the community and when incoming GM Joe Kapp refused to do so, he got upset and demanded a trade.
Last edited by Robbie on Thu Dec 21, 2023 5:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
祝加拿大加式足球聯賽不列颠哥伦比亚卑詩雄獅隊今年贏格雷杯冠軍。此外祝溫哥華加人隊贏總統獎座·卡雲斯·甘保杯·史丹利盃。還每年祝溫哥華白頭浪隊贏美國足球大联盟杯。不要忘記每年祝溫哥華巨人贏西部冰球聯盟冠軍。
改建後的卑詩體育館於二十十一年九月三十日重新對外開放,首場體育活動為同日舉行的加拿大足球聯賽賽事,由主場的卑詩雄獅隊以三十三比二十四擊敗愛民頓愛斯基摩人隊。
祝你龍年行大運。
恭喜西雅图海鹰直到第四十八屆超級盃最終四十三比八大勝曾拿下兩次超級盃冠軍的丹佛野馬拿下隊史第一個超級盃冠軍。
User avatar
Toppy Vann
Hall of Famer
Posts: 9783
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:56 pm

Robbie wrote:
Thu Dec 21, 2023 9:52 am
Another detailed news article on why Matt Dunigan was traded from BC to Toronto on March 21, 1990.

Dunigan was supposed to received bonus money but it was a verbal agreement which was not in writing, and when Joe Kapp arrived as GM he didn't honour the oral contract that Dunigan agreed with former President Stu Kehoe. Also, the new management decided to take their chances on Doug Flutie which made Dunigan expendable.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https% ... a142150f7b

I know that Lui Passaglia was being jerked around in that era also.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
User avatar
Robbie
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8380
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:13 pm
Location: 卑詩體育館或羅渣士體育館

Toppy Vann wrote:
Thu Dec 21, 2023 11:00 am
Robbie wrote:
Thu Dec 21, 2023 9:52 am
Another detailed news article on why Matt Dunigan was traded from BC to Toronto on March 21, 1990.

Dunigan was supposed to received bonus money but it was a verbal agreement which was not in writing, and when Joe Kapp arrived as GM he didn't honour the oral contract that Dunigan agreed with former President Stu Kehoe. Also, the new management decided to take their chances on Doug Flutie which made Dunigan expendable.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https% ... a142150f7b

I know that Lui Passaglia was being jerked around in that era also.
At least Lui Passaglia stayed with the team and didn't demand a trade like Dunigan or walk out on the or was released like he did at the start of the 1988 season over a contract dispute with then GM Joe Galat. Passaglia tried out for the Cleveland Browns while the Lions tried to replace him with Tony Martino. But after three failed kickers in the form of Tony Martino, Roy Kurtz, and Bernie Ruoff while Passaglia was cut by the Cleveland Browns, the Lions and Galat finally realized how important he was and agreed to sign him again.
祝加拿大加式足球聯賽不列颠哥伦比亚卑詩雄獅隊今年贏格雷杯冠軍。此外祝溫哥華加人隊贏總統獎座·卡雲斯·甘保杯·史丹利盃。還每年祝溫哥華白頭浪隊贏美國足球大联盟杯。不要忘記每年祝溫哥華巨人贏西部冰球聯盟冠軍。
改建後的卑詩體育館於二十十一年九月三十日重新對外開放,首場體育活動為同日舉行的加拿大足球聯賽賽事,由主場的卑詩雄獅隊以三十三比二十四擊敗愛民頓愛斯基摩人隊。
祝你龍年行大運。
恭喜西雅图海鹰直到第四十八屆超級盃最終四十三比八大勝曾拿下兩次超級盃冠軍的丹佛野馬拿下隊史第一個超級盃冠軍。
User avatar
Toppy Vann
Hall of Famer
Posts: 9783
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:56 pm

As I recall the issue with the Kapp era and Lui was his unwillingness to pay more for Lui being both the Punter and the Place Kicker.

Joe Kapp was not the right person for that situation and totally unprepared.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
User avatar
Robbie
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8380
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:13 pm
Location: 卑詩體育館或羅渣士體育館

Toppy Vann wrote:
Fri Dec 22, 2023 10:07 am
As I recall the issue with the Kapp era and Lui was his unwillingness to pay more for Lui being both the Punter and the Place Kicker.

Joe Kapp was not the right person for that situation and totally unprepared.
But that said, I don't recall Joe Kapp bringing in another kicker at the start of the 1990 season to try out and possibly win the punter and/or placekicker job over Lui Passaglia.

I guess most Lions fans have mixed feelings about Joe Kapp. As a QB player, by leading the Lions to their first Grey Cup appearance in 1963 and the first Grey Cup win in 1964 and having his #22 retired, that is self-explanatory.

But as a GM in the 1990, despite bringing in Doug Flutie who wasn't well adjusted to the CFL yet in his first season, the 1990 season was in turmoil. The six for one trade which sent Matt Dunigan to Toronto wasn't dealt with well at all as aside from maybe short-term Willie Pless, the five other players the Lions received were completely ineffective and useless. And Joe Kapp himself was fired halfway into the season as GM.
祝加拿大加式足球聯賽不列颠哥伦比亚卑詩雄獅隊今年贏格雷杯冠軍。此外祝溫哥華加人隊贏總統獎座·卡雲斯·甘保杯·史丹利盃。還每年祝溫哥華白頭浪隊贏美國足球大联盟杯。不要忘記每年祝溫哥華巨人贏西部冰球聯盟冠軍。
改建後的卑詩體育館於二十十一年九月三十日重新對外開放,首場體育活動為同日舉行的加拿大足球聯賽賽事,由主場的卑詩雄獅隊以三十三比二十四擊敗愛民頓愛斯基摩人隊。
祝你龍年行大運。
恭喜西雅图海鹰直到第四十八屆超級盃最終四十三比八大勝曾拿下兩次超級盃冠軍的丹佛野馬拿下隊史第一個超級盃冠軍。
User avatar
Toppy Vann
Hall of Famer
Posts: 9783
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:56 pm

In 1990, Kuharich became the head coach of the BC Lions. Both he and GM Joe Kapp worked to acquire big-name players, including Doug Flutie, Major Harris, and Mark Gastineau. Although Flutie played well, Gastineau only appeared in 4 games and Harris spent most of the season on the bench.
Kuharich was a disaster as HC.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
Post Reply