City of North Bay to dedicate field in honour of Blue Bombers head coach O'Shea

He's a six-time Grey Cup champion and member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. But on Saturday, he'll merely be known as Mike O'Shea from North Bay, Ont.

On Saturday, the city of North Bay will dedicate the football field at the Steve Omischl Sports Complex in honour of O'Shea, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach. But while it will be the latest in a long list of football accomplishments for the 51-year-old North Bay native, O'Shea said this one will feel different.

"I think there's obviously a warmer feeling when there's something to do with the city," O'Shea said during a telephone interview Wednesday. "The other side of that is one of the best things about being from North Bay is you're just Mike O'Shea from North Bay and not anything else.

"All of the people who had a hand in it understand where I came from, all of your buddies keep you grounded. You're still just the kid who grew up in the neighbourhood, which is an awesome, awesome thing."

The six-foot-three, 228-pound O'Shea had a stellar 16-year CFL career as a linebacker with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1993-95, 2000) and Toronto Argonauts (1996-99, 2001-08). He won three Grey Cups as an Argos player (1996-97, '04) and in 271 regular-season games accumulated 1,151 tackles -- the most ever by a Canadian and second in league history.

O'Shea was the CFL's top rookie in 1993 and its outstanding Canadian six years later. An all-time Argo, O'Shea was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2017.

Success has followed O'Shea into the coaching ranks. He added a fourth Grey Cup ring in 2012 as Toronto's special-teams co-ordinator with Nos. five and six coming the past two seasons (2019, '21) as Winnipeg's head coach. O'Shea also captured the Annis Stukus