The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 70

I'l i CEST COPY! AVAiI.AjLH The Vancouver Sun, Thursday, Nov. 26, 1992 '1 SPORTS CFL nigan chasing straight ey Cup win Du 4m sccon a. I Gr 1 1 8s a i 'hitii REUTER WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS' offensive coordinator Mike Kelly leans over to talk to QB Matt Dunigan during practice TORONTO It has often been said of Matt Dunigan, that he plays quarterback with the mentality of a linebacker. Combative. Tough.

Never shrinking from a physical challenge. It is for that reason and the attendant susceptibility to injury that any team that employs as a starter a guy who readily admits to "getting the snot beat out of me," better be equipped with a capable reliever. Much like a baseball team. Much like the Blue Jays. Dunigan, himself, used the baseball analogy Wednesday to describe his role with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and his relationship with backups Danny McManus and Sammy Garza, both of whom have had to come off the bench this season to relieve Dunigan after another of his increasingly frequent injuries.

"We work together. we're focused because we've got one goal in mind, that's to win the Grey Cup," Dunigan told reporters after the Bombers' first workout in the Sky-Dome for Sunday's CFL title game. "If I'm Jack Morris and Danny and Sammy are (Duane) Ward and (Tom) Henke, then so be it." It was probably inadvertent, but there was delicious irony in Dunigan referring to himself as Morris, the hard-throwing mercenary who in the last two years has helped the Minnesota Twins and then the Blue Jays to World Series triumphs. For Dunigan, too, is something of a hired gun. A strong-armed, strong-willed thrower with an eye for a buck, a roguish charm and an affinity for playing football on the last weekend in November.

Sunday will mark his fifth Grey GREY CUP NOTEBOOK DUNIGAN FACTS BORN: Dec. 6, 1960, in Lakewood, Ohio. HEIGHT: 5' 10" WEIGHT: 195 lbs. FAMILY: Wife Kathy, son Dane and daughter Madison. UNIVERSITY: Louisiana Tech.

MILESTONES: First quarterback to lead four different teams into Grey Cup Two-time CFL all-star Sixth all-time rushing leader among quarterbacks nominated in 1989 for outstanding player award. 1992 STATS: 205 completions, 411 passes, 2,857 yards, 17 TDs, 15 Ints. GARY KINGSTON Cup appearance in seven years. Perhaps, more remarkably, he will have done so with four different teams. Dunigan, who affects the same kind of cocky, self-assured swagger as Morris, shrugs off the suggestion that he's a winner for hire.

"You can see me that way if you like," he says. "I see myself as trying to do the best I can for my family. For one reason or another, situations have dictated the moves. "They've all been different, but with the same focus in mind to try to improve my situation financially for the betterment of my family." In actual fact, it was only his most recent move to Winnipeg last offseason from Toronto in which he was openly able to sell his services as a free agent. But Dunigan has also been part of two of the biggest trades in CFL history.

On two different occasions he was swapped for six players to teams who clearly saw him as the kind of quarterback they were prepared to pay heavily for in the belief he could get them to the big game. And he did. In his first season in B.C. (1988) after five years and two Grey Cup games in Edmonton, he led the Lions to the CFL final, where they lost on a tipped Dunigan interception in the final minute. A year later, after a bitter contract dispute with then-Lions' general manager Joe Kapp, he was shipped to Toronto.

In 1991, courageously playing with a damaged shoulder shot full of painkillers, he helped the Argos win the Cup. Now he's a Bomber, signed to a guaranteed $500,000 a year after Toronto general manager Mike McCarthy decided it wasn't worth the risk. The Bombers saw a hired gun. Sure, he maybe wasn't as quick on the draw as he used to be Does Morris throw as hard as he did 10 years But he has those intangibles. Guts.

Leadership. A will to win. "We needed someone to play the position," says Bombers' assistant general manager Lyle Bauer. "Right away, we went and got the big fish, the best quarterback available." For a time this season, it appeared the Bombers had landed a dog(fish) and that maybe McCarthy had made a smart move. Dunigan struggled early in the year and did not play in six games after injuring a shoulder and then a knee.

The familiar cry went out in jury-prone, his critics carped. Even some of his new teammates wondered if he could stay healthy long enough to help them. But he is healthy now and the Bombers come into the Grey Cup on a six-game win streak. "I feel better now than I ever have at this point of the season," said Dunigan, who is carrying a solid 195 pounds on his 5-foot-10 frame. "I'm usually ready to take a vacation at this time.

But now I'm ready to rock and roll." He insists the fact this Grey Cup is in Toronto holds no special meaning and does not view it as an opportunity to stick it to the Argos, who finished out of the playoffs this season without him. He also has been careful not to publicly badmouth his old club. "I look back on '91 as a positive experience and memory and put it in its place. It is history. Now, I'm a Bomber.

I've hurt and sweated and cried as a Bomber and I'm looking forward to experiencing the '92 quest." Based on his 10 years of CFL "Over the last 10 years, I've been fortunate to have a lot of great experiences in the CFL because I've been able to keep my life simple," says Dunigan. "My dad always preached to me about keeping life simple. You've got God, family and friends. "By being a simple person and keeping things in perspective, I think I've been able to contribute to the best of my ability." experience, it is a quest for which he seems ideally suited. "There is no one playing football anywhere that could possibly try to study an opponent more than Matt Dunigan does," says Bombers' offensive coordinator Mike Kelly.

"He watches film and he sees little intricacies that other people don't." It is a quality that has helped him guide five teams to Grey Cups and to win two of them. GREY CUP -MW "I Will Flutie out to hush critics with pro championship Shivers doubts Lions' general manager job has his name on it GARY KINGSTON Canadian Press TORONTO Doug Flutie finally has a chance to beat the rap. The scampering quarterback and throwing fiend can prove to the doubters he can win a professional championship if he leads the Calgary Stampeders to victory against Winnipeg in the Grey Cup on Sunday. He has started in three pro leagues, thrown for more than 22,000 yards and won so many awards most of them are gathering dust in his parents' garage back home in Natick, Mass. But it hasn't been enough for those who keep reminding him he hasn't won a championship in 8 'a years.

Not since he threw the Hail Mary pass that sealed an upset win for Boston College in 1984. Now, after diving across for the winning touchdown minus a shoe in the last 19 seconds of the western final against Edmonton, Flutie has been dubbed a magic man by his teammates and fans. He admitted Wednesday, as his team practised for the first time at the Sky Dome, the pressure is on. "It has been since Day One. Since the pre-season when we played the game in Portland," he said.

"Every day there's a lot of pressure because you have to live up to what they did last year. It's even more important to me personally." The Stamps have been focused on winning the Grey Cup since they came up short last year against the Toronto Argonauts. New owner Larry Ryckman lured Flutie away from the B.C. Lions in the off-season with the hope he would prove the final stepping stone on the long, winding road to a win. The Stamps haven't won the league championship since 1971 the longest drought for any CFL team.

"Now, anything short of winning is a failure," Flutie said. "They're pay-ng you all this money to come in and if you don't get to the same point you got last year, there'll be a percentage of people saying 'Yeah, so, (former pivot) Danny Barrett got them this Flutie's season would appear to give him the edge over Winnipeg quarterback Matt Dunigan into Sunday's game. While Dunigan missed about one-third of the season with a variety of ailments, Flutie carried the Stamps with 5,945, yards passing, second only to Saskatchewan's Kent Austin, and an 8l-per cent passing efficiency. He accounted for 43 touchdowns this season, 11 of them carrying the ball himself, and is up tonight for the league's outstanding player award for the second straight year. While a Flutie-Dunigan matchup in the Grey Cup might be a good bet for an exciting CFL championship, it's stirring little interest from the gambling types south of the border.

A number of Las Vegas odds-makers aren't bothering to post a Grey Cup line for Sunday's game. There isn't enough action to Justify it, said Jim Meadows of the Nugget Hotel. "The only time CFL football has generated any type of interest is during strike years," Meadows 'Said. "With the NFL, NBA, college football and NHL all underway. thcre are just too many things going 6h." Added Yolanda Acuna of The Mirage: "The Grey Cup, what's a Crey Cup? We've never had it upend won't because it doesn't draw a lot of interest down here." move the franchise out of the nation's capital, said Wednesday he's a bit more optimistic a stadium and concession deal can be reached with the city.

"Our first priority is to stay in Ottawa," said Glieberman, whose father, Bernie, a Michigan businessman, owns the team. "We don't want to go to the United States. It's a lot more work and a lot more risk for us than to stay in a stable market that's had CFL football for more than 100 years." The Glieberman's want a rent-free deal at Lansdowne Park, the same status enjoyed by six of the seven other CFL teams, or control of the concessions. "We at least need an opportunity to be viable." The city rejected a deal a week ago, but another vote will be taken next week. Glieberman says he's encouraged by the calls he's received from some aldermen and the mayor and by the fact CFL commissioner Larry Smith is getting involved.

Sunday's Grey Cup game is being billed as a battle of marquee quarterbacks Matt Dunigan for the Bombers and Doug Flutie for the Stampeders. Dunigan says he's delighted to be included in the same company as Flutie, who today will likely be named the CFL's most outstanding player for the second consecutive season. "He's been the most valuable addition to this league in the last two years," said Dunigan. "I think if Vancouver Sun TORONTO The B.C. Lions' up-for-grabs general manager's job apparently won't be going to Roy Shivers.

"I would doubt it," Shivers said Wednesday after the Calgary Stam-peders' assistant general manager arrived here for Grey Cup. Shivers, who was on Lions' owner Bill Comrie's list and who campaigned for the job, says he has yet to be contacted by Comrie. "If he wants to call me, he has my number. If he's interested, I'm interested. But yeah, I'm kind of surprised he hasn't called." Shivers, a former Lions' player personnel director, is one of the game's top talent scouts.

But Comrie has expressed doubts about Shivers' administrative abilities. One man who Comrie has talked to recently about the general manager's job is Bill Quintcr, currently the Lions' player personnel director. Quinter threw his hat into the ring two weeks ago on the day Bob O'Bil-lovich was fired. "1 talked to him last Friday," Quinter said from Vancouver. "But I didn't get any sense from him about where I stand.

He's very non-committal." Comrie's favored choice to coach the team, former Winnipeg head coach Mike Riley, has reportedly endorsed Quinter. Ottawa Rough Riders' president Lonie Glicberman, who in a fit of pique last week threatened to CANADIAN PRESS STAMPEDER Kent Warnock prepares for Grey Cup game all reporters from the main Winnipeg locker room. After Sunday's game, reporters will be allowed into the main locker room to interview players who stay in that area. The players will, however, have a separate room off to the side where they can go and change and shower. Or duck the media.

The officiating staff for the game was announced Wednesday. It's headed by referee Jake Ireland, the 13-year veteran from Townsend, who will be working his eighth Grey Cup. Doug would have come straight here from Boston College, he would have been prime minister by now." The Bombers appear to have once again won the dressing room battle, although both the club and the CFL say they are happy with a compromise and are downplaying the issue. The CFL has an open locker room policy, but a couple of years ago Bomber general manager Cal Murphy, in an attempt to keep female reporters and cameras away from naked players, began barring SOCCER Only two APSL teams on West Coast will be costly for Vancouver 86erC DAN STINSON Vuncouvor Sun The American Professional Soccer League will operate in 1993 with a minimum of six teams and possibly as many as nine, Vancouver Bfiors majority owner Milan Ilich said Wednesday. But Ilich said it appears that the U.S.

circuit will have only two teams on the West Coast Vancouver and the Los Angeles Salsa. Following an APSL board of governors mooting earlier this month in Chicago, which Ilich attended, it was learned that: The San Francisco Bay Wackhawks, a charter APSL franchise, have withdrawn from the league, at least temporarily. Hlackhawks owner Dan Van Voorhis has "personally fallen on hard financial times," according to Ilich, but the door has been left open lor San Francisco to re-enter the league. Existing APSL franchises in Denver (Colorado Foxes), Tampa Bay (Rowdies), Fort Lauderdale (Strikers) and Miami (Freedom) will return in '93 along with expansion teams Vancouver and Los Angeles. Canadian Soccer League teams Toronto Blizzard and Montreal Supra and a group based in St.

Louis have applied to join the APSL. All three applications "are looking quite positive," Ilich said, adding they could be approved by the end of this month or in December. No application for APSL membership has been received from Seattle. Former Vancouver Whitccaps and Seattle Sounders coach Alan Hinton said earlier this month he would attempt to revive the pro game in that city, but Hinton did not attend the governors meeting. APSL commissioner Bill Sage told The Vancouver Sun in October that the only Canadian applications the league would con sider were Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal "because we must set minimum standards for market size and potential fan interest." Sage is on vacation and could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Ilich said he's confident the Toronto and Montreal applications will be approved. "I talked to (Blizzard owner) Karsten von Wersebe here in Vancouver about three weeks ago and he said he was going ahead with his application. I'm also given to believe that Montreal will come aboard as well." Supra owner Frank Aliaga and Blizzard general manager Joe Parolini could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The 86ers applied for an APSL franchise last September as they were winding up their sixth season in the financially troubled CSL. The application was accompanied by the required $100,000 letter of credit and was officially approved Oct.

7. Ilich said San Francisco's withdrawal is "unfortunate." "I'd much rather see more teams on the West Coast. it would obviously cut down on our travel expenses. But the door has been left open for San Francisco to come back, and my understanding is that that's a possibility sometime in the future." 86ers general managerhead coach Bob Lenarduzzi said the team is looking at an approximate $600,000 budget to play in the American league as compared to $500,000 in the CSL. "We're looking at slightly increased travel costs but we can live with that," Lenarduzzi said.

"What's attractive about the APSL is that most of its teams are well-financed and backed by responsible owners." Ilich, the millionaire owner of a Richmond-based construction and contracting company, said 86crs' losses in 1992 totalled about $100,000 and that the team's participation in the APSL could mean losggs as high as $200,000 next year. "Next year could be as bad as $200,000," he said. "But at least we know we're going into a league that's much belter financed. We're prepared to swallow those losses if it comes to that. It's not a matter of life and death.

And I think when our fans see the high quality of teams and soccer at Swan-gard Stadium next year, maybe they'll slip-port us in greater numbers. "One thing for sure is that the APSL owners are very serious about their involvement and have the financial ability to absorb their losses. We couldn't say that about the CSL In the past few years." I The 86crs averaged a CSL-leading 4,144 fans over 10 CSL regular season home games this year. The APSL regular season runs fronUaid-May to early September..