A North Bay boy who made it big will be honoured for his exploits on the playing field and humble nature off of it.
It’s official, a local field will bear five-time Grey Cup champion Mike O’Shea’s name.
Councillor Marcus Tignanelli brought forward the motion to rename the football field at Steve Omischl Sports Complex in O’Shea’s honour.
Tignanelli said had the honour of letting O’Shea know about the plan.
“He’s very deserving and just a humble guy. I can’t say enough about how humble he is.”
The motion passed unanimously and the plan is to have a ceremony at the field this summer when O’Shea’s schedule allows.
Tignanelli said after the vote, “Mike O’Shea has been an icon in North Bay for the last 30 years. We always talk about the field and all the sponsorship names on it. It was time that we put a name on it that people could look up to.”
O’Shea is a member of the North Bay Sports Hall of Fame and Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
In local football lore, O’Shea famously willed the Widdifield Wildcats to the school’s first-ever NDA football title in 1988 while playing on both sides of the ball plus special teams.
He later starred at the University of Guelph before an illustrious CFL career split between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
O’Shea, a linebacker who won the CFL Outstanding Canadian award in 1999, won three Grey Cups as an Argo.
After retiring as a player, O’Shea won another championship as a special teams coach with Toronto in 2012. He has served as Winnipeg’s head coach since 2014 and led the team to its first Grey Cup win since 1990 in November.
