As a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, a two-time Grey Cup champion, and someone who is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in CFL history, one would think Matt Dunigan accomplished everything he wanted to during his storied career.
It turns out that isn’t the case as there’s one item he would have loved to have checked off his bucket list before he hung up his cleats: play for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“I would have loved to play with those guys,” Dunigan recently told The Rod Pedersen Show. “With [Glen Suitor] and Bobby Jurasin and so many hard-nosed type of football players I really thought I would have been a good fit for Rider Nation and (brought) some toughness to (the quarterback) position.”
Dunigan played for six different teams during his decorated 14-year career that began in Edmonton in 1983. His other stops included stays in B.C. (1988-89), Toronto (1990-91), Winnipeg (1992-94), Birmingham (1995), and Hamilton (1996).
The CFL on TSN analyst won his first Grey Cup with Edmonton in 1987 but missed most of that game due to injury. He won his second ring with the Argonauts in 1991, a team that featured a star-studded lineup that included offensive weapons such as Mike ‘Pinball’ Clemons and Raghib ‘Rocket’ Ismail.
Dunigan played in another three Grey Cups, losing in 1986 with Edmonton, 1988 with B.C., and 1992 with Winnipeg. His Bombers made it back to the Grey Cup 1993 but Dunigan was forced to watch the game from the sidelines due to a torn Achilles he suffered earlier that year. Winnipeg lost the game 33-23 to Edmonton.
The legendary gunslinger is still the CFL’s single-game record holder for passing yards, setting the seemingly unreachable mark of 713 yards against Edmonton in 1994 while a member of the Blue Bombers. He also sits eighth in league history in career passing yards despite playing his final game over a quarter-century ago. At the time of his retirement in 1996, Dunigan’s 43,857 passing yards were second all-time behind only the late Ron Lancaster.
It is the man he never caught on that list, Lancaster, who accomplished one of the few things Dunigan never did: suit up for the Green and White. ‘The Little General,’ as he was known, played the majority of his Hall of Fame career in Saskatchewan, spending 16 seasons with the Riders and leading them to their first Grey Cup championship in 1966.
A three-time CFL all-star, Dunigan finished his career with 303 touchdown passes, making him one of just six quarterbacks to have surpassed the 300-touchdown mark in CFL history, joining Anthony Calvillo, Damon Allen, Henry Burris, Ricky Ray, and Lancaster in that exclusive club.
It is a résumé as full and impressive as virtually anyone who has ever played in the league. And yet, other than not playing for Saskatchewan, Dunigan has one more thing he would wishes he would have done differently during his career: not leave Winnipeg following the 1994 season.
Unfortunately for Dunigan and Riders fans, a football marriage between the two sides never came to be. Instead of knowing what Dunigan would have done had he donned a Riders uniform, we will have to instead wonder what could have been.
