Mustang Moments: 2017 Vanier Cup Victory
By Dennis Hinschberger
The WMAA is happy to announce a new feature, Mustang Moments. We invite readers to submit a 400-1000-word story describing your favourite “Mustang Moment.”
As part of a gracious sponsorship from Goodlife Fitness, the WMAA will host a draw for submissions received from January 1-31, 2023. Anyone who submits a story during this time period will be entered in a random draw to receive one of two full, one-year memberships to Goodlife Fitness, to help you achieve your fitness goals for 2023!
We intend to highlight a number of these stories in future releases of The Scoop – so please watch out to see if your entry has been selected.
To give you a sense of what we are looking for, I’m offering my own favourite Mustang moment: the story of the 2017 Western Mustangs football Vanier Cup victory.
Myself and my twin brother, along with several former high school buddies were Mustangs. We also have many former teammates from the early 1980s that remain lifelong friends. Together, we enjoyed a number of very successful seasons… but not one Vanier Cup to show for it.
When Greg Marshall assumed the reins of the Western Football program in 2006, I began to support the program any way I could including donating and fundraising for coaches and scholarships. That year our efforts to win the national cup were unsuccessful.
Fast forward to 2017: my youngest son Craig (the dude on the left in the picture above) was lucky enough to be playing for a team that was to become perhaps the greatest, most dominant Western football team in our 100-year history, which is really saying something! I know many of our athletic alumni out there, perhaps yourself included, have supported their sons and daughters to our various Western sports teams over the years, proud to see your kids following in your footsteps.
My “Mustang Moment” was the opportunity to live vicariously through my son as the 2017 team battled to unseat the previously dominant team from Laval, Quebec for the 53rd Vanier Cup in Hamilton’s new stadium.
In that moment, after 12 years of battling, Greg Marshall was finally drowned in well-deserved victory Gatorade! I watched the jubilation from the players, with my son helping to hold the Vanier Cup with his teammates. Those teammates now share a lifetime bond.
That was my “Mustang Moment.” What was yours?
To enter the Mustang Moments sweepstakes visit the John P. Metras Museum website on or after January 1, 2023.
