Salisbury Stakes a Claim to Fame in Grey Cup

The up-and-down career of former USC quarterback Sean Salisbury reached a new high Sunday at Ottawa, Canada.

Salisbury led the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to an upset victory over the British Columbia Lions, 22-21, in the Grey Cup game, Canadian football’s Super Bowl.

Salisbury completed only 12 of 32 passes, but that accounted for 246 yards and the Blue Bombers’ lone touchdown, which came on a 35-yard pass to James Murphy in the second quarter.

The Blue Bombers’ Trevor Kennerd kicked 4 field goals.

“Three months ago I didn’t even know if I’d be playing, and now I’m celebrating the Grey Cup championship,” Salisbury told the Winnipeg Sun. “I dreamed about something like this all my life. I was quite emotional after the game. There were tears in my eyes.”

Salisbury, overlooked in the 1986 National Football League draft, was picked up as a free agent by the Seattle Seahawks and, after an outstanding exhibition season, made the team as a backup.

But the Seahawks released him during training camp in 1987, and later in the season, right before the end of the players’ strike, Salisbury signed with the Indianapolis Colts.

He remained with the Colts after the strike ended, but made only one appearance--in a playoff game against Buffalo. Salisbury, seeing that he had little chance to make the team in 1988, asked to be released in late July. He then returned to Los Angeles and sought a tryout with the Raiders.

Told the Raiders didn’t need another quarterback, he went to Winnipeg, where the season had already begun.

“The greatest thing I ever did outside of picking the girl I married was come to Winnipeg to play football,” he said Sunday. Last Aug. 26, he married Kimberly Goodson, whom he met during a trip to Denver while he was with the Colts in 1987.

Salisbury finished the regular season with 100 completions in 202 attempts, 1,566 yards and 11 touchdowns. In a 35-28 playoff victory over Hamilton, Salisbury completed 28 of 35 passes for 332 yards and 2 touchdowns. Then in a 27-11 playoff victory over Toronto, he hit 18 of 34 passes for 223 yards.

That victory sent Winnipeg, 9-9 during the regular season, to the Grey Cup. Sunday, the Blue Bombers became the first team with a .500 record during the regular season to win the championship.

It also concluded quite an odyssey for Salisbury.

When USC landed him in 1981, it was viewed as a major recruiting victory. Salisbury was a 6-foot 5-inch All-American at Orange Glen High School in Escondido.

In a 5-year career at USC, he became the Trojans’ all-time leader in completions and yardage, records that have since been broken by Rodney Peete. He completed 346 of 602 passes for 4,481 yards and 25 touchdowns. He had a completion percentage of 57.5.

But he had to endure some difficult times. He missed the final 4 games of the 1982 season after injurying his right knee at Arizona State, struggled through a 4-6-1 season in 1983, then became a redshirt in 1984 after suffering another knee injury. It happened during the second game that season, again at Arizona State.

Salisbury missed USC’s win over Ohio State in the 1985 Rose Bowl.

During the fall of 1985, Salisbury’s last season at USC, he was benched with 4 games remaining and Peete, then a redshirt freshman, became the starting quarterback. Salisbury watched as Peete led the Trojans’ over UCLA, 17-13, the high point of a 6-6 season.

But Salisbury remains loyal to USC. During the Blue Bombers’ victory over Toronto last week he wore a towel with the inscription: “Peete, USC No. 1.” Saturday in Ottawa, talking with Canadian press, he interrupted the interview. “Gotta go watch USC-Notre Dame,” he said, apologetically.

When Salisbury was bypassed in the 1986 NFL draft, he called that day one of the worst of his life. Sunday was one of the best.