No one expected much from Tom Wilkinson when he signed with the Eskimos midway through training camp in 1972.
He was a short (five-foot-10-1/2-inches), slightly overweight player who didn’t look like a quarterback or throw the prettiest passes and had already been released by the BC Lions.
Eskimos receiver Bobby Taylor told Wilkinson to come to Edmonton and Head Coach Ray Jauch agreed to an audition because the 29-year veteran had six years of CFL experience with the Lions and Toronto Argonauts, even if most of that time was spent on the sidelines.
But Edmonton turned out to be the right place at the right time for “Wilkie,” as he quickly became known in these parts. He had studied a lot of game film of two of the league’s elite quarterbacks of that era – Ron Lancaster and Russ Jackson – while waiting for a chance to play with the Argos (1967-70) and later learned that “the team was way more important than me” from Eskimos teammate Don Warrington.
With the Green and Gold, Wilkinson made up for his lack of physical talent with leadership, intelligence and clutch play. Replacing an injured Bruce Lemmerman in the third game of the ’72 season, Wilkie led the Eskimos to the first of a North American professional sports record 34 consecutive years with a playoff berth.
He also helped the Eskimos make eight Grey Cup appearances within nine years (1973-81), missing only the 1976 season. It took three attempts to win his first Grey Cup, but he ended up with five CFL championship titles, including ’75 and the first four of the Esks’ five-in-a-row dynasty streak from ‘78-82.
Wilkie often shared the Eskimos’ quarterback duties, first with Lemmerman and, later, future NFL Hall of Famer Warren Moon, but it was the crafty veteran who won the league’s Most Outstanding Player award in 1974, the West Division’s Most Valuable Player award in ’74 and ’78, the 1978 Grey Cup’s MVP award and became the first member of the Eskimos’ Wall of Honour in 1982.
“I was a pretty good quarterback that played on a lot of great teams,” Wilkinson said after being inducted in the CFL Hall of Fame in 1987.
He still ranks fifth all-time among Esks quarterbacks in career statistics like most passes thrown (2,252), most yards passing (18,684) and most touchdowns (129) while ranking third overall with 1,382 completions. He also has the second-highest pass completion percentage in a game of 90.48.