William Stukus (May 15, 1916 – June 19, 2003) was a

Canadian football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. Stukus started with the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

, winning a Grey Cup in 1937 and 1938, and being named an all-star. Perhaps his best season was in 1942, with the wartime all-military

Toronto RCAF Hurricanes The Toronto RCAF Hurricanes was a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union and was formed during the Second World War after several teams disbanded for the war. The team was composed of football players who had joined the Royal Canadian Air Forc ...

, when he was an all-star, won a third Grey Cup and was the

Ontario Rugby Football Union The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt th ...

Imperial Oil Trophy winner as MVP. He played with the Toronto Indians and then returned to the Argonauts in 1947, winning his fourth Grey Cup. He played 48 regular season and 17 playoff games for the Argos. He finished his career playing three seasons with the Edmonton Eskimos. While serving in the

RCAF The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

during the war, he also had the good fortune to play in the famed ''Tea Bowl'', where the Canadian Army football team defeated the American Army team 16–6 at

White City Stadium White City Stadium was a stadium located in White City, London, England. Built for the 1908 Summer Olympics, it hosted the finish of the first modern marathon and other sports like swimming, speedway, boxing, show jumping, athletics, stock ...

on February 13, 1944 in London, England. Bill was one of the famed Stukus brothers. Bill and his brothers Annis and

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played together in the offensive backfield of the 1938 Grey Cup champion Argonaut team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stukus, Bill 1916 births 2003 deaths Canadian people of Lithuanian descent Edmonton Elks players Ontario Rugby Football Union players Players of Canadian football from Ontario Canadian football people from Toronto Toronto Argonauts players Canadian football quarterbacks