Norbert "Nobby" Wirkowski (August 20, 1926 – October 15, 2014) was an American and Canadian football player and coach. He is best known as

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 ...

of 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 ...

. The touchdown he engineered in the 1952 Grey Cup turned out to be the last offensive touchdown by the Argonauts in a Grey Cup for 30 years. Born and raised in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, he excelled in athletics and became the first athlete at Crane Technical High School to letter in 3 sports (football, basketball, and baseball) since George Halas accomplished the feat at the turn of the century. Wirkowski played for two exceptional football coaches while attending

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...

. He started under

Sid Gillman Sidney Gillman (October 26, 1911 – January 3, 2003) was an American football player, coach and executive. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or w ...

, whose ideas revolutionized the passing game in American football, and when Gillman left,

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

replaced him. Wirkowski led Miami to a 13-12 victory over

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

in the 1948 Sun Bowl and then 3 years later put on a spectacular performance in the

Salad Bowl A salad bowl is a serving dish for salad. It can also refer to: * Salad bowl (cultural idea), a cultural idea referring to the United States * Salad Bowl (game), a defunct, annual, post-season college football bowl game * Salad Bowl strike, a seri ...

. In that game Nobby completed 18 of 21 pass attempts, leading Miami past

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

. While at Miami, Wirkowski became a member of the

Phi Kappa Tau Phi Kappa Tau (), commonly known as Phi Tau (), is a collegiate fraternity located in the United States. The fraternity was founded in 1906. As of November 2022, the fraternity has 161 chartered chapters, 79 active chapters, 6 Associate chapte ...

fraternity. After college, he joined the

and took over the quarterbacking spot for Toronto, leading the Argonauts to a 7-5 record in the 1951 season. In 1952, Wirkowski led Toronto to a Grey Cup championship over the Edmonton Eskimos. From 1952 to 1957, Wirkowski coached the senior football team at

De La Salle College (Toronto) De La Salle College "Oaklands" (also known as De La Salle College, Toronto, or simply De La Salle) is an independent, co-educational, Catholic college preparatory institution run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Toront ...

which won consecutive league championships in 1955, 1956 and 1957. He was traded to Hamilton in 1955 where he played for two years and was then traded to Calgary. At the end of the 1959 season he returned to Toronto as back-up quarterback and assistant coach. The following year Nobby saw his final action as a professional player when he injured his knee in a preseason exhibition game with the NFL

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

. In 1963, Argonauts General Manager

Lew Hayman Lewis Edward Hayman (September 30, 1908 – June 28, 1984) was an American sports figure. He was one of the driving forces behind the Canadian Football League as coach, general manager, team president, and league president. As head coach, he was a ...

promoted Wirkowski to the head coaching position after

Lou Agase Lou Agase (August 2, 1924 – June 26, 2006) was an American gridiron football player and coach of Assyrian ancestry. Agase played tight end and offensive tackle for the Illinois Fighting Illini football team from 1944 to 1947. He was a membe ...

was fired. He served as the Argonauts head coach through the 1964 season, after which he was promoted to Director of Player Personnel. He served in that role through the 1967 season. After the 1967 season Wirkowski was approached by

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

. York was looking at starting a football program and needed a coach who could build a team 'from scratch.' He accepted the offer from York and was named Athletic Director and Head football coach and joined the Faculty of Physical Education as a professor. He coached York from 1968–1975 and from 1988–89, and was an associate coach for the 1984 and 1987 seasons. He is a member of the

Athletic Hall of Fame and the Mississauga Hall of Fame. On October 15, 2014, Wirkowski died with his family at his side at the age of 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wirkowski, Nobby 1926 births 2014 deaths American football quarterbacks American emigrants to Canada American people of Polish descent American players of Canadian football Calgary Stampeders players Canadian football quarterbacks Canadian Football League announcers Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Miami RedHawks football players Players of American football from Chicago Players of Canadian football from Chicago Sportspeople from Chicago Sportspeople from Mississauga Toronto Argonauts coaches Toronto Argonauts players