The Montreal Alouettes are honouring five former members of the team who will be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame this year. The tribute will take place at halftime of this week’s game against the B.C. Lions on Saturday, Sept. 2 at 7:00 p.m. EDT.
The five Alouettes alumni who will be honoured include defensive lineman John Bowman, offensive linemen Josh Bourke and Lloyd Fairbanks, and builders Larry Smith and Jacques Dussault.
“We look forward to welcoming our alumni who have played a big role in our organization,” said team president Mark Weightman in a statement. “This induction into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame is well deserved and I am sure our fans are looking forward to seeing our legends on the field at halftime Saturday.”
Bowman played 14 seasons with the Alouettes from 2006 to 2019 and made 481 defensive tackles, 37 tackles for losses, 134 sacks, 32 forced fumbles, and 15 fumble recoveries. The native of Brooklyn, N.Y. won two Grey Cups with Montreal and was an eight-time East Division all-star and two-time CFL all-star. He remains the club’s all-time sack leader and is now the defensive line coach of the B.C. Lions.
Bourke played along Montreal’s offensive line from 2007 to 2015, winning two Grey Cups. He played 141 career games and shone at the left tackle position, which is traditionally reserved for American players. The native of Windsor, Ont. helped Montreal’s offensive line finish the year as the unit that allowed the fewest sacks in the CFL on three separate occasions. He was a seven-time East Division all-star, a two-time CFL all-star, and was voted the CFL’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman in 2011.
Fairbanks played four seasons with the Alouettes and Concordes from 1983 to 1986 following an eight-year run with the Calgary Stampeders. The native of Raymond, Alta. was voted a three-time East Division all-star as a member of the Alouettes before finishing his career with a two-year stint in Hamilton from 1987 to 1988 and a second run with Calgary from 1989 to 1991.
Smith won two Grey Cups with the Alouettes as a player in the 1970s and was appointed the CFL’s commissioner in 1992 before joining Montreal as their team president in 1997. He served in the role from 1997 to 2001 and again from 2004 to 2010. The team returned to Percival Molson Memorial Stadium under his leadership where they hosted 104 consecutive sell outs.
Dussault served as an assistant coach with the Alouettes and Concordes from 1982 to 1986 and again from 1997 to 1999. He helped francophone players reach the U Sports level as the head coach at Mount Allison University in 1989 as he recruited talent from Quebec before any local postsecondary institutions had football programs. He later served as the head coach at the Université de Montréal from 2002 to 2005 once the Carabins had a football team.
The ceremony for this year’s Canadian Football Hall of Fame class will take place in Hamilton on Friday, Sept. 15.
