Tom Wilkinson ( Canadian football ) Tom Wilkinson ( born January 4 , 1943 ) is a retired football quarterback best known for his time with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League , where he played on six Grey Cup - winning teams . He was a western conference and CFL all - star quarterback in 1974 , 1978 and 1979 and won the CFL ' s Most Outstanding Player Award in 1974 . Wilkinson has been inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame . Early life . Wilkinson was born in Iowa and moved to Wyoming with his parents in 1945 . Wilkinson played high school football in the small town of Greybull , Wyoming . He is the second of three professional football players to come from this little town of 1700 in the Big Horn Basin . The others were Jim Crawford who played for the Boston Patriots of the American Football League and Brett Keisel who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers . He was scouted as both a football and baseball player out of high school . Football career . Wilkinson attended the University of Wyoming on a football scholarship . After graduation , he was signed as a quarterback by the Toronto Rifles of the Continental Football League . He played 16 games for the Rifles in 1966 and 1967 , throwing the ball 287 times for 141 completions with 1 , 952 yards , 11 interceptions and 18 touchdowns . It was during 1967 he moved to the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League as a backup quarterback . He was the team ' s leading quarterback in 1969 throwing for 2 , 041 yards . In 1970 , Wilkinson made way for Don Jonas to lead the Argos , but still got enough playing time to throw for 1 , 272 yards . Traded to the BC Lions in 1971 , he played there for a year before being released prior to the 1972 CFL season . He was picked up by the Edmonton Eskimos and played well enough in the remaining pre - season games to make the team as a backup , but by season ' s end he was their top passer with 2 , 475 yards in which he completed 177 out of 268 . Wilkinson would play the balance of his career there in a two - quarterback system . First with Bruce Lemmerman and then with Warren Moon . After his first professional seasons , when he was considered to be injury prone , Wilkinson was never to miss a game during his 10 years with the Eskimos . He first led the Eskimos to a Grey Cup victory in 1975 , after losses in the championship game in 1973 and 1974 . After quarterbacking the Eskimos during one more Grey Cup loss in 1977 , Wilkinson became part of the 5 - time Grey Cup champion Eskimo dynasty from 1978 through 1981 , the last two years acting as a backup to Moon . Including his time with the Rifles , Wilkinson contributed 24 , 531 passing yards on 1754 completions from 2 , 949 attempts and with 137 interceptions to 172 touchdowns . Although not known for his running abilities he also added 1 , 250 rushing yards on 352 runs with 13 touchdowns . He retired after the Eskimos ' 1981 Grey Cup Championship year . Wilkinson was the first player honoured on the Edmonton Eskimo ' s " Wall of Fame " at Commonwealth Stadium in 1982 . After retirement . He was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame as a Player on May 2 , 1987 . He was the head coach of the University of Alberta Golden Bears until 2001 . In 2004 , he was announced as the first president of the North American Indoor Football League , a Canadian indoor football league that failed to launch and never played a single game . In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup , Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps . The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial .