Honoured Members Database

Jim Heighton was never able to stay away from sports.

“That's all I did,” Heighton says. “I woke up in the morning. Run, run, run. Recess at school. Run, run, run. Lunch. Run, run, run. Second recess. Run. Get home. Run. I just played my whole life.”

Heighton was a two-time West Division all-star defensive end for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and he spent 13 seasons in the CFL. He was so much more than a football player, though, and it's why he is a member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame as an all-around athlete.

The Vancouver native's first love was baseball, but he also played soccer, basketball, and took part in track and field. His most memorable baseball moment was hitting a two-run home run in the final inning to break up a no-hitter and send his Grosse Isle Blue Jays senior team to the 1988 Canadian western championship. In track and field he has won eight gold medals at Canadian masters meets. At the time of his 2016 induction, he was still playing indoor soccer at age 72.

“It was basically just extending my childhood,” Heighton says.

Football will always be for what Heighton is known, which is somewhat odd when you consider how he almost didn't come to play it.

He was 23 years old and working in finance in Penticton, B.C., when the B.C. Lions, after hearing about his exploits with the Victoria Steelers senior football team, called him out of the blue. He attended their 1968 training camp but was released, given a playbook and told to put on some weight. He made the team in 1969 but was released the following year after the man in his corner, Lions coach Jim Champion, was fired.

He called the Bombers shortly after his release, and head coach Jim Spavital eventually brought him in for a tryout. He missed only one game in his nine-year Blue and Gold career, during which he was named the team's top Canadian in 1974 and 1976. After three seasons in Hamilton and Montreal to end his career, Heighton returned to Manitoba and made it his permanent home.

“Winnipeg's a really good part of the universe for sports,” Heighton says.

It is no wonder then that a true sportsman like him stayed.

Heighton is also a member of the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame.