WINNIPEG — At six-foot-two and 200 pounds, Dan Huclack is far from an easy target.
But the former Winnipeg Blue Bomber was attacked and robbed of a Grey Cup ring in broad daylight this week and is now hoping he has not seen the last of his championship memento.
“It’s something important. People just can’t understand,” Huclack, 53, said Tuesday. “It’s something that (represents) a brotherhood of guys that you played with, that you went to war with.”
Huclack was walking to a doctor’s appointment at the Health Sciences Centre on Monday when he heard something behind him.
“Next thing I know I felt something in my back and I had two guys there and they said, ’Give us your money,’ and I said, ’Well, I don’t have any money.’ One guy came around the front and gave me a kick you know where and dropped me pretty good.”
Huclack forked over $40 and was promptly kicked in the groin again. That’s when the thieves spotted something on his hand — a ring marking the 1984 Canadian Football League championship he won with the Bombers as a fullback.
“(One guy) pulled the Grey Cup ring off and the two of them took off down the street.”
Huclack is used to confrontation. His position required him to spend most of his time blocking for quarterbacks and others in the backfield. He sounded Tuesday as if he would have liked a second chance at fending off his assailants.
“If they had been in front of me, I might have been swinging.”
Police on Tuesday released descriptions of two suspects as well as the ring, which bears Huclack’s former jersey number — 30 — and the score of the championship game — 47-17.
Police said the thieves will have a hard time selling the ring.
“This would be a difficult piece of jewelry to get rid of ... just with its distinguishing marks,” said Const. Natalie Aitken of the Winnipeg Police Service.
Huclack still has another ring from what may be his most memorable game — the 1986 Grey Cup final in which he led the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in rushing. His 48 yards helped the Ticats upset the heavily favoured Eskimos 39-15.
One of Huclack’s sons has also hoisted the Cup. Cory Huclack, a special teams player, won last year with the Montreal Alouettes, and can score a second ring this weekend with Saskatchewan, the team that picked him up after the Als released him in the off-season.
Saskatchewan and Montreal are facing each other for the second straight year, which means the junior Huclack will be the only back-to-back winner this year if Saskatchewan prevails.