The Toronto Argonauts Football Club is saddened to learn of the passing of famed star quarterback, and head coach, Norbert ‘Nobby’ Wirkowski. A longtime Mississauga resident, he passed away peacefully, with his family at his side, at the age of 88.
Wirkowski spent most of five seasons with the Argos as a player (1951-1954 & 1960) and led the club to the 1952 Grey Cup championship. He became an assistant coach during the 1960 season and mid-way through the 1962 season General Manager Lew Hayman named him the Argonauts’ head coach, a position he held until 1964.
The Argonauts traded Wirkowski to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1955 where he played two years before being traded again to Calgary. He returned to Toronto in 1960 and suffered a career-ending knee injury during an exhibition game against the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals.
A football pioneer in southern Ontario, he helped found the York University team. He was named the team’s first head coach while also being appointed the school’s Athletic Director, as well as serving as a professor in the Faculty of Physical Education. He held York’s head coach position from 1968 to 1975 and 1988 to 1989, returning briefly as an associate coach in 1984 and 1987. He retired from York in 1992. He was later inducted as a member of the York University Sports Hall of Fame.
Originally from Chicago, Illinois, he was among the first athletes at his high school to letter in three sports. He went on to star at the University of Miami (OH), under legendary coach Woody Hayes, where he led the RedHawks over Texas Tech in the 1948 Sun Bowl, and then toppled Arizona State in the 1951 Salad Bowl. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1987.
He was inducted into the Mississauga Hall of Fame in 1977 and he was named Chairman of the Mississauga Sports Council in 1983. He coached at Toronto’s De La Salle High School from 1952 to 1957. A tremendous athlete, he was drafted by the Chicago Cubs as a youth. He also served overseas as an engineer with the U.S. Army during World War 2.
