Football player, community activist.
Born at East St. Louis, Illinois on 9 April 1936 to Marguerite Davidson (1904-1992) and Frank Philip Rigney (1893-1949), he attended the University of Iowa, where he began a career in football and played college ball with a quarterback who was to become a star with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Ken Ploen.
Although Rigney was a third-draft choice of the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League, he chose to join Ken Ploen in Canada instead, playing with the Canadian Football League, specifically the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, under well-known coach, Bud Grant. Here, he became an all-star tackle from 1958 to 1968, receiving numerous awards for his playing prowess, including Most Outstanding Lineman in 1961. He retired after a ten-year career due to back injuries. According to some of his teammates, he studied the game and won by strategy and by outsmarting his opponents, rather than by brute strength. He helped the team win the Grey Cup in 1958, 1959, 1961 and 1962, and was inducted into the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame (1985), Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1986), and Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (2010).
When he retired from football, he worked in the insurance business for 35 years, and for over 20 years also served as a CFL colour commentator with television networks CBC and CTV. He also covered other sporting events, such as the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York and the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. He was active in fundraising for Big Brothers, organizing charity golf tournament fundraisers, and was a Big Brother to a boy named Aaron, with whom he continued to be close friends for over 18 years. He was honoured by the National Office of Big Brothers shortly before he died.
An avid golfer, he moved to British Columbia and played regularly at the Capilano Golf and Country Club at West Vancouver, despite debilitating football-related injuries, including the loss of a leg. He told of how successive injuries to his feet from being stepped on by the longer cleats football players wore in his era had led to poor circulation in his lower right leg, resulting in recurring infections and, ultimately, amputation.
With his wife Donna he had three children. He died at North Vancouver on 29 June 2010.
“Former Winnipeg Blue Bombers lineman great Frank Rigney dead at 74,” Guelph Mercury Tribune, 30 June 2010.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 3 July 2010.
“Frank Joseph Rigney,” Marquart Family Tree, Ancestry.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 22 November 2025
Memorable Manitobans
This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.
Search the collection by word or phrase, name, place, occupation or other text:
Custom SearchBrowse surnames beginning with:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | ZBrowse deaths occurring in:
1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025
Send corrections and additions to this page
to the Memorable Manitobans Administrator at biographies@mhs.mb.caCriteria for Memorable Manitobans | Suggest a Memorable Manitoban | Firsts | Acknowledgements
Help us keep
history alive!
