The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 ■ 49 starting job at strong safety in his first spring practice while teammate and future major leaguer Louie Meadows played baseball. Wilson played in a secondary that in- cluded Perry Williams and Eric Williams, both accomplished defenders. In his first season, Wilson finished third on the team with 105 tackles. As a senior, though he was the lone returning starter, he lost some playing time as the coaching staff turned over following Kiffin's dismissal. Under secondary coach Tyrone Willingham, Wil- son made 49 tackles, with one interception and one fumble. Wilson spent two years in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, taking over as the team's primary punt returner from fellow Wolfpack alum Roland Hooks, who held that job for five years. The versatile Hooks was a threat as a running back and receiver, but Wilson was a defender who served as the team's primary returner for two years. Wilson headed north in 1987, signing with the Montreal Alouettes — just before the franchise folded. He was taken by the Winnipeg Jets in a dispersal draft before the start of the 1987 season but was cut before it began. After three rejections in two years, it would have been easy for Wilson to give up on his professional football dreams. "I've always kind of understood that in life you don't always go where you plan to go," Wilson told the CFL Hall of Fame prior to his induction in April. "It wasn't like a setback. It was just a setup for another door to open." So before he packed up and headed back to Washington, Wilson answered a fateful call from the Edmonton coach Joe Faragalli, who offered him a chance to play for the Eskimos. The team went on to win the 75th Grey Cup later that season. Over the next dozen years, he went back and forth between the Eskimos and Toronto Argonauts, playing for each franchise three different times, with one year in British Co- lumbia. He compared his career with the Eskimos and Argonauts to being the child of divorced parents, bouncing back and forth between the two on alternating weekends. In 1993, Wilson was involved in a 16-player trade, the largest in league history, that bounced him from Toronto to Edmon- ton, the CFL's version of the famous NFL trade that sent Herschel Walker from Dallas to Minnesota that wound up including 18 players and draft picks. There was a reason Wilson's services were in demand: he was one of the best defenders in the fast-paced league. Four times, he was named a CFL All-Star and he was never on a losing Grey Cup team, winning the league championship twice with the Eskimos (1987, '93) and two more times with the Argonauts (1991, '96). The last of Wilson's championships in Toronto — played in the freezing cold and snow of Hamilton, Ontario — was the first for star quarterback Doug Flutie. Wilson was named to Toronto's All-Time Team in 2007. "I was just enjoying what I was doing," he said. "I love the game." Wilson had other pursuits, too. From the time he was in high school and at NC State, he enjoyed performing on stage, just as cel- ebrated Wolfpack alumni Roman Gabriel, Thurl Bailey and Eddie Goines did during and after their athletic careers. He has acting credits on IMDB, although the playoff run that he, Flutie and their teammates made in 1996 cost Wilson a chance to be in the Al Pacino movie "Any Given Sunday." "Sports was really natural for me," he said prior to his induction. "The acting is a lot harder. Sports, you know your X's and O's, you go out there and execute. Usually, you put your best foot forward, get a lot of things done, you get to win games. "But acting, there is a lot more than peo- ple think. Acting has been more challeng- ing. It's a very tough craft." ■ Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. Wilson is the second Wolfpack football player to be elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, after running back Willie Burden (2001). GRAPHIC COURTESY CANADIAN FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME NC State's Top CFL Players Player CFL Team(s) Notes And Accomplishments RB Howard Turner Ottawa Roughriders (1947-54) Grey Cup winner (1951) OL John Wagoner Ottawa Roughriders (1948-53) Grey Cup winner (1951) BC Lions (1954) RB Alex Webster Montreal Alouettes (1953-54) Left to play and coach in NFL RB Willie Burden Calgary Stampeders (1974-82) Canadian Football Hall of Fame (2001) QB Johnny Evans Montreal Alouettes (1981-83) Arrived after three years in NFL Edmonton Eskimos (1984) DB Don Wilson Edmonton Eskimos (1987-89, '93-94, '98) Grey Cup winner (1987, '91, '93, '96) Toronto Argonauts (1990-92, '95-96) Named to Toronto's All-Time Team BC Lions (1997) Canadian Football Hall of Fame (2021) QB Erik Kramer Calgary Stampeders (1988-89) Left to play in NFL DB Michael Brooks Baltimore Stallions (1994-95) Played in Grey Cup finals (1994) DB Ricky Bell Calgary Stampeders (2001) Grey Cup winner (2001) Ottawa Roughriders(2002) Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2002-04) Montreal Alouettes (2005-06)