Milt Stegall

Stegall was born in Cincinnati, the fifth of five children of Betty Stegall (1935 - 2020) and Garland J. Stegall (1922–1987).

He attended Roger Bacon High School, where he was an All-State football player, All-City basketball player and qualified for the state track meet his senior year.

Stegall started playing football at age 4 for now defunct Parchman & Oyler Pop Warner Football.

During a three-year span (ages 8–10), Stegall scored 87 touchdowns playing running back, a record still held today.

Milton Eugene Stegall (born January 25, 1970) is a former professional gridiron football player who played 17 years of professional football, three years in the National Football League with the Cincinnati Bengals and 14 years in the Canadian Football League with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

He is currently an analyst on the CFL on TSN studio panel.

Stegall was an All-Star receiver for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL.

Arguably one of the most popular Bombers of all time he was named to the All-Time 75th Anniversary Team.

Stegall attended Miami University, where he was a four-year football letterman from 1988 to 1991.

Stegall finished with 106 receptions for 1,581 yards, and eight touchdowns as a wide receiver.

Although Stegall played in the CFL for many years, has accomplished impressive numbers, and is considered by many to be one of the greatest receivers in CFL history, Stegall never won the Grey Cup - despite reaching Grey Cup game twice: the 89th Grey Cup vs. Calgary and 95th Grey Cup vs. Saskatchewan.

Spanning an illustrious 14-year career from 1995–2008, he held several major CFL records upon his retirement including most career receiving yards, and currently holds the record for career receiving touchdowns and most touchdowns scored.

In the 1995 season, he was signed as a free agent by the Green Bay Packers, but was a late cut after a serious knee injury during the final days of training camp.

In 1995, Stegall decided to go north to the Canadian Football League and signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers where he played the final 6 games of the 1995 CFL season, with 469 receiving yards, and two punt returns, one for 80 yards.

In his first full season in 1996, he gained 613 yards receiving on 34 catches for 6 touchdowns.

Stegall started out as a slotback/wide receiver, garnering him an All-Star selection in the 1997 season after having a 1616-yard season.

Soon however, Stegall made the switch to slotback which let him start the play closer to the middle of the larger field.

Stegall flourished as a slotback, where in the CFL a player is allowed a running start before the play to gain momentum, being able to outrun defenders with his impressive speed.

Because of his speed (he competed on Miami's track and field team where he holds the 3rd fastest 100 meter dash, 10.44 seconds, and 5th fastest 200 meter dash, 21.24 seconds) he was also a dynamic tap dancer, and kick returner, setting a career record of 1,377 kick return yards which lasted until 2002, beaten by defensive back Milt Bowen, who like Stegall signed with the Cincinnati Bengals after college.

All of these accomplishments garnered Stegall an honorable mention all-Mid-American Conference selection as a junior.

Stegall signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals.

He played 21 games over 3 seasons, where he had four receptions for 43 yards and one touchdown.

He was primarily played as a kick returner though, where he totaled 446 yards off of 26 kickoffs and made five tackles on special teams.

Stegall would go on to get 3 more All-Star selections as a slotback, peaking in 2002 where he had one of the greatest individual seasons in CFL history.

He led the CFL in receptions (106), receiving yards (1,896), yards from scrimmage (1,896), touchdowns (23), receiving touchdowns (23), 100-yard games (10), 100-yard receiving games (10), average yards per catch (17.9) and non-kicker scoring (140).

He set a new league single-season record for touchdowns with 23 and a new league single-season record for receiving touchdowns, also with 23.

All of these made him the obvious choice as the CFL's Most Outstanding Player.

Stegall continued his excellence throughout the seasons with the Blue Bombers.

Throughout his career, Stegall led the CFL in receptions once, he twice led the league in receiving yards and he led the league in touchdown receptions 5 times.

In 2005 at age 35, some thought Stegall's play would be on the decline, but he shrugged off critics by capping off the season with his 5th All-Star selection.

Amidst endless offensive coordinator changes, as well as many head coach changes, Stegall still remained a reliable, and at times unstoppable force for the Blue Bombers.

With the 2005 season over, there was speculation that Stegall would retire, but he soon announced that he would in fact be returning for, at least, one more year.

In the 5th game of the Bombers' 2007 season, July 27, 2007, Milt Stegall became the all-time CFL touchdown leader on a 1-yard pass originally designed as a running play for the occasion, surpassing running backs Mike Pringle and George Reed, and went on to score another major before the end of the game to bring his total up to that point to 139 touchdowns.

Stegall had said that he was 99.9% sure that he was going to retire after then 2007 season but on January 31, 2008, announced he was returning to the Bombers for another year.

On September 12, 2008, Stegall initially tied Allen Pitts with a 16-yard touchdown reception to become the CFL's all-time leader in career receiving yards.

Shortly thereafter, Stegall surpassed Pitts with a highlight reel 92-yard touchdown catch and run, totaling 14,982 yards in his career.

Stegall officially retired from professional football on February 18, 2009.

He retired with CFL records for career touchdowns (147), career receiving touchdowns (144), and receiving yards (15,153).

In 2012, he was elected into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

On June 29, 2012, he was surpassed by Geroy Simon of the BC Lions and is currently second in career receiving yards at 15,153 yards.