By Stampeders.com staff

With a four-year contract extension tucked into his back pocket, Bo Levi Mitchell has a gilt-edged opportunity to do something no one has ever accomplished in Calgary Stampeders history — quarterback the Red and White to multiple Grey Cup championships.

The Stamps have won seven championships since first stepping onto the field in 1945 and each time it was a different man running the huddle. Timing and circumstances prevented the previous six quarterbacks from leading Calgary to a second Grey Cup title but at age 25, with one Grey Cup ring already in his possession, a talented cast around him and his signature on a deal that will keep him in Red and White through at least the 2018 campaign, Mitchell could very well be the guy who breaks that pattern.

Here’s a look at the other championship quarterbacks in Stampeders history:

1948 — Keith Spaith

Mitchell, who was 24 when the Stamps beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in last year’s Grey Cup, is the youngest championship quarterback in Stamps history. Keith Spaith, who led the Red and White to an unbeaten season and the franchise’s first Grey Cup in 1948 at age 25, is the second youngest.

Spaith was just a couple of years removed from college and in his rookie CFL season when he guided the Stamps to a 12-0 regular-season record, a victory over Saskatchewan in the two-game, total-point West final and then a 12-7 victory over Ottawa in the Grey Cup game.

The Stamps followed that glorious season up with a 13-1 record in 1949 but Calgary fell to Montreal in the Grey Cup game.

Spaith, incidentally, was the West’s most valuable player in both 1948 and 1949.

The team’s fortunes plummeted in 1950 as the Stamps fell all the way into the West basement and were never again a serious contender for the remainder of Spaith’s career.

After accounting for all but 25 of the Stampeders’ passing attempts in the 1948, 1949 and 1950 seasons combined, Spaith gradually lost playing time to the likes of Stan Heath, Dave Anderson and Frankie Albert.

By 1954, Spaith’s final season, Eddie LeBaron had taken over as the No. 1 quarterback and Spaith threw just five passes.

1971 — Jerry Keeling

The Stamps’ 1971 championship not only ended a title drought that lasted more than two decades but also represented a breakthrough after some frustration and some close calls for some very good Calgary teams in the 1960s.

Starting in 1962, the Red and White had eight winning seasons in nine years including three teams that compiled a 12-4 record but the Stamps were stopped short of the ultimate goal. Calgary twice reached the Grey Cup but lost to Ottawa in 1968 and to Montreal in 1970.

Finally, in 1971, the veteran-laden Stamps followed up a solid but unremarkable 9-6-1 regular season with a West final victory over Saskatchewan and a Grey Cup triumph against the Toronto Argonauts.

It was the last hurrah for Stamps mainstays such as Wayne Harris, Herm Harrison, Larry Robinson, Frank Andruski and Dick Suderman, who would all leave the Stamps within the next two years and a rebuilding period was under way.

Keeling, who was 32 when the Stamps won the Cup in 1971, would play one more season with the Stamps before playing out the string in Ottawa and Hamilton.

1992 — Doug Flutie

Perhaps the best candidate the Stamps have ever had to win a handful of championships as the starting quarterback was Doug Flutie, one of the best to ever play the position.

Flutie joined the Stamps in 1992 when he signed a personal-services contract with then-owner Larry Ryckman. Calgary had reached the Grey Cup the year before but Flutie’s Most Outstanding Player-worthy performance — he threw for almost 6,000 yards and accounted for 32 passing touchdowns and 11 rushing scores — put the Stamps over the top.

Calgary beat Winnipeg 24-10 in the Grey Cup game and with stars such as Allen Pitts, Dave Sapunjis, Peewee Smith, Will Johnson, Stu Laird and Alondra Johnson in the fold, hopes were high that the title was the first of many for Flutie and Co.

But while the Stamps continued to be a dominant regular-season team, a follow-up championship would not come until 1998, by which time Flutie was flinging footballs for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.

In 1995, an injured Flutie was replaced as Calgary’s starter by Jeff Garcia, who earned West Division all-star honours that season. The following off-season, Flutie signed with the Argos.

1998 — Jeff Garcia

After biding his time as Flutie’s backup, Garcia took over the starting job in 1995 and held on tight.

The Stamps had three first-place finishes in Garcia’s four seasons as starter and the third time was the charm as Calgary beat Hamilton 26-24 in the 1998 Grey Cup game.

Garcia never got the chance to add a second Grey Cup ring, however, as he headed south the following year to sign with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.

2001 — Marcus Crandell

In many ways, Marcus Crandell was the most unlikely Grey Cup-winning quarterback in Stamps history.

For one thing, Crandell had bounced around from the Edmonton Eskimos to NFL Europe to the fledgling XFL in the two years prior to signing with Calgary. For another, the Stamps were a sub-.500 team in 2001 and were heavy underdogs to the powerhouse Blue Bombers in the Grey Cup game.

But thanks to Crandell’s intelligent play, the Stamps prevailed to win the fifth championship in franchise history. As was the case with the 1971 team, however, many long-time stars were in their declining years by then and a rebuilding job would soon be under way.

The Stamps were a combined 15-39 over the next three seasons before Crandell departed to sign with Saskatchewan.

2008 — Henry Burris

Like Keeling, Flutie and Garcia, Henry Burris played on a number of very good Stamps teams but had to settle for a single championship.

Calgary won at least 10 games in five of Burris’ six full seasons as starter and finished first on two occasions. It was in 2008 that everything came together as the Stamps beat BC in the West final for their first playoff victory in seven years and then downed Montreal in the Grey Cup game.

Burris’ best chance to add a second ring was in 2010 as the Stamps finished 13-5 and boasted a high-octane offence that produced 626 points and featured three 1,000-yard receivers, but the title hopes were dashed by a loss to Saskatchewan on a snowy West final at McMahon.

Following the 2011 season, Burris was traded to the Tiger-Cats.