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April 14, 2016

Fields of dreams

Defensive back William Fields played for the Red and White from 2001-04.

Earlier this week, the Montreal Alouettes announced they had hired William Fields as their assistant defensive backs and defensive quality control coach.

The name is very familiar to Stamps fans as Fields, a defensive back out of the University of Houston, played for the Red and White from 2001-04.

Fields stood only five-foot-eight but he came up very big in the 2001 Labour Day Rematch game against the Edmonton Eskimos.

In the Sept. 7 tilt at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, the Stamps limped in with a 3-6 record and a two-game losing streak including a heartbreaking 33-32 loss in the Labour Day Classic four days previous.

Fields-William-rear-view

In the rematch, the Eskimos scored a late touchdown to take a 33-32 lead and chose to go for a two-point conversion to try and extend the lead to three. The theory was sound — if successful, a Stamps field goal would only tie the affair — but the execution was lacking.

Fields intercepted a Jason Maas pass and ran it 110 yards for two points and a 34-33 Calgary lead that held up.

The rest, as they say, is history as the rejuvenated Stamps were above .500 in the second half of the season, got hot in the playoffs and then defeated the heavily favoured Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Grey Cup.

Fields’ Labour Day Rematch play still appears in the Stamps record books as the fifth-longest interception return in franchise history.

After wrapping up the Stamps portion of his playing career — he recorded nine interceptions and 165 tackles in 65 games — Fields spent two seasons with the Bombers.

Upon retiring, he started his own fitness company before returning to football in 2010 as a coach at Houston’s Cypress Christian High School. He returned to Canada in 2014 as defensive backs coach at Simon Fraser University. He was part of the BC Lions’ coaching staff in 2015.