Inductees

Matt Pearce (1999)

Football Professional Athlete

Matt Pearce was made to play football. Or was football made for Matt Pearce?

With a bruising six-foot-two, 205-pound frame, Pearce never met a head-on collision he didn’t like in his seven years in the Canadian Football League. In 144 games from 1989 to 1995 Pearce went all out for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as a fullback, tailback and special teams player. Wearing jersey  No. 32 he played in three Grey Cup games, earning a championship ring in 1990.

Pearce first learned the game in the Prince George Minor Football system and graduated to college football with the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, where he was named Canada West Rookie of the Year in 1985.

Things only got better the next year as Pearce and coach Frank Smith’s T-birds won the Vanier Cup, the top prize in the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union. In 1987, Pearce was named outstanding player in the annual Shrum Bowl, a battle between UBC and Simon Fraser University.

The Bombers used the 32nd overall pick in the 1989 CFL draft to select Pearce.

Pearce retired after the 1995 season, returned to Prince George and is now involved in the local rugby scene. Heavy contact, no pads: that’s the kind of intensity which makes Pearce a perfect candidate for induction into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame.