WINNIPEG – The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) announced tonight, during a special reception at Mark’s CFL Week in Winnipeg, that former Toronto Argonauts punter Hank Ilesic will be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2018. Ilesic will be inducted alongside Scott Flory, the late Tommy Hugo, Brent Johnson and Barron Miles as professional players while Frank Cosentino will join them as a builder and Paul Brûlé will be honoured for his amateur playing career.
The formal induction ceremony for this year’s CFHOF class will take place later this year at a reception at Tim Hortons Field on the evening of September 14th and the inductees will again be honoured at the following day’s Hall of Fame game in Hamilton.
Ilesic’s 20-year CFL career saw the Edmonton, Alberta, native play in 261 regular-season games, 18 playoff games and nine Grey Cup games with four teams. He suited up for 160 regular-season games in Double Blue, spending 11 seasons in Toronto between 1983 and 1993. Ilesic was a member of seven Grey Cup winning teams, winning five straight with the Eskimos (1978-82) before capturing another two as a member of the Argonauts (1983, 1991).
An eight-time CFL All-Star, Ilesic led the league in punting average on six occasions, including four times as an Argo. He set the franchise’s single-season record for punting yards in 1986 (8,004) and ranks second in team history for punts (1,312), punting yards (58,070), punt singles (94), kickoffs (511), and kickoff yards (31,786). Ilesic’s 64 punts and 2,735 punting yards both rank first in Grey Cup game history.
Ilesic will become just the second punter and the 48th Argonaut player to be inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was named to the All-Time Argos depth chart at punter.