Bomber legend delights crowd at Fire and Ice banquet

While the location wasn’t where the team had hoped, the Steinbach Pistons 2025 Fire and Ice Banquet still went down as a success.

The team had hoped to host the event inside the new Southeast Event Centre, but construction delays meant the banquet was at it’s usual spot in the Niverville Heritage Centre.

Milt Stegall, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ legend, was the featured speaker at the event, urging attendees to find their personal drive in life. Stegall finished his hall of fame career the CFL’s all-time leading receiver and still holds the league’s record for most career touchdowns. He spent his entire career in Winnipeg.

“Motivation is not sustainable, motivation comes and goes, but when you have drive, as long as you work on it daily, it’s always in you,” Stegall said, highlighting the difference in definitions, noting drive can carry a person when motivation wanes.

“You know what happens every single time I look in the mirror, even to this day? As an analyst, as a husband, as a human, (I say) ‘man there were so many things I could have done different…’ That next morning when I wake up, there’s another fight for me, there’s another challenge, there’s mountain I need to climb. I know this sounds like an asinine way to live, but the only way we grow as humans is if we’re uncomfortable.”

Stegall called the gym and overall fitness his “drug and therapy,” with Steinbach head coach and general manager Paul Dyck saying the now-54-year-old challenged Pistons players to a push-up contest before the banquet when introducing Stegall.

“You’ve got to find something that’s going to drive you in everything you do,” Stegall said, calling his wife the most driven person he knows.

“In sport, in life, in school, you have to find that drive. Because when you have that drive, you can get through anything.”

The football legend has come a long way since a 2008 interview where he quipped hockey was “not a real sport,” in a cheeky promo for an upcoming game against Edmonton. Stegall told the Fire and Ice audience he now thinks hockey is a better overall sport than football, adding he loved the recent Four Nations tournament.

“I’m stuck on hockey now,” he said, laughing.

The Pistons also shared photos of their million-dollar locker room during the event, which is finished inside the SEC. The team brought in designers with experience working with NBA and major European soccer teams to design the space, which even includes permanent cold tubs and a sauna.

The team raised well over $50,000 in funds between their silent auction and soliciting donations from the crowd to help cover the final $200,000 to finish funding their locker room.