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Research dossier · People & Ideas

John Bonk

Canadian football player

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ6222450 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Bonk (born August 27, 1950) is a Canadian former professional football offensive lineman in the Canadian Football League (CFL). The four-time All-Star played from 1973 to 1985 for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Bonk won the CFL's Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award in 1984. He also won the 60th Grey Cup with Hamilton in 1972 and the 72nd Grey Cup with Winnipeg in 1984. He played in 204 consecutive games.

In 2008, Bonk was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “John Bonk” as canadian football player. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Bonk and Canadian.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1950, 1973, 1985, 1984—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1950-08-27. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with John, Bonk and Canadian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “John Bonk”, the useful work is to connect “canadian football player” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6222450. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 1973, 1985 and 1984.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John Bonk”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John Bonk primary sources, John Bonk archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Bonk”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John Bonk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.