Erindale Raiders had a simple recipe for success in the Peel High School football league: get the ball to Dwight Edwards and watch things happen — and things did happen with predictable results. Edwards would run with the ball or run a pattern to catch the ball. Either way, he was tough to stop and after a touchdown, Erindale’s cheerleaders would have another routine cause to perform their celebration routine. His speed earned Edwards the “Erindale Express” label. The Edwards family came to Mississauga from Jamaica. Dwight took to football and at Erindale become the Raiders’ top scorer. He was also fast enough to to leave the field behind while winning both the 100- and 200-metre sprints in Peel high school track and field championships. It was also totally predictable that one day this speed would carry Edwards to a professional athletic career. But that didn’t come right a way as he took a roundabout route and first joined Mississauga Raiders in the amateur Central Ontario Senior Football League where he promptly established himself as top scorer and Most Valuable Player award winner.

    

     Edwards was star of the team that set an all-time record for most consecutive wins en route to successive league championship titles.

     Somewhere along the way the Toronto Argonauts realized they had a diamond in rough on there doorstep and were keen on getting hands on a gift-wrapped commodity — a non-import player with speed to burn and a proven amateur football talent. They signed him to a professional contract.

     Edwards made his Canadian Football League debut as a wide receiver with the Argos in 1978 and had a memorable rookie season catching 17 passes and scoring a touchdown while accumulating the best average-per-reception record in the Eastern Conference. He was traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders prior to the 1980 season and in his first season with the Roughies led the CFL in kickoff returns with 36 for 869 yards. He also scored five touchdowns while catching 38 passes for 588 yards.

     Edwards often tasted success but never got to sip champagne from the Grey Cup. In the 1987 Grey Cup in Vancouver — a real nail-biting classic — the Argonauts were beaten on a last-second field goal. Edwards set a record in this game for most kickoff returns (eight) in a Grey Cup game.