Milt Stegall is the CFL's new touchdown king.

The Blue Bombers slotback set an all-time league record with his 138th touchdown, then added his 139th late in Winnipeg's 36-18 home win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday night.

Milt Stegall, left, celebrates with teammate Dan Goodspeed after becoming the CFL's all-time touchdown leader Friday night in Winnipeg.
(Joe Bryksa/Winnipeg Free Press/Canadian Press)

Stegall, 37, passed the all-time mark of 137 touchdowns he'd shared with retired running backs George Reed and Mike Pringle in the first half.

With the Bombers on the Hamilton one-yard line, Stegall took a shovel pass off an option play by quarterback Kevin Glenn, dodged a Ticats defender and stepped into the end zone untouched to set the new record.

"It was supposed to be a run play," Stegall said. "I was supposed to be behind (Glenn) because Kevin could have run it in himself, but he said he was going to pitch it to me.

"He pitched it in front of me so it's considered a pass play."

After the touchdown at 8:17 of the second quarter, play was halted for a brief ceremony recognizing the record as the capacity crowd of 29,533 fans at Canad Inns Stadium gave Stegall a loud ovation.

"It was elation. It was exciting," said the 13-year veteran. "I'm sure if I had been somewhere else there would have been some screaming, but not like these fans were screaming and cheering me on."

Stegall added his second touchdown of the game on a 35-yard strike from Glenn up the left sideline with 1:38 left in the fourth quarter to extend the Blue Bombers' lead.

Stegall now has 136 career touchdown receptions and three non-receiving touchdowns — one on a punt return, one on a blocked kick return and one on a fumble recovery.

The six-time CFL all-star and 2002 league most outstanding player finished the game with eight catches for 141 yards.

Record no distraction: Maas

Running back Charles Roberts also scored a pair of touchdowns for the Bombers, who lead the East with a 3-1-1 record.

Nick Setta provided all the scoring for Hamilton (0-5) with six field goals from 13, 20, 32, 36, 41 and 52 yards.

Ticats quarterback Jason Maas, who completed 29 of 44 passes for 341 yards, said Stegall's record wasn't a distraction for his team.

"I would expect nothing less from our league to do that, to honour somebody who's broken a record like that," Maas said.

"That's no excuse (for the loss). It was still a good football game and a good football game after that. I was surprised (the ceremony) didn't go on longer."

With files from the Canadian Press