Hall of Fame coach Dave Ritchie, who won Grey Cups with Blue Bombers, Lions, dead at age 85

Ritchie led Lions to championship over Baltimore Stallions in ’94, was Winnipeg head coach from 1999-2004

Dave Ritchie, who was the head coach of the B.C. Lions for their iconic ’94 Grey Cup victory over the Baltimore Stallions and was part of the coaching staff with Winnipeg’s 1990 championship team, died Saturday. He was 85.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers confirmed Ritchie’s death. The cause was not immediately divulged.

Ritchie amassed a 52-41-1 regular-season record as a head coach with Winnipeg (1999-2004). That left him fourth overall in club history behind Bud Grant (102), current head coach Mike O’Shea (96) and Cal Murphy (86).

But it was during Ritchie’s tenure as B.C.’s head coach that his club united Canada. The Lions dispatched Baltimore 26-23 in the 82nd Grey Cup on Lui Passaglia’s game-ending 38-yard field goal at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver, capping the first championship ever in pro football to feature a U.S.-Canada matchup.

“Just that alone, to me, makes our youngsters special,” Ritchie said about the contest in 2022 upon being inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. “For one week, everybody on our ball club was a Canadian.”

Ritchie, of New Bedford, Mass., spent 11 of his 22 CFL seasons as a head coach with B.C. (1993-95), Montreal (1997-98) and Winnipeg. He won 108-of-187 career regular-season games to stand seventh all-time.

He also claimed Grey Cup rings as an assistant with Winnipeg (1990) and B.C. (2006).

Ritchie first joined the Bombers in 1990 on head coach Mike Riley’s staff as a defensive line and special-teams coach.

He left after the ’91 season, then returned in 1999 after being named head coach and taking over a Winnipeg squad that was 3-15 in 1998.

Winnipeg improved to 6-12 in its first season under Ritchie, then 7-10-1 in 2000. But in 2001, Winnipeg posted a 14-4 regular-season record and advanced to the Grey Cup before dropping a 27-19 decision to the Calgary Stampeders.

Still, Ritchie was named the CFL’s coach of the year that season.

“Dave Ritchie was a respected leader during his days as Blue Bombers head coach and in his other coaching positions across the Canadian Football League, in the NCAA and in Europe,” Winnipeg president/CEO Wade Miller said in a statement.

“He had a passion for his players and his teams and led both to great success.

“The Winnipeg Football Club offers our deepest sympathies to his wife Sharon, Dave’s family, and his many friends.”

Created ‘family atmosphere’ with players: Stegall

Sometimes gruff and to the point, Ritchie also had a soft side, especially with his players. And away from the field, Ritchie, his Massachusetts accent very evident, had a very dry but infectious sense of humour.

In relaxed settings with reporters, Ritchie would share entertaining and often funny stories from his long football career.

Blue Bombers legend Milt Stegall fondly remembers the “family atmosphere” his former coach created with players.

Part of that camaraderie between the players and their coach was Thanksgiving dinners Ritchie hosted with his wife, Sharon.

“A lot of coaches don’t want to do that.… They don’t want to get too close to their players because they know one day, that they may have to, for lack of a better term, fire. But Coach Ritchie didn’t care about that,” Stegall told CBC on Saturday.

“He was like, ‘Yeah, one day I may have to cut you, but I still want you to feel comfortable here.… I still want to have that friendship with you, so when our football relationship is over, we can still be friends.'”

Stegall said Ritchie will be remembered as the man who brought the Blue Bombers out of some tough times, but it’s the moments off the turf he’ll reflect on most.

“I want to convey just how great of an individual and how great of a family atmosphere he created,” said Stegall.

“Those were the most important things, and those were the things that I’ll cherish and remember more so than just about anything that happened on the football field.”

Ritchie was inducted into the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame in 2014, but the pinnacle of his coaching career in Canada came with his induction into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

“It means a great deal because I believe the CFL is the top league in the world,” Ritchie said at the time.

“I’d get into a big-time argument but the athletes I had in the secondary and linebacker position, almost every one of them is in a Hall of Fame somewhere, whether it’s British Columbia, Winnipeg or the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

“How can you lose when you have great youngsters around you? I might’ve been a little off the wall sometimes but I did have some great players, I also had many great coaches.”