Bombers mourn passing of former coach Dave Ritchie

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This article was published 09/03/2024 (588 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He wasn’t a renowned orator, but former Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Dave Ritchie could get his message across with pure emotion and expressive looks.

“There was one specific speech he gave to us. I think it was to start a game-week prep off,” recalled Troy Westwood on the weekend. “I’m not sure that public speaking was one of his strengths as far as delivering a (Winston) Churchill-like speech or anything like that. But when he got emotional and started rolling downhill, he would get the guys really ramped up.

“Some of his analogies were absolute classics. I’m sure you’d get a boatload of those from guys who played for Dave over the years.”

Indeed, many associated with the CFL since the early 1990s have likely been swapping stories or quietly remeniscing about Ritchie, who died Saturday at the age of 85.

He was the head coach in Winnipeg from 1999-2004.

In a statement, the CFL club paid tribute to the gruff but loveable coach, who was inducted into the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2022.

“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,” said Blue Bombers president & CEO Wade Miller. “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.”

Westwood, the longtime Bombers’ placekicker, said he loved every minute of playing for Ritchie, who was the epitome of a player’s coach.

“He was one of the coaches that ushered in that era, that whole notion. Instead of a military-like relationship a player had with his coach, it was more of someone you could confide in,” he said. “The relationship with coach Ritchie was different and he embodied that. I loved him, all the guys did.

“He’d be stern with you if he needed to be, and then he’d hug you after that. He never, ever allowed his players to not know that he loved them, for sure.”

It’s been a difficult month for the Bombers organization and their fans, with the passing of a pair of legends — quarterback Ken Ploen and running back Gerry James — Feb. 13, and the former defensive end Craig Roh on Feb. 26.

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 then Winnipeg. He won 108 of 187 career regular-season games to stand seventh all-time.

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

He worked on Mike Riley’s coaching staff as a defensive line and special teams coach, and was part of the championship team (1990). He left after the 1991 season and then returned in 1999 after being named head coach.

The Bombers quickly turned around with Ritchie at the helm, improving from 3-15 before his arrival in 1998 to 6-12 in his first season (‘99), a 7-10-1 record in 2000 and a berth in the East Final, and a 14-4 mark and divisional championship in 2001.

He was named the CFL’s Coach of the Year in 2001.

Khari Jones, Winnipeg’s former star quarterback who also coached in the CFL, said he owes a debt of gratitude to Ritchie for a couple of reasons.

“I’ll never forget that he gave me my first chance. He brought me into the office and told me I was going to be the starting quarterback, and what it would take to be a starter in this league. Those words really stuck with me,” Jones said Sunday. “It was big because no one had given me an opportunity before. He gave a 29-year-old so-called journeyman a chance.”

When Jones turned to coaching, one of the first calls he made was to his old bench boss. And the two would talk many times in the ensuing years.

“I’d call him and pick his brain about things, and he was always so positive and so loving. That’s the thing I’m really going to miss,” he said. “There are certain people as coaches that you want to model yourself after, and he was one of those guys. I just appreciated his style. I thought it worked well, and you could tell because he won in all the places he went.

“That’s the mark of a great coach and a great man.”

Winnipeg amassed a 52-44-1 record under Ritchie’s watch, that win total now ranking fourth in club history after Bud Grant (102), Mike O’Shea (96) and Cal Murphy (86).

Guys would go through a wall for him, Westwood said.

“His smile… there was great strength in his eyes and kindness in his eyes,” he said. “When his face lit up, that was something you’d never forget. He loved his family. He loved the players on his teams.

“He was just a deep-down good man.”

In conversation with the Free Press in June 2022, Ritchie said he had only fond memories of his time in the Manitoba capital.

“I had a great time in Winnipeg. I had a lot of very, very good players, especially the linebackers and the defensive backs that we had. They were unbelievable. And the defensive line was very, very good,” he said.

“We won one Grey Cup and made a run at another one. So, it was great. It was super and I still have a lot of friends there.”