BLUGH AND O’BILLOVICH MAKE CFL HALL OF FAME
Redblacks’ defensive-line coach, former Rough Rider inducted
The Canadian Football Hall of Fame will add a double dose of Ottawa flavour to its ranks in 2015.
Redblacks defensive-line coach Leroy Blugh and former Rough Riders player and assistant coach Bob O’Billovich were among seven men whose inductions were announced Friday night during Grey Cup festivities at Vancouver.
“At first, I thought somebody was playing a prank on me because I didn’t really understand the timing of the year, when these sorts of things are made,” Blugh said about receiving the news from Canadian Football League commissioner Mark Cohon a couple of weeks ago.
“So, I was listening and I was like, ‘This is great, but is it real?’ As he continued to talk, I recognized his voice and then I realized that it was great and I was just beaming inside, and I was very, very excited.”
Blugh was a three-time all-Canadian with the Bishop’s Gaiters and in 1988 received the Presidents’ Trophy as Canadian university football’s top defensive player. As a CFLer, he was named the league’s top Canadian in 1996 and a West Division all-star in two of his 12 seasons with the Edmonton Eskimos, who had drafted him seventh overall in 1989, before concluding his playing career with the Toronto Argonauts in 2001-02.
Now 48, Blugh was Gaiters assistant and head coach in 2004-10, an assistant with the Queen’s Gaels in 2011-12 and Eskimos defensive-line coach in 2013. The Redblacks hired him in February.
O’Billovich spent more than half a century in the CFL, starting as a Rough Riders defensive back from 1963-67. He retired in 1968 after he and general manager Red O’Quinn could not agree on a new contract and became a sports administrator and coach in both basketball and football at Algonquin College, Car- leton University and the University of Ottawa. He led the Gee- Gees to the 1970 Vanier Cup national football championship game at Toronto, where they lost 38-11 to the Manitoba Bisons. In 1976, he became an assistant coach with the Rough Riders team that won the last Grey Cup championship for the city where he met his wife, Judy, and where children Tracy, Jodi and Coy were born.
“The CFL has really been my life,” O’Billovich said. “I came to Canada in 1963 to play, and I met my wife and all our kids were born (in Ottawa). It has been a very close relationship. I’m flattered to inducted into the hall of fame.”
Last year, O’Billovich retired after five years as Hamilton Tiger-Cats GM and vice-president of football operations. The now 74-year-old Montana native also served as head coach, general manager and playerpersonnel director with four other CFL franchises. He had a combined coaching record of 107-104-3 and was part of Grey Cup winners in 1983 (Toronto Argonauts), 2001 (Calgary Stampeders) and 2006 (B.C. Lions).
“I think it’s pretty outstanding that I’m being recognized for all those years of service to the Canadian Football League,” O’Billovich said.
Also entering the hall of fame as inductees next fall will be: former Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive lineman Gene Makowsky, now a member of the Saskatchewan legislature; defensive back Eddie Davis, who played with the Roughriders, Calgary Stampeders and Birmingham Barracudas;
I think it’s pretty outstanding that I’m being recognized for all those years of service to the Canadian Football League.
British Columbia amateur football player, coach and administrator Larry Reda; long-time Montreal Alouettes owner Bob Wetenhall; and Dave Dickenson, a former star quarterback with the Stampeders and Lions and now Calgary’s offensive co-ordinator.
The date and location of the 2015 Hall of Fame ceremony have yet to be announced. The 2014 inductees, including long-time Rough Riders lineman Moe Racine, were honoured in September at Montreal.
According to Blugh, several contemporaries not already in the Hamilton-based hall of fame remain worthy of consideration, including former Eskimos teammates Larry Wruck, Blake Marshall and Michael Soles. They and talented opponents such as Dickenson inspired and demanded a CFLer’s best efforts every week, he said.
Asked how he’d like to be viewed as a player, Blugh responded: “That I played the game hard and that I was going to hit you. I never wanted to be the guy that let my teammates down. I played through some injuries and things, but I just want to be remembered as a guy that brought it the best that he could every game.”
Blugh grew up in Napanee, where his family settled after arriving in Canada from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines when he was five, and he was in his final year of high school before realizing he might be good enough for university football. He was studying economics and geography at Bishop’s with an eye on a career in urban planning when pro football turned into an option.
While coaching at Queen’s, he obtained a Bachelor of Education degree, but his current long-term goals include following the same path of assistant coach, co-ordinator and head coach that he followed at the university level.
“There’s a lot of work and things that have to go into that,” said Blugh, who has a contract with the Redblacks for 2015, “and to receive this award at this time is great motivation, and it inspires me to do more and do it better.”