Country’s most winning university football coach
Brian Towriss had no experience — and so there was little fanfare — when he took the head football coaching job with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies in 1984.
He quickly made the program his. Towriss stuck around more than three decades, leaving last December toting three Vanier Cup championships and more wins than any coach in the history of Canadian university football.
Towriss played football with the Huskies starting in 1974, and later served as an assistant coach under Val Schneider. At 27, he was promoted to the head job and called all the shots for the first time ever.
He later had opportunities to work as an assistant coach in the CFL — most notably in the mid’90s, when he talked seriously with Ray Jauch about coaching the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ running backs, with an implied opportunity to take a growing role in the team’s offensive scheme.
He chose to stick with university football. The job was steady, lowerrisk with a dynamic he enjoyed.
“There’s something real rewarding about kids who play for the love of the game rather than for a paycheque,” Towriss said a few years ago as he chased Larry Haylor’s career wins mark of 169.
Towriss’s teams captured Vanier Cups in 1990, 1996 and 1998, and lost six more. He won 196 regularseason and playoff games.
In March, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame announced that Towriss is to be inducted as a builder.
“We won a lot of games, and had a lot of success,” Towriss said after the induction was announced.
“There’s no doubt about that. And we put a lot of work into it, too. If we hadn’t, things like (the induction) wouldn’t have happened — nor would it have been as much fun.”
As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, the StarPhoenix and Leader-Post are telling the stories of 150 Saskatchewan people who helped shape the nation. Send your suggestions or feedback to sask150@postmedia.com.