McPhee going back to school
Longest-serving Ticats coach returns to university ranks at Guelph
Nobody has ever spent more time as a Hamilton Tiger-Cats coach than the local boy who grew up idolizing the stars of the iconic franchise’s greatest era.
But despite his 16 years on three separate Ticat staffs, Dennis “Deke” McPhee actually owns a deeper resumé in university football.
“And it’s nice to be back,” says the 60-year-old Hamilton native who was appointed the Guelph Gryphons’ defensive co-ordinator this week by new head coach Ryan Sheahan. “The stadium’s a beautiful place. It’s overwhelming to me to see the facilities here. We have to perform and earn the respect of what we’ve got.”
It’s a long-delayed homecoming for McPhee who was the linebackers coach from 1990-93 at Guelph, and was defensive line coach when the Ticats used Guelph’s Alumni stadium for their home games while Tim Hortons Field was being built. It’s one of four Canadian campuses on which he’s plied his coaching trade, over his 18 — now 19 — campaigns in the university ranks.
McPhee has landed squarely on his feet after being among the collateral damage when new Ticat defensive co-ordinator Mark Washington hired fellow former B.C. Lions coaches Randy Melvin and Robin Ross to coach the defensive line and linebackers, respectively. McPhee’s expiring contract was not renewed.
“I wasn’t happy about it but they brought in a new DC and I completely understand that he would want his own guys,” McPhee told The Spectator. “I have no animosity toward Hamilton. I can’t thank Mr. Young enough and I wish we could have got him a Grey Cup championship.”
He’d been back with the Ticats as defensive line coach since 2013, the first year of the Kent Austin era, and before that was the defensive front coach for the first three years of the Bob Young ownership (2004-06) and worked with linebackers and/or defensive linemen from 1995 to 2001, during which time the Ticats led the CFL in sacks for five years in a row and won their last (1999) Grey Cup.
Those 16 years are believed to be the most ever put in by a coach here since the Wildcats and Ti-
gers amalgamated for the 1950 season to form the Tiger-Cats.
“I think he was the best defensive line coach in the CFL,” said former radio colour man and current analyst, John Salavantis, whose 11 years as a Ticat coach stand second on the franchise longevity chart. “Not only do players respond to him, he has the ability to teach the newest CFL techniques. He’ll do well at Guelph.”
McPhee was linebacker and defensive line coach for McMaster for five years starting in the mid-1980s and spent another year at Mac as defensive co-ordinator in 1994, before moving over to the Ticats. He has also spent a year working with close friend Greg Marshall at Western and has been a head coach twice: for two years at St. Francis Xavier, where he was the 2002 AUS coach of the year; and at Waterloo where he spent five years rebuilding football.
That stint included the dark days of 2010 when the program was shuttered for a season because of doping infractions by a number of players.
McPhee, nephew of the famous local coach John McPhee who died last month, played tight end and linebacker for St. Thomas More, Southmount and Barton, with whom he won a city championship.
He went on to play football and hockey at Saint Mary’s University and then moved into university coaching.
He says that besides the deep friendships with Ticats players he coached — “and we’re all still in touch”— he has three vivid takeaways from his years at Ivor Wynne and Tim Hortons Field.
“Number one is the opportunity afforded me by the many people involved with the Ticat organization,” he said. “It was the chance of a lifetime for me.
“Number two was to be mentored by three Hall of Famers in Don Sutherin, Ron Lancaster and Bernie Custis. They were a link to the CFL of the past for me and I met so many people from their era who had been childhood heroes of mine. It was incredible to carry the legacy of those three men into the current generation.
“And number three was being in four Grey Cups in those 16 years. The only regret I have is that we weren’t able to win a Grey Cup for Bob Young and his (late) brother Michael, who was the reason he bought the team. It’ll always be my team and I hope they get Bob Young the ring ... this year.”