BRANCATO LOVED FAMILY, FOOTBALL
Former Grey Cup-winning coach of Ottawa Rough Riders dead at age 88
As a football player and then a Grey Cup-winning coach, George Brancato was a legend in Ottawa sporting circles.
But it was who and what he was off the football field — a loving husband, father and grandfather — that really defined Brancato, who died at age 88 late Tuesday.
Married to wife Barbara for 60 years, family meant everything to him. The couple have a son, George Jr., and three daughters, Cindi, Wendy and Alicia, along with eight grandchildren.
“It’s been a tough go,” said George Jr. “He was a football man, he did what he loved. But I will remember the love he felt for his family, through the kids and the grandchildren. It was unconditional. His family came first ... always.
“(My dad) was kind of your quiet family man, but he had wit. He had that subtle sense of humour. He wasn’t that flamboyant type, the focus of the party type guy, he would just kind of fire out the one-liners from the sidelines. He had a bit of knowledge in all areas, a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy ... he’ll be sorely missed.”
Inducted to the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame in 2002, Brancato was the head coach of the Rough Riders in 1976, the last time an Ottawa CFL team won a Grey Cup until the Redblacks beat the Calgary Stampeders three years ago, a 40-year gap.
A graduate of Louisiana State University, Brancato, who was born in Brooklyn, came to Ottawa in 1957 after stints with the NFL’s Chicago Cardinals and Montreal Alouettes. He led the
East Division in interceptions in 1957 and was an all-star in 1961. He retired after the 1962 season.
He became an assistant coach to Jack Gotta in 1970, winning a Grey Cup in 1973, then taking over as the head coach of the Rough Riders in 1974. He stayed in that job until 1984. In 1981, Brancato’s Riders nearly pulled off the biggest upset in the Grey Cup’s history. With a 5-11 record, the Riders turned it on in the playoffs to get to the Grey Cup, where they faced the powerhouse Edmonton Eskimos, who had a 14-1-1 record. Led by quarterback J.C. Watts, the Riders led 20-1 at halftime and lost the game 26-23 when Dave Cutler kicked a field goal with three seconds remaining.
Brancato returned to Ottawa in 1993 as Ron Smeltzer’s special teams and secondary coach. The next season, he was the offensive co-ordinator for the Shreveport Pirates. In 1999, he was the defensive co-ordinator for the Arena Football League’s Florida Bobcats. It would be his final coaching job.
“He was a very quiet coach,” said Jeff Avery, who played for Brancato with the Riders and is president of the CFL Ottawa alumni association. “You played for him for a few years probably before he really spoke to you. He let the assistant coaches do the coaching. He was the type of coach who got good people to work with him and he let them do the job with the players. Everybody enjoyed playing for him.
“He treated you fairly.”
Avery said he got to know his former coach better in the retirement years.
“As a player, you only knew him as the coach,” said Avery. “He and Barb just loved their family, the grandkids. They live in the same house they did when he was coaching us, with a pool in the backyard. He said to me many times that he just loved the grandchildren coming over, laying in the backyard in the pool. He had that family attachment.”
“That was his pride and joy, the kids gravitated to the pool,” said George Jr. “He knew if he kept the pool perfect, he’d get the grandkids over ... he was smart that way.”
There was another side to the coach as well. He liked a good laugh.
Said Avery: “We were down in Florida visiting (former GeeGees and Rough Riders coach) Jimmy Clark — myself and a buddy of mine from high school. Jimmy had a good size fishing boat with a couple of twin 200s on the back. Bobby Simpson and George and their wives used to go down to Florida every year. We took George and Bobby out fishing. George loved to tell stories from a coach’s perspective. George was laughing. ‘Jeff, do you remember we used to run that option with you when we wanted to kill the clock … because it took you so long to get around the corner?’ I said, ‘Yeah, George, I remember running the play, I don’t remember that was the reason why.’ He was just laughing away.”
Brancato had a life-threatening septic infection two summers ago and spent a couple of months in the Queensway Carleton Hospital. But, remarkably, he fought it off — and was able to celebrate his 60th wedding anniversary, then go to a family reunion in Cape Cod this past summer.
Brancato died at his home, a house they had built in 1976 in the west end, off Greenbank Rd., on Tuesday night.
“After spending (the summer of 2018) in hospital, he was kind of done with hospitals,” said George Jr. “He wanted to be home where he was comfortable. The palliative care team stepped in and made it a peaceful journey on the way out.”
The legacy and path that Brancato carved in Ottawa isn’t lost on Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell.
“I have a couple of memories of him,” said Campbell. “We do our alumni thing every year and it’s always great for us to meet the old Rough Rider guys, especially him. I also remember the 1981 Grey Cup — I was young — but he coached in that game against my dad (Hugh Campbell) and they almost pulled off the huge upset. He was obviously a big part of Ottawa football and I have a lot of respect for him.”
George and Barbara were regular churchgoers at St. John the Apostle Church, where the funeral will be held Monday, at 11 a.m.