Former CFL coach Brancato dead at 88
Helped Ottawa Rough Riders to Grey Cup victories, played in NFL, worked in Arena Football League
OTTAWA — George Brancato, who won Grey Cups with the Ottawa Rough Riders as a player, assistant coach and head coach, has died. He was 88.
The Redblacks, Ottawa’s current Canadian Football League team, confirmed Brancato’s death in an email Wednesday.
Brancato, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., was a halfback/defensive back with Ottawa from 1957 to ’62. The solid, five-footseven, 177-pound former Louisiana State University star earned his first Grey Cup as a player with the Riders in 1960 before claiming a second in ’73 as an assistant coach with the club.
He took over as Ottawa’s head coach in ’74 when Jack Gotta left the CFL team for Birmingham of the now-defunct World Football League. After capturing the Annis Stukus Trophy as the CFL’s top coach in ’75, Brancato guided the Riders to a 23-20 Grey Cup win over Saskatchewan in ’76 in Toronto. Tight end Tony Gabriel cemented the victory for Ottawa with a 24-yard TD grab late in the fourth quarter from QB Tom Clements, a play affectionately dubbed “The Catch.”
Brancato and the Riders narrowly missed registering the biggest upset in Grey Cup history five years later. After finishing the regular season with a 5-11 record, Ottawa surged to a 20-1 halftime lead over the heavily favoured Edmonton Eskimos (14-4-1).
But the Eskimos, with Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, rallied for the 26-23 victory at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. Kicker Dave Cutler’s 27yard field goal late in the fourth quarter provided Edmonton with the fourth of its five straight CFL titles (1978-82).
Brancato was fired following the ’84 season after the Riders posted a 4-12 record. He compiled an 82-90-4 regular-season record with the Riders, finishing behind only the legendary Frank Clair (116) in victories. Brancato’s teams were 8-10 in the playoffs.
It was during his CFL coaching tenure that Brancato earned the nickname “The Ice Man,” because he routinely chewed ice on the sidelines.
Brancato returned to coaching in 1989 with the Arena Football League’s Chicago Bruisers. After the franchise folded, he served as an assistant with the Dallas Texans.
He rejoined the Riders in 1993 as a special-teams and secondary coach on Ron Smeltzer’s staff. The following year he was an offensive co-ordinator with the expansion Shreveport Pirates.
Brancato was also an assistant coach with Saskatchewan (1985-86).
He finished his coaching career in the AFL with Anaheim and Florida, retiring after the ’99 campaign.
Brancato played both offence and defence, spending time in the NFL with the Chicago Cardinals (1954-55). He made his CFL debut as a running back with the Montreal Alouettes in 1956 and played mostly on defence with Ottawa.
He was a CFL all-star in 1961 and inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.