LIFELONG LOVER OF THE CFL
Lions owner Braley dead at 79
David Braley's passion for the B.C. Lions was forever on display.
Braley became the CFL club's owner before the 1997 Canadian Football League season and he'd routinely have the entire team to his Hamilton-area home for a steak dinner as part of them coming east for a game against the Tiger-Cats.
On one such occasion, Braley was in the midst of a conversation with Lions receiver Marco Iannuzzi in the backyard when he realized that things weren't quite to his liking.
Braley asked Iannuzzi to walk and talk with him. They made their way through the house, cutting past several members of the catering crew hired to help feed the Lions' travelling party of 60 people. Braley and Iannuzzi wound up in the kitchen, where Braley rummaged around before finding four serving spoons.
Braley took them out to the serving table. He wanted his players to have more options. He wanted things to be just right. He could have easily asked someone else to do it. He wanted to make sure it was done just so.
Braley, who will always be looked upon as a champion for the Lions and the CFL, died on Monday at his family's Burlington, Ont., home. He was 79.
“When I think over the history of the CFL, he's right up there at the top,” Lions president Rick LeLacheur, whose history in the circuit includes serving as Edmonton's president from 2002 to 2011, explained Monday. “He's just done so much for the league.
“He always believed in the league. He always looked at what was best for the league. He was always there to step up with his chequebook when it was required.”
Braley had talked about selling the Lions in recent years. LeLacheur says that the team will continue to work with Braley's estate in that regard.
“David had spent a lot of time making sure we knew what his desires were,” LeLacheur said.
Braley was born in Montreal and moved to Hamilton as a youngster. He played football growing up and became a regular at Tiger-Cats games.
Neil McEvoy, the Lions' director of football operations, started out in the ticket sales department with the club in 1995. He says Braley loved to pass down stories to B.C. players about the long-standing rivalry between the Lions and Tiger-Cats, which included the 1963 Grey Cup at Empire Stadium that featured a questionable hit by Hamilton defensive lineman Angelo Mosca on B.C. running back Willie Fleming.
“He wanted the players to know the background of it all,” McEvoy said Monday.
“He wanted to help keep that rivalry around. He loved football and especially three-down football.”
Braley had a blue-collar feel. Iannuzzi, who was with the Lions from 2011 to 2017, talks about how Braley always “wanted to get in there and do the work himself,” and about how he had “a modest” way about him.
McEvoy points to how Braley would address the Lions players at training camp and there were times that he would bring a pitchfork along with him do so, a prop to show that “it's time to get to work.”
“He liked owning the football team,” McEvoy said.
“This team meant something to him.”
The Tiger-Cats were Braley's first CFL club; he owned them from 1989 to 1992. He took over a cashstrapped Lions team in late 1996 and was quoted as saying then: “I love the game. Maybe that's a silly reason for buying a team.”
During his 2012 Canadian Football Hall of Fame speech, he spoke about how the Lions had 8,000 fans in the stands for his first game as owner and would go on to average 35,000 a game during the grandest point of his tenure.
He also owned the Toronto Argonauts from 2010 to 2015, and somehow managed to make having two teams in one league, at one time, make sense for that period.
He brought Bobby Ackles to the Lions and then Wally Buono. The Lions won three Grey Cups during Braley's time at the helm. He added another with the Argonauts.
“I think I was one of the lucky ones. I was a player on the team when he bought it and I was there when he got it turned around,” explained Giulio Caravatta, a Lions quarterback from 1991 to 1998 who is now an analyst on their radio broadcasts on TSN 1040. “I'll always think about his kindness and his willingness to do whatever it took to help out.
“He owned three teams in this league. He did it because he loved the game. There will never be another one like him in this league.”
Braley's success in business came largely from Orlick Industries, which he purchased in 1969 and turned from a small business into a leading manufactures of aluminum die-cast auto parts.
Braley was also known for his philanthropy. According to the Lions, he donated more than $125 million to various organizations over the years.
He was named an officer of the Order of Canada in December 2019.
He always believed in the league. He always looked at what was best for the league. He was always there to step up with his chequebook.