Winnipeg Blue Bombers coach Dave Ritchie belts out a few instructions during practice Friday Nov. 23, 2001 in Montreal. The Blue Bombers will face the Calgary Stampeders in the 89th Grey Cup Sunday.
Hall of Fame coach Dave Ritchie, who won Grey Cups with Blue Bombers, Lions, dead at age 85 | CBC News LoadedDave Ritchie, the Hall of Fame former CFL head coach, has died. He was 85.
"Just that alone, to me, makes our youngsters special," Ritchie said about the contest in 2022 upon being inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. "For one week, everybody on our ball club was a Canadian." Winnipeg improved to 6-12 in its first season under Ritchie, then 7-10-1 in 2000. But in 2001, Winnipeg posted a 14-4 regular-season record and advanced to the Grey Cup before dropping a 27-19 decision to the Calgary Stampeders."Dave Ritchie was a respected leader during his days as Blue Bombers head coach and in his other coaching positions across the Canadian Football League, in the NCAA and in Europe," Winnipeg president/CEO Wade Miller said in a statement.
Part of that camaraderie between the players and their coach was Thanksgiving dinners Ritchie hosted with his wife, Sharon. "He was like, 'Yeah, one day I may have to cut you, but I still want you to feel comfortable here.… I still want to have that friendship with you, so when our football relationship is over, we can still be friends.'"
"Those were the most important things, and those were the things that I'll cherish and remember more so than just about anything that happened on the football field."Ritchie was inducted into the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame in 2014, but the pinnacle of his coaching career in Canada came with his induction into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
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