On Sunday, Mike O’Shea will coach his 151st Canadian Football League game, all with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. On the other bench, for B.C. Lions head coach Rick Campbell, it will be his 149th game.
O’Shea is hoping to be like Campbell.
That Campbell is Rick’s father, Hugh, the only man to coach five consecutive Grey Cup champions. O’Shea’s streak is two…to become three (he hopes) on November 20th in Regina. Obviously, Campbell the son would like to be the one to protect Campbell the father’s record.
It has been 40 years since Hugh Campbell coached the Edmonton Eskimos for just 108 games, while compiling a shocking string of success that nobody saw coming, and that nobody has come close to achieving. He’d been recruited from a small school in Washington, Whitworth College, where he’d gone after retiring at 28 following six seasons as an all-star wide receiver with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“I figured playing six seasons or 12 seasons wouldn’t make much difference in what I wanted to do,” he said at his first Edmonton press conference. “I quit playing to go into coaching.”
In seven seasons at Whitworth, Campbell’s team was just four games over .500. At Edmonton, his Eskimos won only five of their first 11 games, then took six in a row to finish first and advance to the Grey Cup. There, on a cold day and slippery field in Montreal, Edmonton lost 41-6.
In the locker room after that game is the first time I recall meeting Campbell. When I asked how he could explain losing to the hometown Alouettes by 35 points, here’s what he said:
“I don’t think any one area stood out. It was a team effort. I hope to have it figured out by next year.”
And figure it out he did. The next year’s Grey Cup was the last post-season game Campbell would ever lose. His 11-1 record came from six playoff wins after finishing first in the West and the next five Grey Cups, and I was among the football reporters who covered all five.
After he figured it out, Campbell’s team beat Montreal 20-13. That was followed by Grey Cup victories of 17-9 (Montreal), 48-10 (Hamilton), 26-23 (Ottawa ) and 32-16 (Toronto). Add them up, and Campbell’s Grey Cup champions outscored all four Eastern champions by 143-71.
As good a player as Hugh Campbell was, he was a better coach. Attempts to parlay his CFL prowess into success in the USFL (Los Angeles) and the NFL (Houston) failed, probably because neither gave him enough time to apply the Campbell touch. When he retired from football for good 16 years ago, his name was on the Grey Cup 10 times — one as a player, five as coach and four as an Edmonton executive.
It’s human nature for reporters to like coaches not just because they’re successful but also because they respect the job of the football media. I know, first-hand, that was always the case with Hugh Campbell and, from what I hear, that’s also the case with the Bombers’ Mike O’Shea.
So O’Shea is on the right track to becoming a Campbell.
