OUT OF THE TUNNEL: TOP 10 ALL-TIME CFL GM’S

BY: RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF

The silence from the CFL over the past few weeks has been deafening. Like you, we are searching for any sort of news from across the country and there isn’t much. Commissioner Randy Ambrosie should be commended for making the media rounds including interviews with TSN’s CFL 2020, TSN Radio Toronto and The Rod Pedersen Show, however his critics wail that he hasn’t provided much info.

GM’s and coaches have been generally mum and most of the public comments from players have been venting frustration on Twitter. Bravo though, to Saskatchewan quarterback Cody Fajardo who’s been a one-man marketing machine for the Green & White.

One would assume that there is frantic work going on behind the scenes to put together some sort of season in 2020. But as the calendar tells us that we are now fully into June, the hope of seeing CFL football is really starting to wither away.

If Labour Day is the goal to kickoff the season, there has to be some sort of solution over the next three to four weeks and like most of you already know, there isn’t much positive to report. To get through this storm, the CFL will need incredible leadership across the board: on the business side, in football operations, the league office and among the players.

Let’s hope all sides can come together and come up with a solution. If there’s no CFL football in 2020, then the plan moving forward needs to be to keep the players safe and the league alive for a full return in 2021.

RodPedersen.com has tried to keep you entertained over the past few months without football and we will continue to do our best. In the spirit of the great series of Top 10 Riders at each position that Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader Post did, we will go league-wide with a series of Top 10’s.

Here is our inaugural list and it is the CFL’s all-time Top 10 CFL general managers.

We put a few stipulations in place to make things a little easier. A general manager had to have five or more years of experience, have a record better than .500 and win at least one Grey Cup. There was also a heavier consideration on those general managers that were successful during the cap-era (beginning in 2007).

Some that didn’t make the cut: Eric Tillman (three Grey Cup wins with five teams), Jim Ausley (former trainer that won four Grey Cups with the Blue Bombers in six seasons), Bob Ackles (11 seasons with the B.C. Lions with one Grey Cup) and a personal favourite, Roy Shivers, who pulled the Roughriders out of the weeds and was the starting point of the decade of excellence for the Green and White.

10. John O’Quinn (OTT ‘62-‘69) (MTL ‘70-‘71)

One of the all-time CFL greats on and off the field. After a hall of fame career as a player, O’Quinn headed to coaching and then the front office. He made the playoffs in eight of nine seasons as a GM winning a pair of Grey Cups for the Rough Riders before taking over a Montreal team that was dead last and brought them their first title in 21 years in 1970.

9. Ken Preston (SSK ‘58-‘77)

This is close to the heart for everyone of a certain age in Saskatchewan. Preston took over a team that was rock-bottom (a theme you will see a lot on this list) in Saskatchewan and built a team that went to the playoffs 15 straight seasons (still a team record). He won a Grey Cup in 1966 and went to four more title games.

8. Frank Clair (OTT ‘70-‘78)

Clair won five Grey Cups as a head coach of the Toronto Argonauts (‘50, ‘52) and the Rough Riders (‘60, ‘68, ‘69) before taking on the role of general manager in Ottawa. During his tenure Frank Clair made the playoffs in eight of nine seasons winning the Grey Cup in 1973 and 1976. Clair means so much to Ottawa football that the stadium was named after him before being changed to TD Place. The franchise then put a statue up of Clair to honour the man.

7. Cal Murphy (WPG ‘87-‘95)

A man that is synonymous with successful football on the prairies in the 1980’s and 1990’s and a staunch supporter of the Canadian game. Murphy won a Grey Cup as a head coach with the Blue Bombers in 1984 before building one of the best franchises in Bomber history winning the title in 1988 and 1990 (the last Grey Cup for Winnipeg before last season) and going to the championship in 1992 and 1993.

6. Hugh Campbell (EDM ‘86-‘97)

This is a little bit of a different path. Campbell didn’t have to take a team from the ashes and rebuild, his job was to continue the most dominant era of football in CFL history. In 1986 Campbell returned from a head coaching stint in the NFL and USFL to take over the running of the Edmonton Eskimos from Norm Kimball. During Campbell’s tenure, the Esks never missed the playoffs (12 seasons), making it to the Grey Cup five times and winning three of them. 

5. Norm Kimball (EDM ‘66-‘85)

The builder of the most dominant franchise in the history of the CFL. Kimball took over an Edmonton club in 1966 that missed the playoffs four straight seasons and since then has missed the playoffs just six times. Kimball had the luxury of not having a salary cap and took full advantage of it bringing some of the best players in CFL and football history to the Alberta capital. During his tenure as general manager, Edmonton went to nine Grey Cups in his 20 seasons winning six.

4. Jake Gaudaur (HAM ‘57-‘67)

As a kid, I thought my football was named Gaudaur. The giant, balloon-like CFL game ball was emblazoned with the then commissioner’s name and that’s all I thought Gaudaur was. In fact he is one of the more important people in CFL history. After a 14 year playing career that included a stint as a WWII pilot trainer for the CAF, Gaudaur was the president of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1954 before taking over as the general manager late in 1956. In 11 seasons he made the playoffs in 10 of them, with trips to the Grey Cup in nine of those years and ultimately winning four. He then became the commissioner of the CFL from 1968 to 1984. 

3. Jim Popp (BAL ‘94-‘95) (MTL ‘96-2016) (TOR ‘17-‘19)

The last three spots are reserved for general managers who were successful in the cap-era of the CFL. The first is the man who went from front office wunderkind in 1994 to winning five Grey Cups in 11 appearances. Jim Popp was 30-years-old when he was named the general manager of the Baltimore Stallions in 1994 building a team (granted a lineup of all Americans) that won the Grey Cup in Regina in 1995. He then built the dominant franchise of the early 2000’s in Montreal where the Alouettes won three Grey Cups (‘02, ‘09, ‘10) before winning another title in Toronto in 2017. Yes, 2019 was a dismal failure for the future Hall of Famer but at just 55-years-old there is still more left in the tank for Popp.

2. Wally Buono (CGY 1992-‘02) (BC ‘03-‘17)

NFL Hall of Fame head coach Bill Parcells once said, “If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.”

This sums up the face of the CFL. Buono was a CFL GM for 26 years with the B.C. Lions and Calgary Stampeders. His teams went to the playoffs in 24 of those seasons with trips to the Grey Cup eight times and winning five of them. All five of the Grey Cups were won as Buono was both the head coach and general manager. One of the championships came during the cap-era in 2007.

1. John Hufnagel (CGY 2008-present)

The only current CFL general manager and the only one whose career is exclusively in the cap-era. Hufnagel’s teams have never missed the playoffs in his 12 seasons as GM and have placed either first or second in all but one. The Stampeders dynasty during this time have seen them in the championship game six times, winning three of them. It’s a story that is continuing and things would have to take a very hard turn for Hufnagel to lose his top spot.

(RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF)