Dave Ritchie, who was the head coach of the B.C. Lions for their iconic ’94 Grey Cup victory over the Baltimore Stallions, died Saturday. He was 85.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, another Canadian Football League team Ritchie led, announced his death. The cause was not immediately disclosed.
As Winnipeg’s head coach from 1999 to 2004, Ritchie went 52-41-1 in regular season games. That placed him fourth in club history, below Bud Grant (102), current head coach Mike O’Shea (96), and Cal Murphy (86).
However, it was during Ritchie’s time as B.C.’s head coach that his team unified Canada. The Lions defeated Baltimore 26-23 in the 82nd Grey Cup on Lui Passaglia’s game-winning 38-yard field goal at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver, sealing the first championship in pro football history to feature a U.S.-Canada contest.
“Just that alone, to me, makes our youngsters special,” Ritchie stated about the game when he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2022. “For one week, everybody on our ball club was a Canadian.”
Neil McEvoy, the Lions’ co-general manager and director of football operations, stated that Ritchie will be missed by everyone in the CFL.
“Coach Ritchie was a champion at heart who represented the British Columbia Lions with the utmost dignity and professionalism. Anyone who had the good fortune to work with him benefited from it,” McEvoy said in a statement.
Ritchie, of New Bedford, Mass., was a head coach for 11 of his 22 CFL seasons, including B.C. (1993-95), Montreal (1997-98), and Winnipeg. He won 108 of his 187 career regular-season games.
He also won Grey Cups as an assistant in Winnipeg (1990) and British Columbia (2006).
Ritchie began his career with the Bombers in 1990, working as a defensive line and special-teams coach under head coach Mike Riley. He left after the 1991 season and returned in 1999 after being elected head coach and took over a Winnipeg team that finished 3-15 in 1998.
Winnipeg improved to 6-12 in Ritchie’s first season, then 7-10-1 in 2000. However, Winnipeg finished 14-4 during the regular season and progressed to the Grey Cup, where they were defeated 27-19 by the Calgary Stampeders.
Nonetheless, Ritchie was voted the CFL’s Coach of the Year that season.
“Dave Ritchie was a respected leader during his tenure as Blue Bombers head coach and in his other coaching positions across the Canadian Football League, NCAA, and Europe,” Winnipeg president/CEO Wade Miller said in a statement. “He was passionate about his players and his teams, and he guided them to great success.
