Is Reggie White a Hall of Famer?
Canadian football: six new members to the Hall
(Hamilton) The Canadian Football Hall of Fame will welcome six new members.
The 2020 class includes offensive linemen Clyde Brock and Freddie Childress, as well as quarterbacks Henry Burris and Greg Vavra. The builders include former head coach and current Calgary Stampeders president and general manager John Hufnagel, as well as former Saint Mary’s University coach and athletic director Larry Uteck. The latter will be inducted posthumously.
Brock played 12 seasons as a tackle with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. From 1964 to 1975, he took part in 169 games in addition to 27 playoff games and four Gray Cup games, which he won in 1966.
Burris played 18 seasons in the CFL with the Stampeders, Roughriders, Tiger-Cats and Rouge et Noir. He appeared in five Gray Cup games, lifting the trophy on three occasions: in 1998 and 2008 with Calgary, then in 2016 with Ottawa. He was twice voted Finals MVP, in addition to being voted CFL MVP on two occasions.
He retired in 2017, following a career in which he had 63,639 passing yards — good for third most in CFL history — as well as 373 touchdowns. and an efficiency coefficient of 93.6.
Childress played for the Shreveport Pirates, Birmingham Barracudas, Stampeders and Roughriders during a career spanning 13 seasons, including two Gray Cup wins in 1998 and 2001.
He was elected six times to the Division All-Star Team and three times to the CFL All-Star Team (1996-1998). In 1998, Childress won the League’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman award.
Elected as an amateur player, Vavra played five seasons as a quarterback with the University of Calgary Dinos (1979-83), winning the Vanier Cup in 1983. he CIAU All-Star became the first Dinos player to win the Hec-Crighton Trophy, awarded to Canada’s college football MVP. To this day, he still holds the USIC — now U SPORTS — record for passing yards in a single game with 627.
During his college career, he had 8,401 passing yards and 63 touchdowns.
The builders
After 12 seasons as a quarterback with three teams, Hufnagel began a 15-year coaching career, including seven as head coach of the Stampeders. He compiled a 102-41-1 record. His .712 save percentage is the highest among coaches who have coached at least 100 games.
Hufnagel has won the Gray Cup five times: once as a player (1984), once as an assistant coach (1992), twice as head coach and general manager (2008 and 2014) and once as general manager only (2018 ).
Uteck worked as an assistant coach with Saint Mary’s University in 1982 and was named head coach the following year, a position he held until 1997. During his time at the helm of the team, the club won seven ASUA titles, won the Atlantic Bowl on three occasions (1988, 1990 and 1992) and appeared in three Vanier Cup games.
As athletic director, from 1995 to 2002, Uteck saw his Huskies win two Vanier Cups (2001 and 2002) and win four of their eventual six consecutive Atlantic University Athletic (AUS) championship appearances. Uteck died in 2002. The following year, 2003, the Atlantic Bowl became the Uteck Cup.
Including the members of the 2020 vintage, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame now totals 309 inductees. Due to concerns surrounding COVID-19, the Friday August 14 induction ceremony and the Saturday August 15 Hall of Fame game between the Rouge et Noir and the Tiger-Cats have been postponed.
Brock played 12 seasons as a tackle with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. From 1964 to 1975, he took part in 169 games in addition to 27 playoff games and four Gray Cup games, which he won in 1966.
