Bud Riley facts for kids
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 25, 1925 Guin, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | August 4, 2012 (aged 86) Penticton, British Columbia, Canada |
| Playing career | |
| 1948–1950 | Idaho |
| Position(s) | Back |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1952–1954 | Wallace HS (ID) (assistant) |
| 1955–1958 | Wallace HS (ID) |
| 1959–1961 | Lewiston HS (ID) |
| 1962–1964 | Idaho (assistant) |
| 1965–1972 | Oregon State (assistant) |
| 1973 | Saskatchewan Roughriders (assistant) |
| 1974–1977 | Winnipeg Blue Bombers |
| 1978 | Toronto Argonauts (assistant) |
| 1979 | Oregon State (assistant) |
| 1980 | Saskatchewan Roughriders (assistant) |
| 1981 | Hamilton Tiger-Cats (assistant) |
| 1982–1983 | Hamilton Tiger-Cats |
| 1984 | Edmonton Eskimos (assistant) |
| 1985 | Calgary Stampeders (interim HC) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service/ |
 United States Navy |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Edward Jones "Bud" Riley Jr. (born November 25, 1925 – died August 4, 2012) was a well-known American football coach. He worked as an assistant coach at big universities like the University of Idaho and Oregon State University.
Bud Riley also spent 14 seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was the head coach for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1974 to 1977. Later, he worked in the front office for the Calgary Stampeders. His oldest son, Mike Riley, also became a famous football coach for teams like Oregon State and Nebraska.
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Bud Riley's Early Life
Bud Riley was born and grew up in Guin, Alabama. When he was 12 years old, his father passed away. At age 17, during World War II, he left high school to join the U.S. Navy. After the war, he went back to Alabama and later studied at East Mississippi Community College.
College Football Player
Playing for the Idaho Vandals
When Bud Riley was in his early 20s, he was a talented junior college football player. The head coach at the University of Idaho, Dixie Howell, heard about him. Coach Howell was a famous player from the 1930s.
Riley was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 155 pounds. He told Coach Howell he was much bigger than he actually was to get a chance to play. When he arrived in Moscow in 1948, Coach Howell wanted to send him away because he was too small. But Riley proved himself in a tough tackling drill and stayed on the team.
He played as a halfback for the Vandals from 1948 to 1950. In his first game in 1948, he scored the Vandals' only touchdown against Oregon. He also played for the Vandals' baseball team.
Starting His Coaching Career
High School Coaching
During his college summers, Riley worked in mines near Wallace. After graduating in 1952, he got a job with a mining company there. The local school needed teachers, so he agreed to teach and coach for a while. He found that he really liked teaching and coaching, so he never went back to mining.
He started as an assistant coach for football and basketball. He was also the head coach for baseball. From 1955, he was the head football coach at Wallace High School for four seasons. His team had a record of 23 wins, 14 losses, and 1 tie. He also coached basketball for two seasons.
While in Wallace, Riley met his wife, Mary Shumaker. They got married in 1951 and had their first two sons there. In 1959, they moved to Lewiston. There, he coached football at Lewiston High School for three years.
College Coaching
In 1962, Bud Riley moved up to coach college football at his old school, the University of Idaho. He joined the staff of new head coach Dee Andros. The Vandals had their first winning season in 25 years in 1963. In 1964, they beat their rivals, WSU, for the first time in ten years.
In 1965, Coach Andros moved to Oregon State University in Corvallis. Riley followed him and became the secondary coach, and later the defensive coordinator. He coached at Oregon State from 1965 to 1972. The best years for the Oregon State Beavers were 1967 and 1968, when they were ranked among the top teams in the country.
Coaching in the CFL
After eight seasons at Oregon State, Riley moved to the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 1973. He became the defensive coordinator for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He greatly improved their defense.
In 1974, Riley was hired as the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The team had finished last the year before. The Bombers made it to the playoffs three times under Riley, but they didn't win a championship. He left the team after the 1977 season.
His next job was as an assistant coach with the Toronto Argonauts. He became the head coach for the last seven games of the 1978 season.
Riley returned to Oregon State in 1979 as an assistant coach. However, he soon went back to the CFL in 1980, coaching defensive backs for Saskatchewan. In 1981, he joined the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as their defensive coordinator. He was promoted to head coach for the 1982 season but left halfway through his second year.
In 1984, Riley was the defensive coordinator for the Edmonton Eskimos. In 1985, he moved into a front office role with the Calgary Stampeders. He was their player personnel director for three seasons. He also served as interim head coach for part of the 1985 season.
In 1998, Bud Riley was honored by being inducted into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame.
Family Life
Bud Riley and his wife Mary had three sons: Mike (born 1953), Ed (born 1958), and Pete (born 1964). Mike spent his middle school and high school years in Corvallis.
Because of his father's coaching career in the CFL, the younger sons, Ed and Pete, went to many different schools. They attended four different high schools in four different cities during their high school years.
Bud's brother, Hayden Riley (1921–1995), was also a coach. He coached basketball and later baseball at the University of Alabama.
After retiring in 1987, Bud Riley and his wife lived in Kaleden, British Columbia, near Penticton. Bud Riley passed away in a Penticton hospital on August 4, 2012, at the age of 86, after a long illness.
