Six new members will be admitted to the hall of fame of canadian football

Photo: Nathan Denette, The canadian Press
The former head coach and current president and general manager of the Calgary Stampeders, John Hufnagel

The cuvée 2020 includes the players of the offensive line Clyde Brock and Freddie Childress, as well as the quarter back Henry Burris and Greg Vavra. On the side of the builders, we find the former head coach and current president and general manager of the Calgary Stampeders, John Hufnagel, as well as the former coach and athletic director of Saint Mary’s University, Larry Uteck. The latter will be inducted posthumously.

Brock played 12 seasons as a blocker with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. From 1964 to 1975, he took part in 169 games more than 27 meetings throughout the playoffs and four games for the Grey Cup, which it won in 1966.

Burris has evolved during 18 campaigns in the CFL with the calgary Stampeders, the Roughriders, Tiger-Cats and the Red and Black. He has participated in five games for the Grey Cup, lifting the trophy on three occasions: in 1998 and 2008 with Calgary, and then in 2016 with Ottawa. He was twice elected the outstanding player of the final, in addition to being elected the outstanding player in the CFL in two occasions.

He retired in 2017, following a career during which he has accumulated 63 639 yards passing — a total good for third place in the history of the CFL as well as 373 touchdowns and a coefficient of efficiency of 93.6.

Childress played for the Pirates from Shreveport, Barracuda Birmingham, the Stampeders and Roughriders in the course of a career of 13 campaigns, punctuated by two conquests of the Grey cup, in 1998 and 2001.

He has been elected six times in the all-star team for a division and three times in the all-star team from the CFL (1996 to 1998). In 1998, Childress placed a hand on the title of player of offensive line excellence by the League.

Elected as an amateur player, Vavra played for five seasons as a quarterback with the Dinos of the University of Calgary (1979 to 1983), winning the Vanier cup in 1983. That same year, a member of the all-star team to the CIAU has become the first player of the Dinos to win the Trophy Hec Crighton, given to the outstanding player of university football in canada. Even today, he holds the record for the CIAU — now U SPORTS — the number of yards passing in a game with 627.

During his academic career, he has totaled 8401 yards passing and 63 passes affected.

The builders

After 12 campaigns as a quarterback in three teams, Hufnagel began a career of 15 years as coach, including seven as the head coach of the Stampeders. He has compiled a record of 102-41-1. Its effectiveness rate ,712 is the highest among coaches who have led at least 100 games.

Hufnagel won the Grey cup on five occasions : once as a player (1984), once as assistant coach (1992), twice as head coach and general manager (2008 and 2014) and once as the director-general only (2018).

Uteck has worked as an assistant coach with the Saint Mary’s University in 1982, then he was named head coach the following year, a position he held until 1997. During his stay at the helm of the team, the club has laid hands on the seven titles of the ASUA, won the Atlantic Bowl in three occasions (1988, 1990 and 1992) and he has participated in three games for the Vanier Cup.

As sports director, from 1995 to 2002, Uteck has seen his Huskies win two cups Vanier (2001 and 2002) and winning four of their six possible consecutive appearances for the championship of the university Sport Atlantic (SUA). Uteck died in 2002. The following year, in 2003, the Atlantic Bowl became the Cup, Uteck.

Counting the members of the cuvée 2020, the hall of fame of the canadian football now totals 309 inductees. Because of the concerns surrounding the COVID-19, the enthronement ceremony of the Friday, August 14, and the match of the hall of fame on Saturday 15 August, between the Red and Black Tiger-Cats have been pushed back.