Dave Ritchie (born September 3, 1938) is a former gridiron football coach in college football, the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL), the

Italian Football League Italian Football League (IFL) is the top level American football league in Italy established in 1980. History In the 1970's teams formed and played in Italy. In 1980 the first official American football league in Italy was established and crow ...

, and Switzerland Nationalliga A (American football). He is best known for his time as the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fie ...

head coach from

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

to 2004. He is a three-time Grey Cup champion, having won in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, and 2006 and was named the CFL's

Coach of the Year Many sports leagues, sportswriting associations, and other organizations confer "Coach of the Year" awards. In some sports — including baseball and association football — the award is called the "Manager of the Year" award. Some of the ...

in 2001. He won 108 regular season games as a head coach in the CFL which is the seventh highest win total by a head coach in the league's history.

College career

Ritchie played college football as a fullback,

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

, and punter for the

Cincinnati Bearcats The Cincinnati Bearcats are the athletic teams that represent the University of Cincinnati. Though they will move to the Big 12 Conference (XII) the teams are currently a part of the American Athletic Conference (The American), which from 1979 ...

from 1958 to 1960.

Coaching career

College coaching

Ritchie began his coaching career in 1962 as an assistant coach with

Greenbrier Military School The Greenbrier Military School was a boys-only, private, military, boarding high school and Junior College, located in Lewisburg, West Virginia. The school was founded in 1812 and closed in 1972, when the campus was converted into the West Virgin ...

. He was an assistant coach with his alma mater,

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, from 1969 to 1972. He later joined the

Brown Bears The Brown Bears are the sports teams that represent Brown University, an American university located in Providence, Rhode Island. The Bears are part of the Ivy League conference. Brown's mascot is Bruno. Both the men's and women's teams share th ...

as an assistant coach and head recruiter. Thereafter, Ritchie was the head coach for the

Fairmont State Fighting Falcons The Fairmont State Fighting Falcons are the athletic teams that represent Fairmont State University, located in Fairmont, West Virginia, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Falcons compete as members of the Mountain East Conference ...

, from 1978 to 1982, where he compiled a 35–13–3 record.

Montreal Concordes / Alouettes

Ritchie first entered the

as the defensive backfield coach for the

Montreal Concordes The Montreal Alouettes ( French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Cana ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

, alongside

linebackers coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Common ...

Wally Buono Pasquale "Wally" Buono (born February 7, 1950) is the vice president of football operations, alternate governor and the former head coach of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and one of the most successful head coaches in leag ...

. He continued in that role until

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

, when the renamed Alouettes folded just prior to the start of the regular season.

Interlude

Ritchie re-joined the Cincinnati Bearcats as an assistant coach in 1988. He then moved to Europe and was the defensive coordinator for the Milano Seamen in the

in 1989 where the team finished with a 13–1 record and won the Italian championship.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Ritchie returned to the CFL as the defensive line coach and special teams assistant coach with the

, a year in which the Blue Bombers won the

78th Grey Cup The 78th Grey Cup was the 1990 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Edmonton Eskimos at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Blue Bombers defeated the Eskimos, 50–11. Game s ...

. In

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, he coached the defensive backs, but the Blue Bombers lost the East Final that year.

Ottawa Rough Riders

Ritchie was hired by the Ottawa Rough Riders to become the team's defensive coordinator for the 1992 season. The team led the CFL in 18 of 25 defensive categories that year and finished with a non-losing record for the first time since 1983.

BC Lions

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, Ritchie was named the head coach of the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first seas ...

as he took over a team that had a 3–15 record in the year prior. The Lions immediately improved and finished with a 10–8 record that year, losing the West Semi-Final to the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-o ...

. In the 1994 season, after beginning the year 8–1–1, the Lions finished in third place with an 11–6–1 record. The Lions defeated the Edmonton Eskimos and then the Calgary Stampeders in the playoffs to qualify for the

82nd Grey Cup The 82nd Grey Cup was the 1994 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Baltimore Football Club and the BC Lions at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was the first championship in professional football histo ...

against the Baltimore Football Club. In the first ever Grey Cup game to feature an American team, Ritchie led his team to a 26–23 victory as the Lions won a Grey Cup in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

for the first time in club history and were also the first West Division team to win the Grey Cup at home. In

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, the Lions ended their season with a 10–8 record, but were defeated by the Edmonton Eskimos in the West Semi-Final.

Montreal Alouettes (II)

Ritchie joined the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Canad ...

in 1996 in their return to the CFL as he was also on the coaching staff in 1987 when the Alouettes were last in the league. He was promoted to head coach in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and led the team to a 13–5 record, but lost the East Final to the defending Grey Cup champion

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, the Alouettes finished with a 12–5–1 record, but lost the East Final on a last second field goal to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers (II)

Ritchie was hired away from the Alouettes in 1999 because of a more lucrative offer from the

to become their head coach. The team had a 3–15 record the year before and Ritchie led the Blue Bombers to a 6–12 record in

. After an East Final appearance in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

with a 7–10–1 record, the Blue Bombers demonstrated dominance in 2001 with a 14–4 record, tied for the most wins in franchise history. However, the heavily favoured Blue Bombers were upset by the 8–10

in the

89th Grey Cup The 89th Grey Cup (Canadian Football League championship) was held in 2001 in Montreal. The Calgary Stampeders claimed their fifth championship in team history with a 27–19 win over the East Division champions and heavily favoured Winnipeg B ...

game by a score of 27–19. Following the game, Ritchie was critical of placekicker,

Troy Westwood Troy Westwood (born March 21, 1967) is a former professional Canadian football place kicker and punter who played 18 years for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League. He was drafted 48th overall in the 6th round of the 1991 CF ...

, who missed three of four field goal attempts in the game. Ritchie continued to field strong teams in the following seasons, with a 12–6 record in 2002 and an 11–7 record in 2003, but the team was defeated in the playoffs in both years with no Grey Cup appearances. On August 8, 2004, with the Blue Bombers losing three in a row with a 2–5 record to begin their season, Ritchie was relieved of head coaching duties. He finished his Blue Bomber tenure with the third-most wins in club history.

BC Lions (II)

Ritchie was hired by longtime associate,

, on February 25, 2005, to become the defensive coordinator on the

in 2005. In 2006, he won his third Grey Cup championship as the Lions won the

94th Grey Cup The 94th Grey Cup game took place on November 19, 2006, at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba before 44,786 fans. Ticket prices ranged from $141 and $275. The game decided the championship of the 2006 Canadian Football League season. The B ...

over the

. After three seasons with the Lions, Ritchie retired following the end of the

2007 CFL season The 2007 CFL season was the 54th season of modern-day Canadian football, the 50th season of the Canadian Football League, and many special events were held to commemorate the event. Regular-season play began on June 28, 2007 at the Rogers Centre ...

. He was considered for the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in ...

head coach position, which he would have accepted, but the position went to Ken Miller.

Zurich Renegades

Richie returned to the field in 2011 as head coach of the Zurich Renegades in the top level league in Switzerland Nationalliga A (American football), helping the team reach the semi-finals in 2012. He spent two seasons with the team before returning to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Hall of Fame

Ritchie was named to the Fairmont State Hall of Fame in 2010, following five years as a head coach there with two conference titles and one Coal Bowl victory in 1979. He is a member of the Blue Bomber Hall of Fame as the fourth-winningest head coach in team history with a record of 52–44–1 and winning a Grey Cup as an assistant coach in 1990. On June 21, 2022, it was announced that Ritchie would be enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in the Class of 2022 as a builder.

CFL coaching record

Personal life

Ritchie and his wife, Sharon, live in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

, as of 2022. They have three children, Phyllis, Susan, and Dave, and eight grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Dave 1938 births Living people BC Lions coaches American expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland American expatriate sportspeople in Italy American expatriate players of American football Fairmont State Fighting Falcons football coaches Montreal Alouettes coaches Ottawa Rough Riders coaches Winnipeg Blue Bombers coaches Winnipeg Blue Bombers general managers Sportspeople from New Bedford, Massachusetts BC Lions general managers