Hugh Campbell (born May 21, 1941) is a former
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
and
Canadian football
Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...
player, coach, and executive. He served as a head coach in three different professional
gridiron football leagues: 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
United States Football League
The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...
(USFL) and the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL). Campbell retired as the CEO of the
Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL in 2006. He was inducted into the
Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
College career
Campbell played
wide receiver at
Washington State University
Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...
from 1959 to 1962. During that time he appeared in the Hula Bowl, the College All-Star game, the Coaches All-America game, and the East-West Shrine Bowl. Campbell received most outstanding player honours in the Coaches and the Shrine Bowl games. He was also awarded the 1961
W. J. Voit Memorial Trophy as the outstanding football player on the Pacific Coast. During his Cougar career he was teamed with fellow CFL Hall of Famer
George Reed.
Professional playing career
Campbell joined the
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 ...
in 1963 and "Gluey Hughy", as he became known, was a key element of their Grey Cup winning team in 1966. Campbell quit the Roughriders in 1968 to take a position as assistant coach at Washington State but returned for a final year with the Roughriders in 1969. In his six CFL seasons, Campbell caught 321 passes for an average gain of 16.9 yards per reception and scored 60 touchdowns, including 17 TD receptions in 1966. Campbell received western conference all-star honours as a flanker in 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1969. He was a CFL all-star in 1965 and 1966.
Coaching and administrative career
Campbell retired as an active player after the 1969 season to take up a head coaching job with
Whitworth College
Whitworth University is a private, Christian university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Spokane, Washington. Founded in 1890, Whitworth enrolls nearly 3,000 students and offers more than 100 graduate and undergraduate ...
in
Spokane, Washington
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...
. During his seven-year tenure, Campbell revived the moribund Pirates football program and was named conference coach of the year three times.
In 1977, Campbell was named head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos, where he took the Eskimos to the
Grey Cup game in Montreal that first year but lost 41-6 in a major blowout on an icy field against the Montreal Alouettes. It was the last Grey Cup championship game coach Campbell would lose as the Eskimos won the next five Grey Cup games, from 1978 through 1982, an all-time CFL consecutive games win record.
Following the 1982 season, Campbell left the CFL to become head coach of the USFL's
Los Angeles Express.
After one season, the
Houston Oilers
The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...
, who were bidding for the services of
Warren Moon
Harold Warren Moon (born November 18, 1956) is an American former football quarterback who played professionally for 23 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the Houston Oilers of the National Football League (NFL) and the Edmonton ...
, hired him to become their head coach and help improve their chances of signing the coveted
free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...
(the Oilers ultimately signed Moon). He served as head coach of the Oilers for the 1984 and 1985 seasons, being fired by the Oilers with two games left to go in the 1985 season.
In 1986, he returned to the Eskimos as the team's general manager.
After 20 years as the head of the Eskimos organization, Campbell announced his retirement effective at the end of 2006.
Personal
Campbell and his wife Louise have four children, daughters Molly, Jill and Robin and son,
Rick
Rick may refer to:
People
*Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name
*Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality
*Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...
, who is the current 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 ...
.
Head coaching record
CFL, USFL, and NFL
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Hugh
1941 births
Living people
American football quarterbacks
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian football wide receivers
Edmonton Elks coaches
Edmonton Elks general managers
Houston Oilers head coaches
People from Saratoga, California
Saskatchewan Roughriders players
Sportspeople from Santa Clara County, California
United States Football League coaches
Washington State Cougars football players
Whitworth Pirates football coaches
Players of American football from California