Bud Riley

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title: "Bud Riley" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1925-births", "2012-deaths", "calgary-stampeders-coaches", "canadian-football-league-executives", "edmonton-elks-coaches", "hamilton-tiger-cats-coaches", "idaho-vandals-baseball-players", "idaho-vandals-football-coaches", "idaho-vandals-football-players", "oregon-state-beavers-football-coaches", "toronto-argonauts-coaches", "winnipeg-blue-bombers-coaches", "high-school-football-coaches-in-idaho", "united-states-navy-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "people-from-marion-county,-alabama", "coaches-of-american-football-from-alabama", "players-of-american-football-from-alabama", "baseball-players-from-alabama", "20th-century-american-sportsmen"] description: "American football coach" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Riley" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American football coach ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox college coach"]

Field	Value
name	Bud Riley
birth_date
birth_place	Guin, Alabama, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
player_years1	1948–1950
player_team1	Idaho
player_positions	Back
coach_years1	1952–1954
coach_team1	Wallace HS (ID) (assistant)
coach_years2	1955–1958
coach_team2	Wallace HS (ID)
coach_years3	1959–1961
coach_team3	Lewiston HS (ID)
coach_years4	1962–1964
coach_team4	Idaho (assistant)
coach_years5	1965–1972
coach_team5	Oregon State (assistant)
coach_years6	1973
coach_team6	Saskatchewan Roughriders (assistant)
coach_years7	1974–1977
coach_team7	Winnipeg Blue Bombers
coach_years8	1978
coach_team8	Toronto Argonauts (assistant)
coach_years9	1979
coach_team9	Oregon State (assistant)
coach_years10	1980
coach_team10	Saskatchewan Roughriders (assistant)
coach_years11	1981
coach_team11	Hamilton Tiger-Cats (assistant)
coach_years12	1982–1983
coach_team12	Hamilton Tiger-Cats
coach_years13	1984
coach_team13	Edmonton Eskimos (assistant)
coach_years14	1985
coach_team14	Calgary Stampeders (interim HC)
{{Infobox military person	embed
allegiance
branch	United States Navy
battles	World War II
::

| name = Bud Riley | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = Guin, Alabama, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Penticton, British Columbia, Canada | alma_mater = | player_years1 = 1948–1950 | player_team1 = Idaho | player_positions = Back | coach_years1 = 1952–1954 | coach_team1 = Wallace HS (ID) (assistant) | coach_years2 = 1955–1958 | coach_team2 = Wallace HS (ID) | coach_years3 = 1959–1961 | coach_team3 = Lewiston HS (ID) | coach_years4 = 1962–1964 | coach_team4 = Idaho (assistant) | coach_years5 = 1965–1972 | coach_team5 = Oregon State (assistant) | coach_years6 = 1973 | coach_team6 = Saskatchewan Roughriders (assistant) | coach_years7 = 1974–1977 | coach_team7 = Winnipeg Blue Bombers | coach_years8 = 1978 | coach_team8 = Toronto Argonauts (assistant) | coach_years9 = 1979 | coach_team9 = Oregon State (assistant) | coach_years10 = 1980 | coach_team10 = Saskatchewan Roughriders (assistant) | coach_years11 = 1981 | coach_team11 = Hamilton Tiger-Cats (assistant) | coach_years12 = 1982–1983 | coach_team12 = Hamilton Tiger-Cats | coach_years13 = 1984 | coach_team13 = Edmonton Eskimos (assistant) | coach_years14 = 1985 | coach_team14 = Calgary Stampeders (interim HC) | overall_record = | bowl_record = | tournament_record = | championships = | awards = | coaching_records = |module= |allegiance = |branch = United States Navy |rank = |battles = World War II |unit = |serviceyears = |awards = Edward Jones "Bud" Riley Jr. (November 25, 1925 – August 4, 2012) was an American college football coach who served as an assistant coach at the University of Idaho and Oregon State University.

Riley also spent 14 seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL), most notably as head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1974 to 1977 and as a front office executive for the Calgary Stampeders from 1985 to 1987. His oldest son Mike Riley was the head coach at Oregon State and Nebraska.

Early life

Riley was born and raised in Guin, Alabama, a community in the western part of the state. His father died when he was 12, and he quit high school at age 17 during World War II to join the U.S. Navy. Following the war, he returned to western Alabama and later enrolled at nearby East Mississippi Junior College in Scooba.

College career

Riley's junior college football prowess in his early 20s led him to the attention of University of Idaho head football coach Dixie Howell, a hall of fame player in the 1930s from Alabama, who was tipped off by a friend. Riley, at and 155 lb, informed Howell he was significantly larger than he actually was, which earned him an invitation to campus. Upon his arrival in Moscow in 1948, Howell wanted the undersized Riley to run off; though he had an assistant coach place Riley in a post-practice tackling drill with a much larger player, Riley prevailed and stayed on the team.

He played halfback for the Vandals in the Pacific Coast Conference from 1948 to 1950 under Howell. In the home opener against Oregon in 1948, Riley scored the Vandals' only touchdown in a 15–8 loss in his first game at Neale Stadium. The 1948 Ducks featured Norm Van Brocklin and John McKay, and finished the regular season at 9–1 as PCC co-champions. Riley also played for the Vandals' baseball team.

Early coaching years

High school

During his college summers and vacations, Riley had worked in the mines of the nearby Silver Valley at Wallace, and landed a job there with a mining company following graduation at age 26 in 1952. He was the head football coach at WHS for four seasons, starting in 1955, leading the Miners to a 23-14-1 record. He was also the head coach in basketball for two seasons, starting in the fall of 1957. Riley met his wife, Mary Shumaker from nearby Mullan, while working in Wallace; they were married in November 1951 and their first two sons were born there. His overall record with the LHS Bengals was 15–14–1, with a final season of 1–8 due to disciplinary actions.

College

In May 1962, he moved up to the collegiate ranks and joined the coaching staff at his alma mater, the University of Idaho, under first-year head coach Dee Andros. The Vandals posted their first winning record in a quarter century in 1963, and in 1964 they beat neighbor WSU for the first time in a decade and barely lost the week before at Rose Bowl-bound Oregon State 10–7 on a second half punt return. When Tommy Prothro left OSU for UCLA, Andros moved over to Oregon State and the Pac-8 in February 1965, later defensive coordinator, from 1965 to 1972. The best years were 1967 ("Giant Killers") and 1968, when the Beavers were nationally ranked.

CFL coach

After eight seasons in Corvallis, Riley moved to the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 1973, as defensive coordinator of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, where he made significant improvements to a poorly rated defense. Riley was hired as the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1974; head coach Jim Spavital was fired after the Blue Bombers finished last in the Western Conference in 1973. The Bombers didn't make it out of the first round in Riley's three postseason appearances, and he was let go after the 1977 season. His next coaching job was as an assistant with the Toronto Argonauts. He replaced the fired Leo Cahill as head coach with seven games remaining, finishing with a 1-6 record.

He returned to Oregon State in 1979 as an assistant to Craig Fertig, but Fertig was fired by Andros midway through the season. Riley returned to the CFL in 1980, as the defensive backs coach for Saskatchewan. and was promoted to head coach for the 1982 season. He lasted only halfway into his second season before being replaced by director of player personnel Al Bruno.

Riley spent the 1984 season as defensive co-ordinator for the Edmonton Eskimos. He moved to the front office in 1985, serving as the Calgary Stampeders player personnel director for three seasons. He also served as interim coach for the remainder of the 1985 season after the firing of head coach Steve Buratto, (whom Riley had recruited to Idaho as a player).

He was inducted into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.

Personal life

Riley and his wife Mary (Shumaker) of Mullan, Idaho, had three sons: Mike (b.1953), Ed (b.1958), and Pete (b.1964). Mike spent his junior high and high school years in Corvallis and was midway through college at Alabama when his father left OSU and became a nomadic coach in the CFL in 1973. The younger sons, specifically Pete, attended many different schools, primarily in Canada, in the 1970s and early 1980s: both went to four high schools, in four different cities during their high school years. Ed spent his senior year at Gonzaga Prep in Spokane, and then went to Whitworth College.

His brother Hayden (1921–1995) was the head basketball coach at Alabama (1960–1968),

Following his retirement in 1987, Riley and his wife had lived in rural Kaleden, British Columbia, south of Penticton. After a lengthy illness, he died in a Penticton hospital at age 86 in 2012 on 4 August.

References

References

1. (27 May 1962). "Bud Riley named Idaho assistant". Lewiston Morning Tribune.
2. "Margaret Riley Watkins (1933-2010)". Dignity Memorial.
3. Buker, Paul. (6 August 2012). "Bud Riley, former Oregon State assistant and father of head coach Mike Riley, dies at 86". The Oregonian.
4. Peterson, Anne M.. (20 February 2003). "Riley to return as Oregon State coach". [[USA Today]].
5. Tokito, Mike. (2 December 2009). "The lives of two Rileys define Oregon State football". The Oregonian.
6. (24 November 1949). "Idaho gridders receive awards". Spokane Daily Chronicle.
7. (15 August 1980). "Bud Riley". Leader-Post.
8. [http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/b/u/r/Marcia-Burke-Tuscaloosa/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0120.html familytreemaker.genealogy.com] - Riley family genalogy - Retrieved 30 March 2012
9. (17 November 2009). "Sports, nomadic family influence successful ex-Bullpup". Spokesman-Review.
10. (30 October 1948). "Grim Vandals face Cougar might". Lewiston Morning Tribune.
11. Hayes, Peter. (4 September 1949). "Idaho May Be Tougher Than Opponents Think". Tri City Herald.
12. (30 August 1950). "Howell Defying Tradition; To Assemble Small Squad". Spokane Daily Chronicle.
13. (10 October 1948). "Action in pictures of Idaho's valiant losing battle against Oregon". Spokesman-Review.
14. (8 April 1949). "Loggers battle Vandal squad in two games". Lewiston Morning Tribune.
15. (21 November 1957). "ND Praises Wallace". Spokesman-Review.
16. (28 November 1958). "6 Hoop Veterans on Wallace Team". Spokane Daily Chronicle.
17. (4 September 1958). "Fair Is Report". Spokane Daily Chronicle.
18. (6 July 1960). "Last rites held for Shumaker". Spokesman-Review.
19. (24 April 1974). "Freta Olds buys hotel at Mullan". Spokane Daily Chronicle.
20. (30 October 1959). "Bengals Travel To Wallace". Lewiston Morning Tribune.
21. (1 February 1965). "Dee Andros named Oregon State grid coach". Spokane Daily Chronicle.
22. (25 October 1964). "'Thunder Ray' leads Idaho's charge". Spokesman-Review.
23. (18 October 1964). "OSU tips Vandals on punt return tally". Lewiston Morning Tribune.
24. Heady, Chris. (27 April 2015). "Mike Riley isn't following his father's footsteps anymore". Daily Nebraskan.
25. Peterson, Anne M.. (25 September 2008). "The year of upsets for the Beavers". MailTribune.
26. Withers, Bud. (7 September 1972). "Beavers face opener very much in the dark". Eugene Register-Guard.
27. Hughes, Bob. (6 January 1973). "Tough...aggressive". Leader-Post.
28. (21 January 1973). "Brooks Leaves La, Returns To Beavers". Eugene Register-Guard.
29. Hughes, Bob. (22 November 1973). "Eskimo tandem could be key". Leader-Post.
30. Hughes, Bob. (18 January 1974). "Eddy Joins Roughrider Staff...". Leader-Post.
31. Watters, Dave. (8 August 1974). "Duke of Winnipeg does get around". Vancouver Sun.
32. (17 November 1977). "Decision of Blue Bombers: they no longer can stand to live the life of Riley". Calgary Herald.
33. [http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2011/10/oregon_state_insider_mike_rile.html OregonLive.com] - Oregon State Insider: Mike Riley, and his dad Bud Riley, both know the sting of being fired - 13 October 2011
34. Tucker, Larry. (6 June 1978). "Jauch inherits star-studded Bomber team". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.
35. (11 September 1978). "Cahill Again Walks Argos' Gangplank". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.
36. (6 January 1979). "Ducks, Beavers hire grid coaches". The Bulletin.
37. [http://www.osualum.com/s/359/index.aspx?sid=359&gid=1&pgid=481 OSU Alumni Association] - Up Close and Personal: Riley's return a repeat of the past - Retrieved 12 March 2012
38. Hughes, Bob. (27 January 1981). "Riley goes with his gut feeling". (Regina) Leader-Post.
39. (6 July 1982). "Can Edmonton win another Grey Cup title?". Tuscaloosa News.
40. (7 October 1983). "Ti-cats Fire Riley". Leader-Post.
41. (28 May 1984). "Eskimos High on Fisher". Leader-Post.
42. (1 February 1985). "Bud Should Feel at Home". Leader-Post.
43. (19 August 1987). "Miscellaneous". News and Courier.
44. (6 February 1986). "Vespaziani After Coaching Job". Leader-Post.
45. "Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame Member Details - Bud Riley". Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame.
46. Eggers, Kerry. (23 November 2012). "Mike Riley likes not being 'normal'". Portland Tribune.

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