For good reason, most football fans equate Russ Jackson with one team, and one team only: the Ottawa Rough Riders.
A three-time league MVP, and perhaps the finest quarterback and homegrown Canadian player to ever play in the CFL, Jackson led the eastern 'Riders to three Grey Cup championships during a career that lasted from 1958-69.
However, his tenure in the CFL also included a two-year stint as head coach of the Argonauts in the mid-70's.
"It wasn't a traitorous move," laughed Jackson, who saved some of his best playing moments for playoff games against the Double Blue. "I'm sure the fans in Ottawa wanted me to have success (coaching the Argos)."
However, the success that he had on the field didn't translate into success on the sidelines, as his teams finished last and out of the playoffs in both of the years he coached, finishing with a combined record of 12-18-2.
"I think I understand more now why some players that were not very good end up being great coaches, and vice versa," said Jackson. "I found it difficult to see certain things that I couldn't control. It was very frustrating for me."
When Jackson arrived, he was met with numerous injuries, high turnover in the roster, a rumoured poor relationship with high-profile running back Anthony Davis, and a classic drop-back quarterbacking style in Mike Rae.
"I was raised in Canadian football and I was looking for a more mobile QB," said Jackson, who brought in Bill Bynum, Matthew Reed and Chuck Ealey to take over for Rae, who moved on to the NFL.
After his Argo coaching stint came to an end in 1977, Jackson began teaching in Peel Region, continuing a career he had started in Ottawa in 1959.
"Teaching was my career; football was only my hobby," said Jackson, who went on to become a principal at Brampton Centennial, T.L. Kennedy and John Fraser High School in Mississauga. He retired in 1994, and became involved with the Rough Riders again in a bid to save the franchise from extinction in early 1995, a drive that ultimately succeeded in the short term.
On a personal level, Jackson and his wife Lois have three children (Kevin, Suzanne and Nancy). As for suggestions there will never be another "Russ Jackson-type" in the CFL, namely a star Canadian quarterback, he offers this: "I don't know whether there will ever be another one. It's the luck of the draw; you have to be at the right place at the right time."
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