Montour, Penn State grad John Hufnagel elected to Canadian Football Hall of Fame

While serving as coach of the Calgary Stampeders, Montour and Penn State grad John Hufnagel had one of the CFL’s most successful tenures. From 2008-15, he went 102-41-1 — the .712 winning percentage being the highest in league history among coaches with at least 100 games — and won two Grey Cups (2008, ’14).

After he moved into his current post as Stampeders president and general manager in 2016, he constructed another Grey Cup winner in 2018.

Dave Dickenson, who played under Hufnagel, was the coach who succeeded him. Dickenson knew he had a tough act to follow, but he told the Tribune-Review in April he likes to take Hufnagel down a few pegs once in a while.

“We like to remind him, though, that (as a CFL quarterback) he threw more interceptions than touchdowns,” Dickenson joked. “We have to keep him grounded.”

Dickenson will have to knock Hufnagel off a much higher pedestal now.

On Thursday, Hufnagel was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in the “builder” category. He has been an assistant, head coach and president/GM for four Grey Cups in all, the other coming with Calgary in 1992 under Wally Buono, the CFL’s all-time winningest coach.

Hufnagel also won a Grey Cup as a player, backing up Bishop Canevin graduate and fellow Canadian Football Hall of Famer Tom Clements, who quarterbacked Winnipeg to the title in 1984.

“It’s very satisfying, very gratifying that people have recognized what the organization has been able to accomplish while I have been the head coach/general manager,” Hufnagel said Thursday in a video chat with reporters. “But it’s a reflection of the whole organization. My nomination is essentially a byproduct of all the great work of everybody involved in the organization.”

Hufnagel said his career was influenced greatly by coach Joe Paterno and his staff, even before he committed to play at Penn State. As a sophomore and junior at Montour, he attended Penn State’s quarterback camp.

As a young player, he tried to figure out what made Penn State so successful. The key, he said, was a simple phrase he has carried with him throughout his career: playing winning football.

“Everyone has good players, but why does Penn State have the success that they do year in and year out?” Hufnagel said. “It came down from coach Paterno making sure everyone understood the importance of playing winning football. That was my very first step in my coaching career, and that was the foundation I tried to build on.”

Hufnagel began his coaching career as a player-coach with Saskatchewan in 1987. Two years later, he was hired by Buono as Calgary’s offensive coordinator. After seven seasons with Buono, he embarked on a coaching odyssey in America, which included gigs with the Arena Football League and several stops as an NFL assistant.

In 2003, he was the New England Patriots quarterbacks coach when Tom Brady led the team to its second Super Bowl title. He returned to Canada in 2008 and continued to build his hall-of-fame resume as a coach and administrator.

That first year in Calgary, his quarterback was Henry Burris, also a member of the CFHOF’s Class of 2020.

“He is a big reason why you guys are talking to me right now,” Hufnagel said.

Hufnagel, 68, takes his place in the hall of fame alongside superstars such as Doug Flutie and Warren Moon as well as fellow Western Pennsylvanians such as Herb Trawick (Schenley), the first Black player in the CFL (1946); and quarterback Ron Lancaster (Clairton), who led Saskatchewan to its first Grey Cup title in 1966.

Because of restrictions brought on by the covid-19 pandemic, Hufnagel will be honored officially next year along with the CFHOF’s Class of 2021.