Lionbackers.com

Sad news. Defensive Line coach Richard Harris (a former #1 draft choice of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1971) collapsed in his office today and was rushed to a Winnipeg hospital where he later died. He was 63.

Had the pleasure of buying a drink for him when he coached here. Really nice man.

Details are just now being released.

http://www.tweetdeck.com/twitter/CFL_News/~2nqt8



DH

Horribly sad news. Had the pleasure of meeting the man as well. Just awful.

http://www.bluebombers.com/article/stat ... ard-harris

Richard Harris was a warm and fan friendly man who had time for everyone he met. A true loss for everyone in the CFL family.

Big, friendly bear of a man. Condolences to his family.

Very sad for his family, friends and the Bombers who I am sure will be shocked and deeply saddened.

Wasn't Richard Harris the guy who was trying to get Casey calmed down at the end of the game where he got angry with a team mate?

Sad news. Condolences to his family, friends and the Bomber organization.

Thirded. An incredibly nice man I had the opportunity to meet in Ottawa in 2004. Very sad.

My sympathies to his family, Bomber staff and players and others he touched in his playing and coaching career. He was one of the friendliest and most respected coaches in the league.

Will never forget how he always took time out to say hi to the fans. He used to always stop by our table at Dix and say hi. He even stopped in a few times as a visiting coach. a truly great one was lost today.

Toppy Vann wrote: Wasn't Richard Harris the guy who was trying to get Casey calmed down at the end of the game where he got angry with a team mate?

Yes, he was. That was the Thanksgiving Day game last year (Casey's last one with the Lions). Sad to hear of Harris' passing.

Players, coaches, fans....everyone lost a friend today. Very sad to hear about his passing.

Richard Harris was also instrumental in preventing the players from giving Buono a gatorade shower following the game, knowing that Buono had a heart problem. (since corrected)

When someone dies rarely a bad word is spoken but in this case it is incredible what is being said by fans on blogs, players in all the teams or by the players he knew (def. and offense) across the CFL.


From his first head coach with the Lions - Steve Burratto to Greg Marshall who said this:

"Harris was well-known to several Roughriders players and coaches, but his death was particularly hard on Roughriders head coach Greg Marshall, who considered Harris more than a friend.

“There have been a lot of great people go through Winnipeg as administrators, coaches and players, but I don’t think there’s anybody that impacted that organization more on any level as far as in the locker-room, in the community and in the office than Richard did,” said Marshall, his voice wavering. “I know he’ll be greatly missed over there — and I’ll personally miss him.

“I’m the oldest of seven kids, so I never had a big brother. He was my big brother.”"

http://www.canada.com/sports/football/S ... story.html

Based on what I've been hearing from the other teams players, I'm wondering if most of the Western Division shouldn't be wearing RH stickers on their helmets for the rest of the season. Even our offensive guys seem to be raving about what an awesome coach/person he was.

RIP

I missed the pre game ceremony, apparently it was touching.... Wally and the Lions wore the stickers too. Classy because its obvious he was an important person to many players on both sidelines.....