Hall of Fame welcomes Huskies coach

The Canadian Football Hall of Fame has announced that Flory will be one of this year’s seven inductees into the hallowed hall, following a fantastic 15-year career in the CFL. A three-time Grey Cup champion, nine-time CFL all-star and the league’s most outstanding lineman in 2008 and 2009, Flory told the Regina Leader-Post that the honour caught him off guard.

“Any time you get big news you really don’t understand the gravity of what happened,’’ Flory told Murray McCormick of the Leader-Post. “As a football player, you play every day and you play every year and you just keep going. (Being inducted) wasn’t on my mind as a player and not necessarily as a retiree. You hope you might, but to get the call was something special.’’

Flory, who is entering his second season as Huskies head coach, grew up in Regina and moved north to Saskatoon to play five seasons for the U of S Huskies, helping the team capture the 1998 Vanier Cup. A third-round pick (15th overall) in the 1998 CFL draft by the Montreal Alouettes, he only missed one game during a span of 12 consecutive seasons before suffering a career-ending injury in 2013.

Flory retired in 2014 and took over as president of the CFL Players’ Association prior to rejoining the Huskies as an assistant coach and offensive co-ordinator under former coach Brian Towriss, who was also inducted into the Hall of Fame last year. Flory, who earned an engineering degree at the U of S, was named head coach of the Huskies in 2017.

Flory and the rest of the class of 2018 will officially be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sept. 14 in Hamilton.

Read more on Flory’s induction on the CFL website and in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.