Former Alouettes head coach Marv Levy Will finally be entering the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. An anomaly finally remedied and something that should have happened many years ago according to fans, former players, and colleagues… Marv addressed the media about his nomination, and we gathered the best moments:
What does it mean to you to join Warren Moon and Bud Grant as the only three be enshrined into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame?
“It certainly is meaningful. I know both of them very well. We competed against Warren Moon, and against Bud Grant during his coaching days here in the NFL as well as the CFL. I am tremendously honored and grateful for the recognition.”
How important was it for you to continue to bring positive publicity to the CFL and maintain a relationship with the Canadian fan base throughout your coaching career in Buffalo?
“It was tremendously important. I do understand that about 20% of the people who sat in the stands in Buffalo on game day had come from right across the border. We had a lot of good fans coming from the region of Hamilton who were supporters of the Buffalo Bills. I continued to follow the CFL. I live in Chicago now and got to know Marc Trestman when he came down here. I kept in touch with several of the people who I knew with Wally Buono during his magnificent coaching career in the league. I’ve said this before, and I’ll repeat it again. I coached for 47 years, five of them were with the Montreal Alouettes, but they remain so prominent in my fond memories, and I will always remember those fond memories.”
As you said many times you’ve all only spent five years here, but they were very prominent. What was it about those five years that made your experience with your Alouettes so special?
“Well, first of all, one thing that contributed to it is the fact that I was a history major in college. And I learned so much about the history of Canada and its relationship with the United States and other relationships. I learned to speak a little bit of French, but I struggled with it during the time I was in college although I took a one- or two-year course in it. I ended up learning French in Montreal. I was blessed to have a wonderful owner in Sam Berger, and his family that I got to know well, and so many other people there. I was entranced by the city of Montreal and loved living there well beyond the football. It was, among other things, not only an enjoyable occasion, but a tremendous educational opportunity for me as well.”
I’m sure everybody who gets into coaching wants to eventually become a Head Coach. You were the Special Teams Coordinator with the redskins in 1972, and of course, you went to the Super Bowl. What was it about Canada and the CFL that made you want to accept the offer?
“I was the assistant to an amazing coach, George Allen. We had just gone to the 1972 Super Bowl against the undefeated Dolphins and came close to beating them, but we didn’t and lost 14 to 7. During my time coaching, whether it was with Redskins or earlier times with the Eagles or the L.A. Rams, there was a scout from Buffalo named J. I. Albrecht who would come around. I got to know J. I. He was a Montreal Alouettes scout and I believe he later became their general manager. I got to know him well and J. I. offered me the jo; It was a head coaching position, and it was intriguing. There was an appeal about the city of Montreal as well. It was a move that wasn’t difficult for me to decide on once it was offered and I never regretted it for a moment.”
Out of your five years with the Alouettes, you made it to three Grey Cup finals and won two of them. Did any one of those teams over the five years stand out in your memory?
“No, they were all great. Even those two years where we didn’t quite make it to the Grey Cup game. What stands out in my memory are the players, the owner, Sam Berger, who was just a wonderful guy, all the people in the organization. We had a director of player personnel named Bob Windish who asked if he could hire some part-time scouts. One of these part-time scouts kept coming in, and I told myself wow, I need to meet him…and his name was Bill Polian. Bill and I ended up working together later on, as he was the General Manager of the Bills at the time was there. There were so many great guys like Wally Buono, Peter Dalla Riva, Richards Blais, just to name a few.”
The Alouettes started this movement on social media to get you into the Hall. When you found out what the Alouettes were doing, what did it mean to you?
“I was really taken aback. Mario Cecchini orchestrated those efforts and called a lot of former players and associates to chime in and campaign on my behalf. I’m very grateful for that, it is very meaningful. A few years ago, we reunited for the 40th reunion of the 1977 Grey Cup, and that it was great to see so many of those players that I remember so fondly.”
What does it feel like to receive such an honor more than 40 years after leaving Montreal, and does it feel even more special at your age?
“Probably so. I never dreamed that it might happen. My career there wasn’t a long one, of course, but we did have a lot of success during that period of time. We had a fantastic fan base. During the Ice Bowl game in Montreal, there were 68,000 people in the stands. I always followed the CFL and the people from the league. We did some recruiting of CFL players, guys like Tom Clements and Doug Flutie, who were both fine quarterbacks there and in the NFL.”
How did your illustrious career in Montreal transform the way you coached or the way you looked at CFL players and then brought them down south?
« Well, we scouted everywhere, including the Canadian Football League. The rules are quite different in many respects. If you look at the size of the Canadian field, it is quite bigger than the size of an NFL field. But you have to keep in mind that the things that win in the CFL are the same things that win in the NFL. If you run, block, tackle, catch, kick better than your opponent, and master the fundamentals, you’ll win. You should learn something every day. Don’t ever be a know it all. You learn something every day in the game and a lot of times you learn it from your opponents. One opponent I learned a lot from was Bud Grant, just from observing and watching him. Coach George Allen whom I was an assistant to was overwhelming. One of the greatest coaches in collegiate football here in the states that I followed when I was a young guy was Bud Wilkinson. I learned so much from him, including to conduct myself with high character and trying to bring only guys of high character on your team. Some might be extroverted, others might be quieter, but do they show up on time, do they not blame their teammates and go back to work after disappointment? Those are just a few of the things I learned from other coaches and other people in the game.”
