Football coach.
Born and raised in Guin, Alabama on 30 November, 1925 to Ellen Virginia Duncan (1896-1993) and Edward Jones Riley Sr. (1869-1938), as a teen he was encouraged by a coach at his high school to participate in football. He quit high school at age 17 during the Second World War to join the United State Navy. Following the war, he returned to western Alabama and later enrolled at nearby East Mississippi Junior College.
His junior college football prowess when in his early 20s led him to the attention of renowned University of Idaho Head Coach Dixie Howell, also from Alabama, who was tipped off by a friend. Riley, at 5' 10" and 155 pounds, informed Howell before they met that he was significantly larger than he actually was, which earned him an invitation to campus. Upon his arrival at Moscow, Idaho in 1948, Howell was disappointed in Riley’s stature, but the assistant coach placed Riley in a post-practice tackling drill with a much larger player. Riley prevailed and stayed on the team in the halfback position.
Following graduation, he decided to remain in football as a coach. He initiated his lengthy career at the high school level and after a decade, returned to Idaho in 1962 to serve as an Assistant Coach under Dee Andros. He followed Andros to Oregon State University as a Defensive Coordinator and was on staff when the university’s team, the Beavers, earned a Top-10 rating in the polls in 1967.
In 1973, he joined the professional ranks as an Assistant on the Saskatchewan Rough Riders’ staff in the Canadian Football League (CFL). In 1974, he was given the opportunity to serve as Head Coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1974-1977), where he produced two 10-win, 6-loss seasons (1976 and 1977) and won two Grey Cup championships. After a number of assistant coaching stints in the CFL and a position back with Oregon State in 1979, he returned to Canada to serve as Head Coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1982-1983). Coincidentally, his son, Mike Riley, who eventually went onto become Head Coach of the San Diego Chargers and at Oregon State, was serving as a secondary coach with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and was present when his father was fired following a game between the Tiger-Cats and Blue Bombers. Bud Riley spent the 1984 season as Defensive Coordinator for the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos. His final head coaching assignment was on an interim basis with the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL in 1985, and that year he also began a front-office job as the Calgary Stampeders’ Player Personnel Director for three seasons.
In 1951, he married Mary Shumaker at Shoshone, Idaho, and they went on to have three sons. The couple retired to the community of Kaleden, British Columbia in 1987, and lived there until his passing. In 1998, he was inducted into the North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame.
He died at Penticton, British Columbia on 4 August 2012.
Bud Riley, FindAGrave Memorial.
Bud Riley, North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame.
“Edward Jones Riley Jr.,” Hamrick/Fredericksen Family Tree, Ancestry.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 26 August 2026
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