Friends, colleagues react to death of former Riders president-CEO Jim Hopson

The CFL world is remembering Jim Hopson, one of the giants of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Hopson died Tuesday after a battle with colon cancer. He was 73.

Hopson played for the Riders from 1973 to ’76 and then was the team’s first president-CEO from 2005 through ’14. Under his leadership, the team won two Grey Cups (2007, 2013) and became an economic powerhouse in the CFL.

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One of Hopson’s closest friends was Steve Mazurak. The two were teammates with the junior Regina Rams and then the Riders.

When Hopson became the team’s president-CEO, he recruited Mazurak to Saskatchewan to work with him.

“(It was) as strong as a friendship could be,” Mazurak told The Green Zone’s Jamie Nye on Wednesday. “We had a lot of things in common … Our friendship got stronger and stronger (as we were) visiting down in Mexico with our alumni friends getting together and going on cruises together.

“(It was special) to see Jim in that other side of his life with the larger community and being blessed to know you were a part of his life and be able to share stories and laugh together and talk about old times.”

Mazurak said this had been a tough couple of years for everyone during Hopson’s battle with cancer.

“There was a time right after the diagnosis with the way Jim and the way his body handled treatment, you’re going, ‘This guy is going to conquer all,’ ” Mazurak said. “Right up until just a month ago, I’d phone and he would see my name come up on the call display and he’d say, ‘Is this the great Steve Mazurak?’ and I’m just going, ‘Yes, it is Jim, how are you doing today?’ and every day was a good day and every day was a positive day and a smile.

“I don’t know another person — for sure not myself — who could handle the pressures of his health situation the last little while, that strength and for him to keep that friendship with me and so many others alive with that same umbrella of smiles and happiness and great storytelling. I’m just thankful for every minute I had with that man.”

Mazurak said the board of directors picked the right man when they gave Hopson the reins.

“When he called me to bring back to Saskatchewan, I was just elated. I was in Manitoba at the time and spent 13 years there with Rogers … He brought me back to Saskatchewan so I was totally indebted to him for that,” Mazurak said.

Mazurak said that Hopson being a teacher and the amount of listening that comes with that profession is what made him so good at his role with the club.

“He was able to take all those precious things that make up teaching school and being a teacher and mix that with his leadership qualities and mix that with the ability to hire the right people and give them the latitude and accountability to do their job – he wasn’t a micromanager,” Mazurak said. “He hired right and left people alone and he guided.

“When Jim walked in the room, people gravitated to him. He made people feel special, he made people feel great and he wanted to surround himself with people like that. If you didn’t think you were special or great, after leaving a conversation and leaving that circle with Jim, you felt that way.”

Mazurak said he wants people to remember Hopson for the transition he led the Riders on.

“We were probably the only professional anything – any sport team in North America – that didn’t have a video board,” Mazurak said. “We were the only professional team and in the college ranks in North America that didn’t have an advanced form of buying tickets like TicketMaster.

“We had to roll our sleeves up and say, ‘How are we going to find a million bucks for a video board? How are we going to take this team from good to great and do all these wonderful things that cost money?’ So we embarked on this wonderful journey and Jim did all the right things.”

One of the biggest accomplishments of Hopson’s tenure was the 2013 Grey Cup, when the Riders raised the ultimate prize on home field at Mosaic Stadium.

“It was a community tribute to another job well done and a guy who had worked his heart out to bring that cup to Saskatchewan and Mosaic Stadium and then to win it. We always look back on that game – and many fans do – that they will never take that from us,” Mazurak said. “It was a culmination of so many things that went right.”

"No matter how many accolades we bestow on you, it’s never going to be enough to thank you for everything you’ve done for the Club”

Surrounded by his family, we held a small ceremony renaming the Football Operations Auditorium in Jim Hopson’s honour.

💚 https://t.co/0cupo8Wdic pic.twitter.com/PCOkPf4eTO

— Saskatchewan Roughriders (@sskroughriders) March 4, 2024

Brendan Taman

Another person to whom Hopson gave an opportunity was Brendan Taman.

Hopson made Taman the general manager in 2010, and asked him to build for that important 2013 Grey Cup.

“Obviously, he was a big part of my career in my time with Saskatchewan. But even when I was in Winnipeg and other teams, he was a pretty big figure in our league as a whole,” Taman told Nye.

“Jim was a big personality in the CFL realm of things and if Jim was talking to you, you’d better listen because he had a powerful voice – and a realistic voice, I always called it too.”

While there was pressure from the fans in 2013 to win the Grey Cup in Regina, Taman said he never felt any extra stress from Hopson.

“He never came out and said it, but I knew Jim pretty well like most of us do and he’s a competitive, proud man,” Taman said. “A lot of us were built to win that game that year if we could ever get to it somehow some way. Fortunately, it obviously worked out.

“Jim was realistic but competitive and without saying it, you knew he wanted us to be there. He sent out indirect messages (and) subtle shots. When we lost four in a row (that season), he was not a happy camper. I was really happy we could reward guys like him when we ended up winning it.”

Taman said what made Hopson so special from a football perspective was his ability to make things right for the players. That helped the Riders recruit, as they didn’t have the same sort of facilities other teams had at the time.

“Jim was so good about knowing what we needed to do to make things right from a player point of view and that was the key to turning that thing around,” Taman said. “Players all of a sudden wanted to come to Saskatchewan. Word got around: ‘Yeah, it’s an old stadium, but they overcome that with the way they do business.’ We didn’t go crazy, but we properly spent the money in the right areas.”

Like Mazurak, Taman said one of Hopson’s strengths was trusting the people he hired to do their jobs. Taman said his conversations with Hopson almost always related to football, and the team he had built.

“Jim’s life was the Riders,” Taman said. “He obviously had Brenda and the family and that obviously was his immediate family, but he was so driven to make sure we succeeded at what we do.

“He knew we weren’t going to win every football game, but he just wanted to make sure people were good in the roles that they did and enjoyed coming to work every day. At the end of the day, obviously he wanted to win, but he wanted an environment where people were really proud of working for the Roughriders.”

Others also pay tribute to Hopson

Former Riders general manager Al Ford played with Hopson as well. Ford said that since both men were from Saskatchewan, they understood the love the fans had for the team.

“That’s all part of both Jim and I being from Saskatchewan and knowing the background and the history of how important the Rider fans were, especially during the times with the telethons and eras where the Riders were in very deep financial problems (and were) able to rebound from those and move forward,” Ford told The Evan Bray Show.

“Now we’re playing in a beautiful stadium and lot of that has to do with Jim and the board members that were able to work out a plan to bring that to fruition.”

Mark Cohon was the CFL commissioner from 2007 to ’14 and he dealt with Hopson a lot during that time.

“I’m sad. I really loved him. He was such a great person. Set aside the accolades in terms of what he did with the football team and winning Grey Cups and helping build the stadium and all those great things, he was just a great person,” Cohon told Nye. “He was one of those people that I loved to break bread with, have a beer with and just sit around the table.”

During his eight years as commissioner, Cohon said he loved working with Hopson because the former Rider always had the best interests of the league at heart.

“He always looked out for the Riders but he always thought, ‘Are the things that we are doing better for the league and for our fans and for our players?’ He would have been a great commissioner,” Cohon said. “Whenever I would come up to Regina and sit up in the stands with him, you could see his passion for the game and for the fans and for the players.”

Sportswriter and Green Zone analyst Darrell Davis told the Greg Morgan Morning Show that Hopson made everyone feel like they were part of the football team.

“He knew the heart of the Roughriders wasn’t just the players on the team,” Davis said. “It was the people who went to the games, the people who grew up loving and idolizing the football team — because he was one of them.”

Davis said when Hopson arrived on scene in 2005, he quickly went to work and tackled the team’s “can’t do” mindset.

“He changed the whole attitude of the football team and the people around it,” Davis said. “I think that’s probably as much of his legacy as anything when you talk about football.”

Former Premier Brad Wall said the passing of Hopson is a provincial loss.

Brad Wall’s Sask. Party government was elected Nob. 7, 2007 a few weeks before the Roughriders ended their Grey Cup drought.

Not long after bringing a championship back to Saskatchewan, Wall told the Green Zone Hopson went to work on his next goal, a new stadium for the Roughriders.

Wall said early into his first term, Hopson and his team met to discuss the vision.

“They understood the enormity of the project,” Wall recalled. “They knew that it would be big number for the Roughriders, big number for the city of Regina, big number for the taxpayers of Saskatchewan – for a stadium, not a hospital or a school.”

Wall said the Roughriders’ success on the field was contagious.

He credited Hopson with helping shift the attitude in Saskatchewan away from an attitude where mediocrity is accepted.

“Jim, in a very modest, determined way, changed that,” said Wall.

“I don’t think its an exaggeration to say he contributed mightily to the effort to change the expectations of the province as a whole … I’m so grateful for that, because that had an impact on the province.”

A celebration of life has been scheduled for May 3 at the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina.

–with files from 650 CKOM’s Brent Bosker.