Gridiron general keeps his eyes on the prize

Bob Ackles doesn't need many words to describe his management style.

Quite simply, the B.C. Lions president and CEO likes to walk around.

Since starting out as the Canadian Football League club's first water boy, he has paced many sidelines in the CFL, National Football League and short-lived XFL, the pro U.S. football league that lasted a single season in 2001.

Using an inclusive approach that emphasizes communication, Ackles has rebuilt the Lions into a CFL powerhouse on the field and a model franchise off it since he rejoined the club in 2002 after stints in the NFL and XFL.

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge

President and CEO Bob Ackles is on his second tour of duty with his home team, the CFL's B.C. Lions.

The Lions won the Grey Cup in 2006 and are strong contenders again this season.

Upon his return to the Lions, Ackles launched a business-based group, known as the Water Boys, which has grown from its four founders to more than 200 business leaders and renewed community and corporate interest in the struggling franchise.

In his recent autobiography, The Water Boy (2007), Ackles writes he actually hated being called that, but has now come to appreciate the name - and how that early job helped launch his career as a businessman.

1. Can you retrace some of the early moves you and your family made?

"I was born in Sarnia. The Second World War broke out around my first birthday. My father joined the army, moved us to Toronto to be close to my grandmother, and then he left for Europe and didn't come back until April of '46. I was in Grade 1 when he came back. He decided to move us to a farming community called Locust Hill, which was just 26 miles outside of the city limits of Toronto at the time. We moved to Vancouver in '52."

2. Where in Vancouver did you live?

"We lived in a car in Stanley Park for the first two months - my father, my mother, who was pregnant, my older brother, my sister and myself. I was 13, just about 14. It was a new car, the only new car my parents ever owned - a 1952 Chevy coupe. It wasn't very big. (My father) was trying to find work. He was told there was lots of work in Vancouver. But after the war, a lot of people were coming back into the country. He worked construction and then on the boats. I would go to work at training camp with the Lions and then live with the Lions until the team cut down for the regular season and then would go home for a while."

3. How did you end up joining the Lions?

"My buddies and I were playing touch football in the community league. There had been an article in the morning paper about this football team that was going to start in Vancouver, part of the Western Inter-Provincial Football Union. So we were talking about how great it would be to be the water boy. I played hooky from school the next morning and went down and applied and I met the coach, Annis Stukus, and his assistant. Then I watched the papers, and every day there was something about this football team, which still didn't have a name. I went down to the first practice, and then I went up to Stuke afterwards and said: 'Coach, do you remember me?' He looked at me. 'I applied for the water boy's job.' He said: 'Oh, yeah, I remember you. Come on, I'll put you to work.' It was the first practice they ever held, a year before they became the B.C. Lions. That was my start."

4. What were some of the dirty jobs you had to do at that time?

Bob Ackles

"Pick up jockstraps and dirty towels.”

(Chuckles.)

5. How did you advance with the team?

"Well, the assistant equipment manager became the equipment manager, and then I sort of became the unofficial assistant and then eventually became the assistant, and then I became the equipment manager. Then I just kept working and eventually became what they called minor football co-ordinator, a full-time employee. That's when I started doing my Canada college scouting, setting up different coaching clinics and things of that nature. I became assistant to the general manager when Jackie Parker took over, and then assistant general manager, and then, when (the board) fired Jackie, I became general manager in 1976, when I was 37. I was called into the board of directors meeting and was told that Jackie Parker was being fired and they wanted me to take over until the end of the year. Then they said: 'We're gonna ask coach Eagle Keys to resign or fire him. Which of the three assistants would you want to take over?' There were three assistants left, and I said: 'Cal Murphy.' That's when Cal became a head coach."

6. When you took that job, considering that the team had been through turmoil, how did you view your own job security?

"That never crossed my mind."

7. How did you feel having to later fire Cal Murphy?

"We went through the second half of that season, did a decent job and they gave us each an extended contract. I fired Cal after that next season and hired Vic Rapp as head coach. That (decision to fire Murphy) was probably one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make, because I'd known Cal since I was 15. He was a good friend. In retrospect, here were two rookie wet-behind-the-ears guys, the head coach and the general manager, struggling with a team that was basically bankrupt and the fan support was almost disappearing. From where I sat, I felt we weren't going to get to the next level. I felt I had to do something and Vic really turned us around. He was here for six years with us."

8. Why did you decide to fire Vic?

"In all fairness to him, we couldn't beat Edmonton to get to the Grey Cup. Nobody else could, either. That was when they had (quarterback) Warren Moon. We were making progress, but we weren't getting to where we had to be. We had just moved into (BC Place Stadium). So I made a decision that I was going to make a change and I hired Don Matthews (in 1983)."

9. After starting out as a water boy and initially being involved in pure football matters, what was it like trying to develop your business skills?

"I guess I'd been picking it up all along the way, from the time I became a full-time employee. Once Jackie Parker came along as the general manager - he'd been an assistant coach and then a head coach and became general manager - I was basically doing a lot of the general manager's duties and jobs. Jackie was a football guy. He didn't want to spend time with the paperwork. So I got very involved in that right from the get-go. Jackie negotiated a lot of the contracts, did some of the scouting, all the (football) things, and worked with the media relations person. In those days, you didn't do all the marketing and stuff like you do today.

"There was a smaller media corps. You dealt with the two newspapers and maybe the two TV stations and three or four radio stations. Now, it's a whole new ballgame. I'd go to different clubs. I talked to different general managers and presidents. The team at the time that was doing the best job in the CFL was the Edmonton Eskimos. I would spend a lot of time on the phone talking to Norm Kimball, who was the general manager of the Eskimos at the time, trying to do some of the things that they did."

10. How did you end up getting involved with the Dallas Cowboys?

"I was driving to Kelowna to training camp in 1986. When I got there, there was a message to call Tex Schramm, who was president and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why he'd be calling me. I'd only met him once, on the sidelines at a Dallas Cowboys practice in California. So I called him, and he offered me the job of vice-president of pro personnel. After a couple of conversations, I talked with my wife and got on a flight to Dallas. I still had two years on a contract with the B.C. Lions and we were just starting training camp. But the president at that time, Woody McLaren, said: 'Go ahead and check it out and I'll talk to the board of directors and make a decision. When I got back from Dallas, I talked to Woody and he said the board would let me out of my contract."

11. Why did you decide to accept the job with the Cowboys rather than stay in B.C?

"In my view at that time, it was a big compliment. It was the next move. It was something that I never expected to happen. I was very fortunate to get that phone call."

12.Why did the Cowboys fire you?

"I got in between the two egos - Jerry (Jones, the team owner) and Jimmy (Johnson, the coach). I was working with both of them. Jimmy, basically on the personnel and the scouting and the trading and all of that stuff. I negotiated all the contracts, so I'd deal with Jerry on the contracts. Jerry and Jimmy were having their problems working with each other, so I was sort of the middleman. On top of that, Jerry wanted his son Stephen, who was working with me on negotiating contracts, to have my job. It was a no-win situation. The firing was (bound) to happen. It's just one of those things."

13. Who are some of the famous people you've met?

"I met Bill Clinton through a friend, who was the head of the Secret Service in south Florida. My friend called one day and said: 'Would you like to meet the president?' I said: 'Sure.' We must have spent 20 minutes with him. He was very charismatic and when he spoke to you, it was like there was nobody else in the room. I met Richard Nixon after his presidency, at a New York Giants game. He was a big Giants fan and had season tickets. He actually sat in the stands, not up in the (luxury) boxes. I also met Pierre Trudeau at a football game in Montreal and Paul Martin at a football game in Vancouver in 2005. I've met (actors) Nick Nolte, James Woods and Cameron Diaz. I (also) like Pamela Anderson and I think she's smarter than a lot of people give her credit for. I met Frank Sinatra at the Pacific Coliseum, before he did a show. I'm a big Sinatra fan. I also met Al Pacino at Dolphins Stadium (shooting a movie)."

14. After a 15-year tenure in the NFL, you briefly headed up the Las Vegas franchise in the XFL, but rejoined the Lions in 2003. What was that like?

"The XFL lost a lot of money between the (then-World Wrestling Federation) and NBC with that first year and startup. They did have a lot of good things going. I think, if they'd do it again, Vince McMahon would have done it a little differently. He would have had some more lead time, because we only had six months to get everything all started. There was a lot of good things that came out of it. It was probably the most fun year I've ever had in football. I had a two-year contract, so I decided to retire.

"If I got a phone call, and it was something that I really wanted and liked and thought was interesting, then I would do it. If not, then I would retire and live in Las Vegas, because that's where we thought we might end up living. I enrolled at the (University of Nevada-Las Vegas) in the fine arts program and took a semester and a half, and then I got a phone call from (Lions owner) David Braley to come back here ... By this time, we had three grown grandkids and Scott (his son) had one (child) and another one on the way.

It was a no-brainer for us to come back. And, I was getting a little antsy. Going to school's great, but it's not the big challenge of the B.C. Lions."

15. Why did you launch the Water Boys when you came back to the Lions?

"When I left, we had just over 30,000 season tickets sold. We were averaging about 44,000-45,000 (per game.) When I came back, we had around 8,000 season-ticket holders and averaged around 20,000-21,000 people (per game.) That was a shock. I knew that things had deteriorated, but the apathy in the community was the big thing. People didn't seem to care.

16. What was happening in the business community?

"Not much. The B.C. Lions seemed to be really out of touch with the community. That bothered me because we had done so much over the years to build up the community relationship with the fans and the schools and with businesses. (Lions vice-president) George Chayka and I went to see Moray Keith at Dueck (a Vancouver car dealership.) We called on Dennis Skulsky, (then) the publisher and president of the Vancouver Sun and Province and his right-hand man, Jamie Pitblado, who was in marketing and promotions (at those papers) and Tom Malone, who's a vice-president with Scotiabank, which was a big sponsor. We kicked around a bunch of ideas and decided to hold free breakfasts. We had about 24 people at each one and we laid out what we needed to do. We needed support. Some of those people bought in and now we've got about 200 in our organization. We're (always) looking for some support in the business community."

17. How would you describe your management style?

"I like to talk to people in the organization. We sit down and have planning meetings. We put together a business plan. When I came back (after the XFL), there wasn't a business plan. There wasn't a budget. There was nothing. (Team owner) David Braley had everything in his head. But I don't think the staff knew. So we put together a good, solid business plan and budget. Everybody in the organization is really serious about what we're trying to accomplish here."

18. What's your view on a possible NFL franchise in Toronto?

"The commissioner has asked us not to comment on it because it's really something the commissioner has to deal with. I wrote two pages in my book about it. That's still my view. It hasn't changed."(In his book, Ackles writes: "Talk about the NFL coming to Canada scares me as a CFL fan. It would be the death knell of our league if the NFL set up in Toronto. I'm all in favour of exhibition games or even a league game or two being played here, but we don't need a franchise. It would suck the life-blood out of our league. It would be a loss not just for sporting fans, but for the country, I think. The Grey Cup is a unique and storied part of Canadian culture and our history ... It seems to me it would be a shame if the league had to fold because of three or four greedy people in Toronto ... It's not that Toronto can't support a franchise. Of course they can. It's a big place with lots of money. But to have 70,000 enjoy an NFL game in Toronto, you will murder eight CFL franchises.") 19. Are you the kind of guy who can't stand sitting around for a long time?

"Yeah. I'm always saying to my wife: 'You know, we could retire on Salt Spring Island.' She says: 'Are you kidding me? You'd last four days there.' I get up in the morning fairly early and I like to get busy."

20. What would you do if you weren't running the B.C. Lions?

"Just fishing and relaxing."

Bob Ackles

* Title: President/CEO

* Born/raised/age: Sarnia, Ont./Greater Toronto Area and Vancouver/69.

* Education: Ackles went to high school in Vancouver in the 1950s and about a half-century later, enrolled as a fine arts student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He put his studies on hold to rejoin the Lions as president and CEO.

* Family: Married to wife Kay, sons Steve and Scott, five grandchildren.

* Career: Ackles started with the Lions as their first water boy when he was 15. He worked briefly for a Vancouver sporting goods store before joining the team full-time as a minor football co-ordinator. He also served as the club's assistant equipment manager and equipment manager before rising to the post of general manager in 1976. During that time, he helped the club avoid bankruptcy by spearheading a debentures program that raised $300,000. In 1986, less than half a year after the Lions had won the 1985 Grey Cup, he joined the Dallas Cowboys as vice-president of pro player personnel. He held similar posts with the Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins during a 15-year NFL tenure. In 2000, he headed up the new Las Vegas franchise in the short-lived XFL. In 2003, he rejoined the Lions as president and CEO. Since then he has helped build teams that appeared in two Grey Cup games and won the 2006 crown.

* Moonlighting: Ackles is involved in several fund-raising activities.

* Passions: Painting, fishing, boating, book collecting.

Bob Ackles

* Title: President/CEO

* Born/raised/age: Sarnia, Ont./Greater Toronto Area and Vancouver/69.

* Education: Ackles went to high school in Vancouver in the 1950s and about a half-century later, enrolled as a fine arts student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He put his studies on hold to rejoin the Lions as president and CEO.

* Family: Married to wife Kay, sons Steve and Scott, five grandchildren.

* Career: Ackles started with the Lions as their first water boy when he was 15. He worked briefly for a Vancouver sporting goods store before joining the team full-time as a minor football co-ordinator. He also served as the club's assistant equipment manager and equipment manager before rising to the post of general manager in 1976. During that time, he helped the club avoid bankruptcy by spearheading a debentures program that raised $300,000. In 1986, less than half a year after the Lions had won the 1985 Grey Cup, he joined the Dallas Cowboys as vice-president of pro player personnel. He held similar posts with the Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins during a 15-year NFL tenure. In 2000, he headed up the new Las Vegas franchise in the short-lived XFL. In 2003, he rejoined the Lions as president and CEO. Since then he has helped build teams that appeared in two Grey Cup games and won the 2006 crown.

* Moonlighting: Ackles is involved in several fund-raising activities.

* Passions: Painting, fishing, boating, book collecting.

B.C. Lions Football Club Inc.

* Brass: David Braley, owner, alternate CFL governor; Bob Ackles, president and CEO, CFL governor; George Chayka, vice-president, business; Wally Buono, head coach and general manager, alternate CFL governor.

* Profile: The Lions commenced operations in 1953 before the team name was chosen, playing a series of exhibition games. They officially began playing in the Western Interprovincial Football Union, a predecessor of the Canadian Football League, in 1954. The Lions won the Grey Cup last season, the club's fourth championship and third while Ackles was employed with the team.

* Stats: The Lions have sold 22,500 season tickets, up from 8,000 in 2002, when Ackles rejoined the team. Attendance averages around 30,000 each game.

* Company Structure: The Lions are a private company owned by Hamilton autoparts magnate David Braley.

* Website: www.bclions.com

* HQ: 765 Pacific Boulevard, Vancouver, V6B 4Y9

* Phone: (604) 661-3626/(604) 661-3616.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)