Who are the winningest CFL coaches of all time?

At present, Mike O’Shea is the active head coach with the most wins in the Canadian Football League. He has 56 wins to his name. However, that figure pales into insignificance when compared to the winningest CFL coaches of all time. So, O’Shea has a way to go before he can be added to the football history books. Ten coaches have more than 100 CFL wins, and only two have over 200 wins. Can you guess who the CFL coaches with the most wins are? Here are the top three.

No. 3 Frank Clair

Frank Clair is the third-most winningest coach in CFL history, with 147 career wins. Thirty-one of those wins came with the Toronto Argonauts between 1950 and 1954. The other 116 were with the Ottawa Rough Riders between 1956 and 1969. After three years playing as an end and receiver, Clair moved into coaching, where he achieved his most success. Nicknamed “The Professor” because of his ability to recognize and develop talent, Clair began his coaching career as the head football coach in 1948 at the University of Buffalo. His major accomplishments came several years later with the Rough Riders. He helped to lead the team to the Grey Cup Championship in 1960, 1968, and 1969. Clair was also the winner of the Annis Stukus Trophy in both 1966 and 1969. In 1981, Frank Clair was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, and in 1998, he was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. In 1993, the Lansdowne Park stadium was renamed the Frank Clair Stadium in his honour. 

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 No. 2 Don Matthews

The second-most winningest coach of all-time is the great Don Matthews. His professional coaching career spanned three decades, from 1983 to 2006. He began his pro coaching career with the BC Lions, achieving 56 wins between 1983 and 1987. He then went on to coach Toronto Argonauts, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Baltimore Stallions, Edmonton Eskimos, and Montreal Alouettes. He achieved successes with all teams, but in addition to his time with the BC Lions, Matthews’ biggest successes came with the Stallions and the Alouettes. Under Matthews’ guidance, the former won 27 and lost nine, while the latter won 58 and lost 28. During his career, Matthews won an incredible 231 games in the CFL. In September 2011, Don Matthews was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

 No. 1 Wally Buono

There are no prizes for guessing who the winningest coach of all time is. Anyone who knows anything about the CFL will know Wally Buono is number one. The current vice president of football operations was the head coach for the Calgary Stampeders and the BC Lions for 22 years, which is tied for the most coached-seasons ever. When the Lions beat the Toronto Argonauts 23-17 on September 19, 2009, Wally Buono became the all-time winningest coach of the CFL. He had 232 wins, which passed Don Matthews’ record. By the time he retired as coach in 2011, Buono had a record of 254 regular-season wins as head coach. He went on to become general manager for the Lions and was tempted back as a coach for the Lions’ 2018 season. In the last home game of that season, Buono was given the Bob Ackles Award. Other accomplishments include winning five Grey Cup tournaments out of nine appearances and being a four-time receiver of the Annis Stukus Trophy for CFL Coach of the Year.