It was an emotional and reflective Saskatchewan Roughriders CEO Craig Reynolds who shared his thoughts with the media on the passing of former Riders President and CEO Jim Hopson.
“On Tuesday, we lost a very important member of our Rider family,” Reynolds said at the news conference Thursday at Mosaic Stadium. “And Saskatchewan lost a great man. Someone filled with warmth, kindness and passion. The Riders lost someone who helped change the course of history for our team. On a personal level, Jim changed the course of my life bringing me back home to Saskatchewan and for that I am forever grateful. I’m going to miss a man I admire greatly, and who was an incredible mentor and friend. But most of all my thoughts are with his incredible wife, Brenda, who has an unmatched strength, and his two amazing kids Carrie and Tyler, and we offer to them our deepest condolences.”
Tributes continue to come in on the news that Hopson had died at age 73 after a battle with colon cancer. Tributes to Hopson were seen on the electronic scoreboards throughout Mosaic Stadium on Thursday.
Reynolds had been out of the country and had cut short his family vacation to return to Regina on hearing news of Hopson’s passing on Tuesday..
“I found out Tuesday late afternoon. I was with my family in Phoenix. Brenda had mentioned to me on Saturday that Jim was not doing as well, and probably was towards his final days and his family was coming to sort of say their goodbyes, I guess in one respect you’re sort of prepared to hear, but I don’t know if you truly are. It probably didn’t hit me right off the bat because I wanted to get back here and so you kind of get into that mode. But it hit me yesterday pretty hard that we lost him. And it was amazing to see all the tributes to him and every one is deserving, he is deserving of. That gives you comfort… I was able to talk to Brenda a bit more on Wednesday, and that was emotional, and Carrie, his daughter, reached out and that was emotional, so I think the emotions hit more yesterday that we lost him.”
Reynolds recounted how he ended up working for Hopson and noted the “warmth about him,” saying he cared about people.
“I met Jim for the first time when I interviewed for the Chief Financial Officer position with the club, and right from the moment I met him. I thought this is somebody I want to work with and work for, and was extremely excited and grateful when he gave me that opportunity to come home in to Saskatchewan. I was working in Alberta and had always thought about coming home. I love this team so much and obviously Jim loved this team so much and I just thought he was someone who I could learn a great deal from, someone who I could enjoy coming to work with every single day, and I can honestly say that was the case. I loved every second I worked with Jim. As I mentioned, he was an incredible mentor. I learned so much from him, and cherish every moment I spent with the man.”
In a results-oriented business, Hopson got the results, with two Grey Cup titles and league leading attendance during a tenure that saw the Roughriders regarded as the flagship franchise of the Canadian Football League.
“A lot of it comes down to people, in the belief he had in people. He grew the organization at a time when I think it needed to grow, and he hired good people, and he just believed in them. He let them do their things and that’s on the football side as well. He hired good people, and gave them as much tools as he could, and made investments into the football side of things. Treated players really well, treated coaches really well, treated people really well. And when you treat people really well, they want to deliver for you, they want to work for you and they want to be successful…
“I think it was a total attitude change and he just brought that attitude change, and I think it’s part and parcel with his positivity. He just sort of said ‘well why can’t it be us? Why aren’t we the flagship franchise? Why can’t we be the flagship franchise? Why can’t we lead the league in every category?’ And he just sort of believed in that, and had that sort of positive attitude and inspired others to believe in that too, because we always had the fan base. We always had the fan base, but he inspired people I think to truly believe that we could do that…. this wonderful new stadium is just a prime example of that. He made the province believe that we deserved the best stadium in Canada. And this is something we should be very proud of what we have here, because he believed that the fans deserve this and that we as a province deserve that, the football team deserved that and we deserved these incredible facilities that we have today.”
On what Jim meant to the organization:
“We had a chance to honour Jim a few weeks ago at the Jim Hopson Auditorium when we named that after him. (I) tried to put it down in words, but it was difficult. As I mentioned, he changed the course of this club forever. He’s the first to admit he didn’t do it alone, obviously the board made a courageous decision to hire Jim in the first place. They certainly hired the right person. He brought a change in attitude, he brought a belief that this club could be great, and it could be what it is today. It’s debateable we would be in this facility, this amazing facility, without Jim. He did so much for this club. How many accolades we bestow upon him, is not enough to thank him for what he did, and the leadership he showed throughout his tenure here.”
Reynolds recounted his interaction with Hopson during the transition to a new President.
“Jim was so great, he was so, so great because he was just there… It was just his way. He wasn’t overbearing, he wasn’t ‘you should do it this way’ or ‘have you thought about this.‘ He just was there for me to ask questions of, and to be there to support and to bounce ideas off of. Yeah, he was that mentor role and that’s just who he was. He was like that throughout his entire time — he believed in people and he just believed in the people that worked for him. And I was fortunate enough to be one of those people that he believed in me. And yeah, so you had the confidence that you were going to have him to support you through the transition and then after the transition. You just knew he was going to be there for you, because he believed in you.”
One hallmark Reynolds would point to was Hopson’s positive nature, even when Hopson was battling colon cancer.
“It was amazing. It was funny because he would describe his day and a lot of his days were really tough, but he would end it ‘but it was still a great day.’ He was still positive at the end of it. He would end with positivity and that was just him. He had that optimism and positive spirit. I would get off the phone with him and I’m just like ‘that didn’t sound like a good day’, but Jim made you feel like it was — I made it he was having a good day. And that’s just the way he was. He might be the most optimistic person I ever met in my life. He has a real positive mindset, and I think that served him very well with his cancer diagnosis. I know it served him very well with his cancer diagnosis. Even towards the end, the last time I saw him in person was a couple of weeks ago at his place, and he was still positive then, and you could tell that he wasn’t doing well, but he was the same old Jim.”
As for what Reynolds took away from Hopson’s final days:
“If there’s something I take away from it, it’s just to that positive spirit is just really important to approach things with positivity and optimism. I think that’s just how Jim lived life. Even after a tough loss – like I remember seeing Jim after the ‘09 Grey Cup loss. I was near him and he was leaned up against the fence and really upset. And then I talked to him an hour later, and he said ‘we’ll be back.’ And that was how he was. He was just always positive.”
For members of the public wanting to pay their respects, the family of Jim Hopson has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations could be directed to the following charities: Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation, Saskatchewan Cancer Foundation, and Regina Minor Football.