Former Roughrider CEO Jim Hopson dead at 73

Jim Hopson, who helped turn the Saskatchewan Roughriders into the CFL’s flagship franchise, died Tuesday after a battle with cancer.

He was 73.

Hopson was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in April of 2021. When he spoke on The Evan Bray Show on Jan. 26 of this year, Hopson said the battle hadn’t affected his outlook on life.

“I’m still very much appreciative of the life I’ve had,” he said. “I feel like I’m blessed — my friends, my family, I’m proud of my education career and the things we were able to do with the Riders …

“I think you have to learn to approach life in a positive way.”

That was Hopson’s approach throughout his life.

“It does make a difference to be positive and to have people around you that you care about and they care about you,” he told The Green Zone’s Jamie Nye on March 12. “None of us knows what the future holds and that’s just the reality of life.

“I’m 73 years old. I would have liked to have been quite a bit older when my time came, but that’s not the case and we’ll just have to deal with what we get.”

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For all you have done for our organization and for Rider Nation, thank you Jim, we will miss you.

💚 https://t.co/P85PQiQfUn pic.twitter.com/Q0FzRA5vu2

— Saskatchewan Roughriders (@sskroughriders) April 3, 2024

In that conversation with Nye, Hopson spoke about how he handled his battle. He admitted he started out by keeping the news to himself, but realized he could have an influence on people by sharing it publicly.

“If it was just one person that went and got checked, that would be worth it,” Hopson said. “So I started being more open and talking about the need to get checked.

“You know what guys are like: ‘We’re going to handle it. We’ve got it under control.’ The reality is, you really don’t with cancer because it can go in so many different directions.”

Hopson was born and raised in Regina and began his football career in Grade 10 at Thom Collegiate. He then played junior football for the Regina Rams before trying out for the Roughriders in 1973.

He made the team and spent the next four seasons on Saskatchewan’s offensive line, protecting quarterback Ron Lancaster and helping to open holes for fullback George Reed.

Hopson retired after the 1976 season to focus on a teaching career.

After 31 years in the education field as a teacher, principal and administrator, he decided in 2004 to apply for the job as the first president-CEO in Roughriders history. The team had planned to shift from a management committee to a governance board, and Hopson was interested in running things.

He had spent four years on the team’s board of directors as the alumni association’s representative, so he was familiar with its members. In his book “Running the Riders: My Decade as CEO of Canada’s Team,” Hopson recalls meeting some of the directors during their search.

“I was confident, but not overconfident,” Hopson wrote in the book he co-authored with Darrell Davis. “Even though I was comfortable with the fact they knew me and respected me, I knew I had to make an impression.

“I had to tell them my vision. And if they hired me, I had to be right. I couldn’t be just a former football player or educator or administrator. I had to be presidential material.”

Hopson got the job — and stayed in the position for 10 years. His work in the job earned him an induction into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2019.

“If I would have just been able to play with the Riders for a bit and then have the career I had in education, I’d have felt pretty good about how things went,” Hopson told Nye. “But then to get the opportunity to go back and be the president and CEO of the Riders, that was special.”

While he was at the helm, the Roughriders won two Grey Cup championships (2007 and 2013) and lost in two other title games (2009 and 2010). Saskatchewan posted a regular-season record of 96-83-1 during his tenure.

But it was off the field where the Roughriders thrived under Hopson.

Saskatchewan became the CFL’s model franchise for merchandising, regularly outselling the league’s other teams combined. As well, season-ticket sales increased substantially as the club became more successful on the field.

The Roughriders also signed a $400,000-a-year deal with The Mosaic Company for naming rights to their home stadium. The deal carried through to new Mosaic Stadium, which opened in 2017.

In his book, Hopson called the deal with the company a “game-changer” for the business.

“In short, the first deal helped take us to the big leagues because it was one of the 10 largest monetary sponsorship deals in Canada at that time,” Hopson wrote in 2015. “The new deal is even more significant.”

According to his book, the Roughriders were $214,963 in debt in 2004; on March 31, 2013, they had net assets of $36.8 million.

Nye asked Hopson what he thought his legacy would be.

“Part of that would be that I would be seen as someone who helped get us to be a flagship franchise,” he replied. “That was my goal when I got there.

“I know when I started talking about that at the very beginning, I think there were a lot of skeptics going, ‘OK. Remember, we’re the Saskatchewan Roughriders. We have to have telethons and take wheat (in exchange for tickets) and all the rest of it.’ ”

After a decade at the helm – and having accomplished his goal of making the Roughriders the league’s flagship — Hopson retired from the club in 2015 and was replaced by Craig Reynolds.

“I don’t know if I wanted to leave,” Hopson told Davis. “I just believed it was the right time.

“One thing I learned through my career in education is that no one is irreplaceable; everything ends at some point. I thought I was in a unique position of being able to choose the right time.”

Reynolds said Hopson made the Roughriders a better team, and uplifted all those who knew him.

“As president, Jim ushered in a new era for our organization that included two Grey Cup Championships, incredible financial success, and perhaps most importantly, a belief in Roughrider football that will never fade away,” Reynolds said in a statement.

“But more than that, Jim was an optimist, someone who made you feel better by just being around him and a friend to all who knew him. On behalf of Rider Nation, I want to send our condolences to Brenda, Tyler and Carrie, as well as our thanks for everything Jim brought to our team, and our community.”

In February, the Roughriders renamed the auditorium at Mosaic Stadium the Jim Hopson Auditorium to pay tribute to their former president.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe shared condolences on social media, describing Hopson as an “all-around great guy.”

“Thank you Jim,” Moe wrote. “You made the Riders a better team and Saskatchewan a better place.”

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