UManitoba Bisons football team aims to give coach Brian Dobie's career a storybook ending

Spending part of his childhood living in a bunkhouse without running water impacted Brian Dobie's outlook on life.

The University of Manitoba football coach gained an understanding that everyone faces challenges, and people deserve a chance to reach their full potential.

Dobie has shown that to his players throughout his 29-year career as head coach of the Bisons, which is ending with the 71-year-old's retirement after this season.

"Everyone knows he's a good guy and that's why he's such a good coach," fifth-year linebacker Nick Thomas said.

"It wasn't that he had all these crazy schemes or anything. The person that he is and the relationships that he's built is why he's such a good coach."

Dobie's seventh-ranked squad has qualified for the U Sports playoffs. The Bisons (7-1) topped the Canada West conference and host the fourth-place University of Regina Rams (3-5) in one of Saturday's two conference semifinal games.

It's a step toward what his players hope will be a storybook ending for their coach — capturing the Vanier Cup national title for the second time in Dobie's career.

"When he told us in his speech [at training camp] that he was retiring, it kind of lit a fire under all of our butts," Thomas said. "It would be so awesome [to win].

"Everyone's playing for him. We've got a purpose bigger than ourselves, bigger than personal accolades at this point. I feel like that's going to drive us in the playoffs."

Dobie, known for his gift of the gab, shared part of his life story at that team meeting which ran 90 minutes.

He was born in Ottawa and adopted at birth. He and an adopted sister didn't have much stability, partly because their father struggled living with polio.

His parents separated for a while, and his mother moved them back to her home province of Manitoba. They lived in small towns, including one winter in a bunkhouse on a farm when Dobie was in Grade 2.

His mom hauled water from the main house and their small space was heated with a wood stove.

"We had nothing," Dobie said. "We were [in] literal poverty. That went on for a few years. It made me angry that my mom had to go through that. It never left me.

"She always wanted for us to be and have better than that. My mom was an incredible motivator."

They settled in Winnipeg when Dobie was in Grade 9 and he was able to play sports and make longtime friends.

2 Vanier appearances

He became a U of M receiver, then head coach at Churchill High School for 21 years, making this season his 50th at the helm of a football team.

His third time applying for the Bisons' head-coaching job was successful in 1996. His teams made it to the Vanier Cup twice, losing to the Saint Mary's Huskies in 2001 but beating the Huskies in 2007.

Sixty-four of his Bisons have been drafted in the CFL, while three (Israel Idonije, David Onyemata and Geoff Gray) signed in the NFL. Idonije played 11 seasons and went to the Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears in 2007. Onyemata is with the Atlanta Falcons and was the first Bison drafted in the NFL (New Orleans, 2016).

"Everybody refers to Israel Idonije and David Onyemata as our greatest successes, and I get that," Dobie said. "What those two accomplished is incredible, so they are great examples.

"But no more than that guy and that guy who are out there being great fathers and doing a great job at their jobs and coaching their little kids' soccer teams and being great partners to their wife or their girlfriend or whomever.

"All those relationships, they all count. They all mean a lot to me. What we're doing here not just counts, it matters. It affects people's lives, it changes people's lives."

Thomas, drafted by the Saskatchewan Roughriders last year (60th overall), is grateful Dobie gave him a chance. He and his sister lived in about 10 foster homes in B.C. He switched to football from rugby in Grade 12 and was recruited by the Bisons after sending Dobie tape from his Langley club team.

Thomas redshirted his first year in 2017 and struggled with schoolwork. He considered quitting, but Dobie gave him encouragement and resources.

"He's almost like a father figure in my life, something constant. He's always there," said the 26-year-old, who's graduating with a major in psychology.

"He's very relatable. His perseverance and overcoming adversities, he's very good for advice — personal and life advice as well."

Dobie also broke down some gender barriers.

Defensive back Reina Iizuka was the first female U Sports football player when she was on Manitoba's roster from 2018-20, but she never dressed in a regular-season game.

Current Bisons kicker Maya Turner became the first to play and score in a regular-season U Sports football game in September 2023.

"It helps knowing that [Dobie] believes in me," Turner said. "He's communicated that to me since the beginning."

Dobie is fourth in combined regular-season and playoff wins among active U Sports football coaches with 128. University of British Columbia's Blake Nill is third (177), Western's Greg Marshall second (210) and Laval's Glen Constantin sits first with 217.

Nill was head coach of Saint Mary's when it downed Dobie's squad in the 2001 Vanier Cup. He moved to the University of Calgary in 2005 and is currently in his 10th season guiding the third-place Thunderbirds (5-3) in his 27th overall season.

"He's a tremendously caring individual, always thinking of the other person," Nill said of Dobie in a phone call.

"It's going to be a different college scene without coach Dobie. He's quietly for almost three decades gone about his profession.

"The University of Manitoba and the whole nation is better for him. Certainly the game of football is."