They may be adversaries when the 106th Grey Cup kicks off Sunday in Edmonton, but Dave Dickenson of the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Redblacks' boss Rick Campbell share a lot of similarities.
The head coaches of the teams competing in Sunday's contest have each been around football for most of their respective lives, with both men reaching the pinnacle of the CFL coaching world in comparable ways.
Dickenson has been at the helm of the Stampeders since 2016, but the former CFL Most Outstanding Player's ties to the organization go much further back. The 45-year-old former quarterback spent five seasons playing for the Calgary organization and joined the team's coaching staff in 2009.
While Campbell was never a star in his playing days, he also cut his coaching teeth within the Stamps organization. The 47-year-old served as Calgary's running backs coach in 2010 and its defensive coordinator for the 2012 and 2013 seasons before becoming the Redblacks' first (and, so far, only) head coach ahead of the 2014 campaign.
The similarities in their respective coaching paths are not lost on either man.
"I think we have similar backgrounds," Dickenson told reporters in Edmonton on Wednesday. "For us – for me, at least – a lot of the groundwork was laid by Huff [former Calgary head coach and current Stampeders president John Hufnagel] and Wally Buono. Those are two guys you want to follow and at least try to emulate, try to do things similar to what they did. They're winners, so it was easy for me."
Campbell agreed with his counterpart, even crediting Dickenson for helping in his own development as a coach.
"I came to Ottawa from Calgary, and you know, couldn't be from a better place when you have guys like Dave and Huff and everything that works with the Stampeders because it's really all about winning football and surrounding yourself with good people," Campbell said. "And I was fortunate enough to go to Ottawa with a guy like [Redblacks' general manager] Marcel Desjardins, who, again, is another guy that I align with philosophically on that."
The coaches' paths were similar even before they got involved in professional football. Both men grew up with the game, as Campbell's father Hugh won 10 Grey Cups as a player, coach and executive, and also spent time coaching in the NFL and USFL. Dickenson's upbringing wasn't as celebrated, but he credits his own father for passing on the passion for the sport.
"I think I've come from a football family as well," Dickenson said. "My dad's not as famous as Rick's and hasn't won as many championships, but was a football coach, a teacher."
Before today's #GreyCup Head Coaches conference, Dave Dickenson apologized for his comments in the Western Final.#GreyCup #RoadtotheGreyCup #Stamps pic.twitter.com/9WzL0NrC24
— CFL (@CFL) November 21, 2018
Since leaving the Stampeders in 2013, Campbell led the Redblacks to their first Grey Cup championship in 2016. By Sunday, Ottawa will have participated in three of the last four Grey Cup games, including a 39-33 win over Dickenson's Stampeders in 2016. The team's near-instant success is a credit to Campbell, but the Redblacks boss points toward the team's overall philosophy of building the organization from the ground up as the reason for its prosperity.
"We just want to surround ourselves with talented people because you need talented people to win, but also people with character, people that can ride out the tough times, and people that are interested in being part of a team, making it not about themselves but making it about the Redblacks," Campbell said. "And you know, that's what we strive to do every year."
Dickenson, who has guided Calgary to the past two Grey Cup games, said he knew his former colleague would be a winner in Ottawa.
Now the job is to beat him.
"Knowing Rick personally, I knew, when he got his job over there, that he would definitely do everything in his power to do it the right way," Dickenson said. "He builds from – from inside. He hires good people. I think he's a winner. So you know, I certainly respect the job he does, and I'm not surprised that he's having the success that he's had."