Dressler, Goldsmith, Owens to be inducted into Canadian Football Hall of Fame

Three former Saskatchewan Roughriders will forever be enshrined among the greats of Canadian football.

Slotbacks Weston Dressler and Chad Owens and defensive end Vince Goldsmith are included in of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame’s 2024 class.

Also part of the 2024 class are defensive back Marvin Coleman and slotback S.J. Green, while Ray Jauch and Ed Laverty go into hall in the builder category. CFL statistician Steve Daniel and TSN’s Farhan Lalji are going in as part of the media wing.

Dressler said the news hasn’t really sunk in yet.

“I tell people this wasn’t why I played football – I just loved playing the game,” Dressler said. “It was never something that I was like, ‘Oh, I want to be a hall-of-fame player’ or that type of thing.

“I think it’s still settling in a bit, the reality of this honour. I’m super grateful and thankful for all the coaches and teammates I had along the way, and also the fans.”

Dressler, a product of Bismarck, North Dakota, made an immediate impact when he joined the Riders in the CFL.

After playing with the North Dakota Fighting Hawks – setting 19 records along the way – and going undrafted in the 2008 NFL draft, he signed a contract with the Riders.

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“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” Dressler said. “I saw it as an opportunity to continue playing football, and that was what it was to me. I was grateful for that opportunity.”

While the CFL wasn’t his first choice, he said he quickly realized just how much the league and the team had to offer.

“Those first couple years in Saskatchewan, I realized what the CFL was all about and what the Roughriders were all about. I just fell in love with it all, and (I’m) really thankful I had that opportunity and got to realize what the CFL was all about.”

In his rookie season, Dressler had 56 receptions for 1,128 yards, and 1,014 punt-return yards. He was named the league’s most outstanding rookie that season.

He became both a fan favourite and one of the top weapons for a Riders team that enjoyed a run of success.

“It was a remarkable experience for me. That first year was just learning the game and the differences of the Canadian game and what I grew up playing in the U.S.,” Dressler said.

“Learning about the fan base that Saskatchewan has and the excitement and the overall atmosphere they brought to the games was something I truly enjoyed … It just turned into something so much more than I ever could have expected going into it.”

He missed playing with the Riders during the 2009 Grey Cup due to an injury, but appeared in the 2010 Grey Cup – a loss to the Montreal Alouettes.

He eventually got a chance to raise Canadian football’s biggest prize in 2013, winning the Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium after beating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

“It was just a special moment and a special night,” Dressler said. “It’s a special season, but just the night of the Grey Cup and winning the game was kind of the icing on the cake to top it all off.

“You go back a few years prior and losing a couple Grey Cup games, that makes it even more sweet when you do finally win one.”

Dressler was released by the Riders in 2016 by incoming head coach and general manager Chris Jones. He signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, where he spent three seasons before he was released.

His career 715 catches are good for 13th all-time, and his 10,026 yards rank 17th in CFL history. He recorded 61 receiving touchdowns in his career.

While he was considered undersized for the position, Goldsmith became one of the game’s premier pass rushers. His 130.5 career sacks put him eighth in the CFL’s history.

Goldsmith said he found out he was going into the hall “out of the blue.”

“When John Hufnagel gave me a call and told me it happened, I was in a haze for a while,” Goldsmith said. “I kept reflecting back to my parents, because I was raised in a home that really prized football. Every Sunday we would watch the NFL, and that’s where I got hooked on it … My mother and father were probably the thing that came uppermost in my mind when I had heard I had been selected because they would have been proud.”

The Fort Riley, Kansas, product joined the Riders in 1981, beginning a decade-long career in the league.

After he wasn’t drafted into the NFL, Goldsmith turned to track at the University of Oregon.

“I really didn’t have a whole lot of options, but I knew I wanted to continue playing football, and if I wanted to play, the CFL seemed to be the path to take,” Goldsmith said. “I think they had a contract and it was open for three players – I was one of the three – and the first one who took it was going to get it.”

He became a force immediately, recording 17 sacks his first CFL season, and was named the league’s most outstanding rookie.

“That was a great season. There’s nothing as good as the first time, and coming to Canada and being in Saskatchewan at that time … Apparently, the Riders hadn’t had a good season in a while, and hadn’t made a playoff run in a while but that year, we won a lot of games and were playing pretty well,” Goldsmith said.

In 1983, he recorded 20 sacks and was named a CFL All-Star.

He played with Saskatchewan until after the ’83 season, joining the Toronto Argonauts in 1984. He then played 1985 to ‘87 with the Stamps before rejoining the Riders from 1988 to ‘90.

He won a Grey Cup with the Green and White in 1989.

“It was great to get that out of the way and get that box checked before I retired,” Goldsmith said. “That was probably the crowning jewel of my career.”

He retired after the 1990 season.

“Ten years is a long time, and I was starting to feel it physically and mentally,” Goldsmith said.

“We were playing the same guys twice a year for 10 years. It gets kind of monotonous, but I still had the will to win and the competitive drive was there, but everything has to come to an end. When it comes to an end, you don’t want it to crash and burn and blow up, you want to have a smooth transition.”

When he retired, he went back home to the United States and got a master’s degree in both health care administration and business administration. He worked in correctional health-care administration, but has since retired and is now a consultant.

Goldsmith was inducted into the University of Oregon’s hall of fame in 2002.

Owens was the third player in CFL history to lead the league in both receiving yards and combined yards, in 2012. Over a 105-game career spanning nine years (2009 to 2017) with Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton and Saskatchewan, the “Flyin’ Hawaiian” was named a CFL All-Star four times. He sits eighth in league history in kick return yards (10,309) and 10th in combined yards (16,698).

Green played in 170 games between Montreal and Toronto from 2007-19. He has 10, 222 receiving yards and  his 716 receptions are 12th all-time.

The native of Fort Worth, Texas, is an eight-time Divisional All-Star and a two-time CFL All-Star.

Coleman’s career spanned 10 seasons (1994-2003) and 166 games with Calgary and Winnipeg.

As a defensive back, he tallied 28 interceptions – six of which resulted in touchdowns – and 538 tackles.

The product of Central State University made four Grey Cup appearances, capturing the trophy in 1998 with the Stampeders.

The class will be inducted on Sept. 13.