He was an exceptional athlete who excelled at hockey, broomball and of course touch football. While he was always a threat as a receiver and defender in his earlier days, he’s better known as the savvy quarterback who created the infamous and widely adopted “overload offense”.

He became involved with the six-team Ottawa Nepean Touch Football League in the late 1960’s adding new teams and creating new divisions and leagues for all levels of play, including both women’s and co-ed competition. Under his guidance and hard work participation in the league grew from a modest six teams to a building a league of hundreds of teams – male, female and coed categories; establishing 14 divisions by 2014.

Ed was also instrumental in enabling 40 years of Provincial and National Touch Championships across the country to take place, presiding over Touch Football Ontario for nearly a decade and helped to launch Touch Football Canada. He has brought several Canadian touch football championships to Ottawa, with one of note being the 1996 national championship event, dubbed “Crash The Capital”, which had over 140 teams who filled hundreds of hotel rooms & many area restaurants and pubs; bringing much revenue to our city.

He introduced thousands to the sport of touch football and the ONTFL is still very popular from kids to seniors and now second and third generations are playing. Touch football is an integral part of the Ottawa school sports line up with middle schools to high schools play touch football under the ONTFL rules.

Throughout his era he did everything, pouring his heart and soul into running the league, his motivation was to create a community where people could play and enjoy the game of touch football. He was a special man, who gave back to the community time and time again through hundreds of tournaments and raised awareness for worthy causes including Alzheimer’s & Cancer research.

His selfless efforts were acknowledged in 2013 when he was awarded the Mayor’s Cup Award for his Outstanding Contribution to Sport in Ottawa and in 2014 when he was inducted in the prestigious Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame where he was recognized for his 50 years of contribution and dedication as a community builder.

He was a special man, who would give you the shirt off his back. He was always quick to lend a helping hand and extend an open door to whoever needed it. He was a jokester, famous for his one liners and a loyal friend.

Most importantly, he was a loving husband to our mom Trudy and a dedicated father to both of us.

He’s an irreplaceable “One of a Kind” humble man and he is missed beyond measure.

We love and miss you dad,
You will forever be in our “Football Hearts”
Tammy & Gordie