MONTREAL – McGill Athletics & Recreation regretfully announces the passing of Tom Mooney, an NFL draft pick of the New York Giants who played briefly with the Montreal Alouettes before serving as head coach of both the McGill Redmen football and basketball teams. He was 78.
 
Thomas L. Mooney, a native of Portage, Ohio, was a dual citizen who was living in Guelph, Ont., at the time of his death on June 20. He played NCAA football with Miami University of Ohio and was selected 201^st overall by the Giants in the 1956 NFL draft, one pick after the legendary Bart Starr was chosen by the Green Bay Packers. Mooney later went on to win the Grey Cup as an assistant coach with the CFL's Hamilton Tiger Cats and was bench boss at Ontario Agricultural & Veterinary College (1956-60), now the University of Guelph, where he was later inducted to the Gryphons Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

Mooney moved to Montreal in 1961 for a tryout with the Alouettes and played in a number of exhibition games as well as in one regular season contest in 1963. He coached Monklands high school (1961 to 1963), in the NDG region of the city, to a junior GMIAA  championship and a senior title in 1962. He then accepted a coaching and teaching position at Garden City high school in Michigan.
 
In 1965, at the age of 30, he was appointed as McGill's first full-time head football coach since 1957 and eventually purchased a home in suburban Pte. Claire. He guided the Redmen to a 12-26-1 record over six seasons, winning the Ontario-Quebec Athletic Association's Yates Cup championship in 1969 with a 17-0 whitewash over Toronto. That squad also went on to capture the Atlantic Bowl national semifinal before losing 24-19 to Manitoba in the Canadian College Bowl national championship game, now known as the Vanier Cup.
 
"For all of us who experienced his drive and dedication as head coach of the Redmen it is a profound loss of a lifetime mentor," said Dr. Cliff Moore, who captained the 1969 championship team. "Tom's coaching style was hard-nosed. The season started with his famous 'three-a-day' practices. We must have run up the Molson Stadium north stand stairs a million times over our years as his players.

"We had full contact practices three days a week. Tom's approach was not for everybody--but for those of us who bought into it, we became very tough and gelled as a successful football team. The whole was much greater than the parts and the 1969 season was when all the hard work paid off. Our teammates have maintained close friendships with the players and coaches through reunions every five years. This fall will be 45 years since we battled for the VanierCup. We are due for our next reunion this fall."

In 2007, members from McGill's 1969 championship team, known as "The Mooney Men", created a Tom Mooney scholarship for McGill football players, based on extraordinary athletic and leadership qualities. A similar football scholarship in his name was also initiated by the University of Guelph in 2010.

In an era when the collegiate basketball season began as the football season was ending, Mooney also guided the basketball Redmen to a stellar 91-58 record overall, including a 22-14 regular-season mark in six seasons, from 1965 to 1971. His position was abolished at McGill in 1971 – after the University dropped funding to all varsity sports programs due to a financial crisis – and Mooney joined Al Dorow's coaching staff with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1971-75). He was the team's defensive coordinator when they won the Grey Cup in 1972.
 
In his younger days, as a player-coach, Mooney guided the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen to three Ontario Rugby Football Union titles in as many years. In 1957, eyebrows were raised when he was appointed head coach of the OAC-VC Redmen in Guelph at the age of 21. But he led the team to a pair of league championships over the next three seasons (1958, 1959) and also coached varsity wrestling and basketball (1957-61), winning a hoops title in 1959.
 
During his collegiate playing days, he was a lineman at Miami-Ohio, an NCAA powerhouse that compiled a 38-2-1 record over his four seasons. He later returned to that school to complete a master's degree in education. Among his coaches at that time was John Pont, who went on to coach at Indiana and Ara Parseghian, who later had a legendary coaching career at Notre Dame.
 
A memorial service will take place at the Wall-Custance Funeral Home, 206 Norfolk, Guelph on Saturday July 5, 2014 from 1-4 p.m. A tree will be planted and dedicated in his name on Sept. 21, 2014 (2:30 pm) in  the Wall-Custance Memorial Forest located at the University of Guelph Arboretum. Messages of condolence can be sent online. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to McGill's Tom Mooney Football Award.
 
SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)514-398-1956 (Fax)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgill athletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca