Fifty years ago in 1975 legendary Queen’s football coach Frank Tindall retired. Queen’s replaced Tindall with a CFL star that never coached a game.

It is not easy to replace a legend.

Who coached Green Bay after Vince Lombardi left? Who took over from Scotty Bowman in Montreal?

Who played shortstop when Cal Ripken Jr. saw his consecutive games streak end in Baltimore?

And, who replaced the legendary Frank Tindall at Queen’s but never coached a game?

It’s quite a story.

In 1975 Frank Tindall announced he was retiring after 29 seasons at Queen’s.

After an extensive search to replace Tindall, Queen’s hired a CFL star who was still an active player as its next coach.

Garney Henley of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats accepted the job. Henley would play one final CFL season and come to Queen’s the following year.

It didn’t turn out that way.

Frank Tindall coached at Queen’s in five different decades, arriving from Syracuse University in 1939. After finishing his first season, World War II began and Tindall went overseas.

Tindall returned to Queen’s in 1947 and was there for the next three decades. Coaching both football and basketball.

When it was announced Henley would wait a year before coming to Queen’s Tindall stayed on to coach that final season in ‘75. Henley finished up his Hall of Fame playing career in Hamilton.

Henley was a ten-time CFL all-star as both a defensive back and later a wide receiver. He helped Hamilton win four Grey Cups.

He had very big shoes to fill at Queen’s.

During the Tindall era, Queen’s won eight intercollegiate titles and one national championship (1968). Tindall was regarded as not only a student of the game, but someone who built character in his players.

Tindall Field at Queen’s is named after the ‘Kindly Ol’ Coach”. Each year U Sports presents the Tindall Trophy to the Top University Football Coach in the country.

Henley had some coaching experience, he coached the basketball team at Guelph University and they won a CIAU championship. He was also an advisor to the Gryphons football team.

When he accepted the Queen’s job, Henley said, “It’s a tremendous challenge and I’m really looking forward to coming to a place with a great tradition like Queen’s.”

Henley’s new position at Queen’s was to start in June 1976 and he would coach football and basketball.

However, in February a Toronto newspaper reported Henley would be joining the Ti-Cats as an assistant coach.

The Kingston Whig-Standard reached out to Henley and to Ti-Cats management for confirmation and there were denials all around.

Henley told the Whig-Standard he was already recruiting players, “I will be at Queen’s in June.”  He later said he could not speak publicly about it while he waited for the Queen’s board of trustees to meet to discuss the matter.

Six days later the news dropped in Hamilton. Henley was introduced as a new assistant coach. Meeting with the media Henley said, “It was a tough decision to make – one that was made more difficult because of my commitments to Queen’s.”

Queen’s was shocked and disappointed by Henley’s change in plans. Athletic Director, Al Lenard, summed it up this way, “I have the feeling it was a rather sudden thing – bang, bang and he had to make a decision.”

Queen’s went back to their short list of potential head coaches from the previous summer. This time they offered the job to Doug Hargreaves. 

Doug turned out to be a great second choice.

No stranger to Kingston, Hargreaves was originally from Sault St. Marie, but came to Queen’s as a student, played football at Queen’s, worked as an assistant coach under Frank Tindall and then spent five years as head football coach at Royal Military College – back in the era when RMC had a team.

Hargreaves was a pilot and a Major in the RCAF.

Hargreaves jumped at the opportunity to return to Queen’s and left Halifax where he was head football coach and Athletic Director at Dalhousie University.

At his introductory press conference Hargreaves stepped to the podium and jokingly said, “Hi, I’m Garney Henley”, to the laughter of the crowd.

Hargreaves was on the sidelines from 1976 until his retirement in 1994. Over a 55-year span Queen’s had two football head coaches, and a third one that never coached a game.

Hargreaves won a school record 109 games. His 233 games coached at RMC, Dalhousie & Queen’s were the most in Canadian University football history. 

Wth Hargreaves at the helm Queen’s won nine conference championships and two Vanier Cups in 1978 and 1992.

At his retirement party in 1995, Hargreaves looking ahead to life after football said, “If it’s calm I will be flying, if it’s windy I will be sailing and if it’s winter – I will be skiiing.”

Hargreaves died in 2016 at age 84 and is an honoured member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame and the Queen’s Football Hall of Fame.

Garney Henley turns ninety this year and lives in Huron, South Dakota. Two months ago, prior to Hamilton’s season opener, the Tiger-Cats retired Henley’s Number 26.

Mark Potter is an honoured member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame and a long time broadcaster who covered Queen’s football during the Doug Hargreaves era in the 1980’s.