Legendary football coach Greg Marshall retiring from Western Mustangs

Greg Marshall announced his retirement after 18 years as head coach of the Western Mustangs football team. CTV’s Brent Lale reports.

After 18 years as head coach and nearly a dozen championships, Greg Marshall is retiring as head coach of the Western Mustangs football program.

“Probably in the last four or five years I saw it coming,” Marshall told media in a news conference. “It’s been a great run but coaching football, you’ve got to be all in. It’s a very time-consuming process. People only see the in-season with coaching the games, but they don’t understand that’s only a small portion of what my job entails.”

He’s a Canadian university football legend who built Western into a perennial powerhouse.

He’s now 66 years old, and he wants to pivot to other interests.

“We have five grandchildren right now and we have one that’s due any day now, so that’ll be six under three [years old] by Christmas,” said Marshall.

He added, “I want to spend time with them. I want to be there and do other things, too. My wife’s been carrying the load for a long time. It’s just a hard decision when you’re leaving something that you love, and you care about the kids. I’ll be at the games cheering them on and being a proud alumni and supporter of Western football.”

While the demands of the job are strenuous, he’s done his best to involve his family every step of the way.

“I tried my best when my boys were young to pile them on the bus or pile on the plane and take them wherever I was coaching,” said Marshall. “It was on and off and nuts and crazy, but we did it. Now I look forward to doing some of those neat things with my grandkids.”

He was also fortunate to have his three sons Donnie, Bryan, and Tommy play for him.

“That certainly was one of the highlights,” said Marshall. “One season they all played together. I remember going into that year thinking I wish this could last forever, but it doesn’t. It was one season, but it was a pretty special season.”

A star on the field from 1978-1982, he won three Yates Cup titles, earning MVP in 1980 and the Hec Creighton Award as Canada’s top collegiate player.

He took over the head coaching job in 2007 from legend Larry Haylor. In his 18 years in charge, he won the Yates Cup as Ontario University Champs nine times and won two Vanier Cup titles as national champions.

The first ended the program’s 23-year drought in 2017 after a win over powerhouse Laval.

“Laval changed the business model with multiple coaches and a lot of resources,” said Marshall.

“The one thing in 2017, I think six or seven of our starters were from the CEGEP [in Quebec]. We had we had a core of great leaders, that came through the system. It was a team that was so rewarding to coach because they just got better and better every single week,” he said.

He’ll remain on the job as Western starts the process of finding his replacement. However, with so many of his former players now coaching in USports that could be potential candidates for the job, Marshall will step back from having much influence on his successor.

“I will take a bit of a backseat and let that the process go through and then and then be available to help with the transition,” said Marshall. “The new coach doesn’t need me to, draw plays or do those things but as far as navigating our alumni and supporters and helping them in the transition, I can be a benefit to them. Sometime in the next couple of months, I’ll just slide away.”