Courtesy Toronto Star:

Bob Ackles, who started with the B.C. Lions as the team’s first water boy and went on to become the CFL team’s president and chief executive officer, died of a heart attack yesterday, the club said in a statement. Ackles was 69.

“It was our league that virtually adopted him when he was just a boy, and it’s our league that has looked to him as a man for counsel, inspiration and leadership by example,” CFL commissioner Mark Cohon said in a statement. “As much as the CFL has meant to Bob, he has meant so much more to us.”

A jovial man with a quick smile and a huge love for football, Ackles served in the CFL, NFL and XFL.

The return of Ackles to the Lions in 2002, along with his hiring of Wally Buono as coach and general manager, has been credited with revitalizing the CFL in Vancouver.

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