Scott Flory remembers heading up to the new Dogs’ Breakfast nearly a quarter-century ago.
He was a player with the Montreal Alouettes, and he’d never experienced anything like it during his own days as a University of Saskatchewan Huskies offensive lineman.
“It was this breakfast thing that was starting,” recalls Flory, who played with the Huskies from 1994 to 1998 before launching a Canadian Football Hall of Fame career with the Alouettes. “And now, just what it’s grown into …”
Flory is the Huskies head coach these days, and the Dog’s Breakfast — which raises money for player scholarships — is entering its 23rd year. That idea of holding scholarship fundraisers was not a thing Flory contemplated during his own days on the team’s offensive line.
“The landscape was night and day,” he says. “There was a couple of little entrance bursaries back then, but it was nothing — it just didn’t exist. It wasn’t a thing. For us in this scholarship world, being able to help our student-athletes is huge.”
In a 2001 StarPhoenix story about the new breakfast, sportswriter Cory Wolfe noted: “Due to changes in CIAU scholarship rules, the Huskies’ challenge from a recruiting standpoint is: Eat the bills for top recruits, or be eaten on the field.”
The Huskies Football Foundation announced Wednesday that Luke Willson, an eight-year NFL player who won a Super Bowl and is currently TSN’s lead football analyst, will be their guest speaker.
The breakfast is May 1 at Prairieland Park, followed by the Huskies’ annual spring camp. The team went 5-3 last season, and advanced to the conference final before losing 19-14 to the Regina Rams.
“People might not understand just how much work, time and effort goes into being a student-athlete on our team,” Flory said. “Our demands are beyond a full-time job in-season, and beyond a full-time job in the off-season with lifts, practices, film sessions, strength and conditioning … all the development stuff that goes into it, on top of being a full-time student.
“We ask a lot of them, and the least we can do is try to alleviate some of the financial burden through scholarships.”
The Huskies have gone through some high-profile changes on the coaching front this off-season, and the public job posting for the defensive co-ordinator position vacated by Warren Muzika recently closed.
In the meantime, players and recruits continue to prepare for spring camp, which will be followed by training camp in August.
The Saskatoon Star Phoenix has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe.
With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.