By Mike Hickey
Special to The Record
Ian Breck, who won championships at the high school, collegiate, university and international levels, passed away Sunday after courageously dealing with serious health issues over the last decade.
“It was always one crisis after another but he never made a big deal about it,” his son-in-law Remi Aucoin said in a phone interview yesterday. “He always stayed positive but about a month ago he suffered a stroke and he took a quick turn.”
Breck first appeared on the local scene in the 1970s when he served as athletic director and head football coach at Champlain College directing the Cougars to two Bol d’Or titles in 1979 and 1981 while finishing second in the province in 1982 and 1983
Ian joined the Bishop’s Gaiters coaching staff in 1984 under the leadership of Bruce Coulter. Breck was named head coach in 1988 and he continued the winning tradition established by Coulter.
In 11 years at the helm, Breck posted a 51-25-2 regular season record and made the playoffs ten times. He led the Gaiters to five regular season championships and won Dunsmore Cup titles in 1988, 1990 and 1994. In each of those years Bishop’s appeared in a national bowl game. Breck was an outstanding recruiter who coached 25 All-Canadians and three CIAU major award winners. In 1992, Ian was named the CIAU Coach of the Year and took home the Frank Tindall Trophy.
Following his resignation from Bishop’s, Ian went on to teach at Alexander Galt Regional High School where he resurrected the Piper football program. In 2000, Ian became the Head Coach of Team Canada and brought a team of U-20 all-stars to the Global Junior Football Championship, annually held at the site of the Super Bowl, and led them to the World Championship.
Ian returned to Bishop’s in 2011 to help as a volunteer assistant coach. He was inducted into the Bishop’s University Wall of Distinction in 2017.
