Bill Redell

Bill Redell played six years in the CFL from 1964 to 1969. The era of two way players was over, but it was still not uncommon at this time for a player who was talented on both sides of the ball to swtich from offence to defence from season to season or even game to game depending on the needs of the team. Players like Garney Henley and Dave Raimey come to mind, and Bill Redell was a similar case. Redell started in the CFL with Edmonton in 1964 and for the first two years played a lot of time at quarterback as the Eskimos were still looking for the successor for Jackie Parker. Redell put up pretty good numbers at quarterback, with a very modern looking 65.1% completion percentage on 175 pass attempts in 1965. While Redell threw more interceptions than touchdowns, that was not terribly unusual for that era. In 1966, Redell spent more time as a defensive back in 1966 with only 69 pass attempts, but his 6 interceptions tied for the best in the West and won him a West All-Star. Redell moved East to Hamilton for 1967 and stayed there for t wo seasons, playing almost exclusively at defensive back as Joe Zuger was the Tiger-Cats #1 quarterback. Redell had four interceptions in 1967 and tied his personal best with six in 1968 to tie for the lead in the East. In 1969, Redell returned to the West, this time with the Calgary Stampeders where he played defensive back and backed up another great two way player in Jerry Keeling. After retiring as a player, Redell turned to coaching, first as an assistant coach at the collegiate level and then as a head coach at the high scool level.