Gary Inness is being remembered with reverence by his fellow football coaches, players and students during his more than two decades at Barrie North Collegiate Institute.
Inness died Tuesday, Feb. 23 at age 71.
“He was a tremendous leader; our school’s mourning him,” said Burke Erwin, who coached Viking teams with Inness from 2004 until 2010. “Not just coaches, but teachers all felt Gary’s presence here. He was an extension of administration, he wasn’t just a coach. He was a very, very big part of where our school’s at now.”
Peter Glass, who also coached alongside Inness, said his influence extends far beyond Barrie North Collegiate.
“There’s at least been 10 or 12 former players of Gary’s that are now coaching (football) in Simcoe County,” Glass told BarrieToday. “His influence on those students was pretty significant, in that it paved the way to their profession. They’re teachers and coaches. They’re scattered everywhere.
“His influence has been high, I can’t think of anybody more. It’s hitting us very hard.”
Gary Inness was born May 28, 1949 in Toronto. A hockey goalie, he played for McMaster University and the University of Toronto from 1971 until 1973, along with football, before turning professional, according to his profile at hockeydb.com.
From 1973 to 1981, Inness played for the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers, before a two-year stint with the World Hockey Association’s Indianapolis Racers, then returned to the NHL with the Washington Capitals. He retired in 1981, then served three years as coach of the American Hockey League's Hershey Bears.
Chris Forde, who played football at Barrie North in the early 1990s, said Inness rarely mentioned his pro hockey days.
“He never talked about it… he never bragged about it ever, never really brought it up,” Forde said. “It was just a part of his life that I think he was done with and was on to being a teacher and a coach. It was eerie for someone who had obviously some pretty good success as a professional athlete to never discuss it, really.
“He was very humble. A strong personality, but at the same time humble about that accomplishment,” Forde added. “Really, it was one hell of an accomplishment. He might not have been an all-star, but just to play in the (NHL) alone is a hell of an accomplishment, and especially the route he took to get there was very different, and in reality, pretty unheralded. He made it there from playing Canadian university hockey.”
Mark McKnight, who played for the Vikings 1994 until 1997, said Inness was much more than a football coach to him.
“He really was an amazing coach, on and off the field, right through into schooling,” he said. “At that time, when I went through high school, at that time in my life, he was a figure that I could go to speak to.
“On the field for football was one thing, he was a great coach, but he helped me behind the scenes to make sure that I did well in school, or the best I could do in school. He was really focused on that with me as well,” McKnight added.
“He would sit down and talk to you one-on-one. You could tell even if he didn’t have time, he would take time for you to do that.”
Forde said there was also a certain intensity to Inness.
“He was scary, in a sense, but not scary because he would belittle you or attack you in any way. He just had that strong personality,” Forde said. “You didn’t want to let him down. He would go through a wall for you and so you wanted to go through that wall for him as well.
"He had a great leadership quality to him that so many of his players obviously looked up to and respected greatly.”
Erwin, who still coaches football at Barrie North, said he learned a great deal from Inness, who was there from the late 1980s until he retired in 2010.
“He was a visionary, he led by example and he always had the bigger picture in mind,” Erwin said. “His vision started with an expectation for absolutely anybody, whether it be coach or player, to put your heart and soul on the line for the team.
“For me, I was craving mentorship and I wanted to know the secrets that the great coaches had, and he was what I consider a great coach. So when I asked, he certainly shared and I can tell you we spent a lot of time going over hockey coaches that he had in his professional career who’d gone on, like big names, who shared notes and coaching philosophies that I just ate up and it’s still being used today with our current program,” Erwin added.
“Part of that philosophy was that so we would have strong junior and senior programs, the coaches rotated through the junior and senior (football teams)," he said. “We’d start at junior, take them through to senior and start the cycle over again.”
Forde became a teacher himself and coached against Inness.
“I remember the first game coaching against him. It was a challenge, but at the same time a thrill… the guy who had inspired me to be a coach and a teacher, really,” Forde said. “To coach against him was pretty awesome.”
