Long before Mike Riley (b. Jul 6, 1953) was big man on campus at Corvallis High School, he knew he wanted to become a football coach. That desire came from watching his father Bud beginning his own coaching career in Wallace, Idaho.

After Bud moved the family to become an assistant at Oregon State, Mike Riley became part of one of the greatest collections of high school talent in Oregon history.

Mike played three sports for CHS teams that all won state championships. Riley was the option quarterback for the football team that hosted two epic back-to-back state finals against Medford in Parker Stadium in 1969 and 70.

Riley’s college career was playing defensive back at Alabama for the legendary Bear Bryant, and he immediately joined the coaching ranks in 1975.

Mike had the great fortune to learn from some coaching greats: John Robinson, Ad Rutschman, Hugh Campbell, and Cal Murphy at various stops in college football and the Canadian Football League.

Riley’s first head coaching job was with Winnipeg at age 33 where he won two Grey Cup championships. He would next be considered a great developer of talent with San Antonio of the World League of American Football.

His best work was right back at home at Oregon State. In the first of two separate stints as Beaver head coach, 2 seasons from 1997-98, Riley revived the program and set the table for the end of the 30-year streak of losing seasons.

That led to an NFL opportunity with San Diego Chargers. Five years later Riley returned to an OSU program firing on all cylinders and the Beavs enjoyed all kinds of success:  8 winning seasons in 12 years and 6 bowl victories. The Beavers sent four quarterbacks to the NFL and in 2012, Mike Riley became the winningest coach in OSU football history.

Oregon State was not the end of Mike Riley’s head coaching career. There was the University of Nebraska, the Alliance of American Football and head coach and general manager of the New Jersey Generals of the new USFL.