Andanh.com

I was saddened to hear the news Sunday that former Cardinals football executive Bob Ackles had died of an apparent heart attack in his hometown of Vancouver.

I met Ackles when he came to the Cardinals in 1992 as the director of college scouting, working under GM Larry Wilson. Bob had just been let go by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who hired a buddy, Larry Lacewell, to replace Bob. It was the Cardinals' gain.

Under Bob, the Cardinals streamlined their draft process and took a step toward becoming a modern NFL team. Bob stayed with the Cardinals through 1994, serving as assistant general manager to Buddy Ryan. It was a job he hated, because he felt Ryan lacked intregrity. And to Bob, integrity was everything.

I took over the Cardinals beat in 1994 and had only a cursory knowledge of the NFL, how to deal with agents, what questions to ask front office people -- in short, how the league worked. Bob was good enough to help me out. He patiently answered a lot of dumb questions.

Bob left the Cardinals in 1994, ill-suited to work with Ryan. He went to the Eagles, then to Miami, where he re-joined Jimmy Johnson, whom he had worked for in Dallas. After that, he ran the XFL team in Las Vegas, where he had the time of his life trying to make that new league work.

It didn't, but Bob was always upbeat. He was a man interested in more than just sports, and he enrolled in some art classes at UNLV after that. Not long after, the owner of the Canadian Football League's British Columbia Lions asked Bob if he would return to the CFL to run the franchise. Bob grew up working in the CFL, working his way up from the Lions' waterboy to their general manager. So he returned to Vancouver and turned the franchise around.

I caught up with Bob earlier this year, and did a short piece on him for  ourweekly "What's Up With" feature on page 2. Bob was enjoying life. He was spending time at home with his wife, Kay, or on his boat or enjoying his grandkids. He had just written his memoir "The Water Boy."

He talked about the NFL possibly moving into Canada with the Bills playing some home preseason games in Toronto. If it became more than that, Ackles said, the CFL was history. Ackles was passionate about the subject. He also talked about how much it meant to him that his son Scott, had just become head of the Calgary Stampeders franchise, how nice it was to spend time with his grandkids, how he and his wife, Kay, loved spending time on their boat. And he talked about getting older.

"I'll be 70 this year," he said. "It's hard for me to believe it because I don't know what 70 feels like."

Bob was 69 when he passed away. His death was big news in Canada. By my count ,The Vancouver Sun has at least five stories about him today.