Jim Popp

Jim Popp

Montreal Alouettes
Date of birth	(1964-12-21) December 21, 1964
Place of birth	Elkin, North Carolina
Career information
Position(s)	Vice President, General Manager, Director of Football Operations, Director of Player Personnel
US college	Michigan State University
High school	Mooresville High School, Mooresville, NC
Career highlights and awards
inducted into Sports Hall-of-Fame, 2011 Sports Executive-of-the-Year, 4 Grey Cup Championships,
Awards	2011 Sports Executive of the Year
Honours	4x Grey Cup champion – (1995, 2002, 2009, 2010), 10 Grey Cup appearances

Jim Popp (born December 21, 1964 in Elkin, North Carolina) is the general manager and interim head coach of the Montreal Alouettes football club of the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Arguably, the most successful General Manager in CFL history, Popp has won four Grey Cups (1995 with the Baltimore Stallions; 2002, 2009, and 2010 with the Montreal Alouettes) and his teams have appeared in 10 Grey Cups (eight over the past decade).

Montreal Alouettes

Jim was named general manager and director of player personnel of the CFL’s Baltimore Stallions in 1994. After two Grey Cup appearances (including one championship), the team was forced out of Baltimore when the original Cleveland Browns NFL franchise relocated to Baltimore as the Baltimore Ravens. Stallions owner Jim Speros knew that the Stallions could not compete with an NFL team even though they'd been a runaway hit. Ultimately, he decided to relocate his team to Montreal as the third incarnation of the Alouettes.

Popp stayed on as general manager, but found himself having to rebuild the team from almost nothing. While the Alouettes were allowed to reclaim the legacy of the original 1946-86 Alouettes, they were not allowed to keep their history as the Stallions. However, while all of the Stallions players were released from their contracts, Popp resigned most of the key players from that team.

The Alouettes have been in eight Grey Cup Championships during Popp’s tenure (2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010), capturing the title three times (2002, 2009 and 2010).

Coaching career

During the 2001 season, Popp took over the team after he and owner Robert Wetenhall fired Rod Rust in the midst of a long losing streak. On October 4, 2006, following the resignation of Don Matthews due to health reasons, Popp again took over as head coach and led the Alouettes to an appearance in the 2006 Grey Cup. Popp continued leading the Alouettes during the 2007 season as well, a rebuilding year which saw the team play with 23 rookies and without their starting quarterback for half the season. Following the 2007 season, Popp decided to step away from the coaching ranks when he hired former NFL coach Marc Trestman as the new head coach of the Alouettes. On August 1, 2013, Popp returned to the sideline after the firing of new head coach Dan Hawkins.

Front office executive

Under Popp’s guidance, his teams have seen unprecedented success, reaching the playoffs for 20 consecutive seasons, and advancing to the Divisional Championship game 15 times. Popp’s teams have appeared in 10 Grey Cup championship games, winning the Grey Cup four times.

In January 2012, Popp was a finalist for the vacant Indianapolis Colts General Manager position

Career highlights

The 2009 and 2010 Alouettes back-to-back Grey Cup championships were the first back-to-back CFL titles in 13 years. Popp’s teams have been some of the most successful in CFL history.

• The only team to ever win 18 games in a CFL season (Baltimore Stallions - including the final 13 in-a-row)
• One of three teams in CFL history to have ever won 12 or more games in six consecutive seasons.
• Popp is the only General Manager to have won 12 or more games in seven consecutive seasons.
• Notoriety of having the most successful expansion franchise in sports history (1994 expansion Baltimore Stallions played in the Grey Cup Championship).

Personal life

Popp credits much of his success on the field to his family, especially his father Joe, a former NFL and college coach. Jim and his father share the privilege of being members of the Mooresville (NC) High School Hall of Fame, whose football stadium is named in Joe’s honor (Coach Joe Popp Stadium).

Awards

Popp was recently named 2011 Sports Executive of the Year by Sports Media Canada.

CFL head coaching record

Team	Year	Regular Season					Post Season
		Won	Lost	Ties	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Result
MTL	2001	0	1	0	.000	3rd in East Division	0	1	Lost in Division Semi-Finals
MTL	2006	2	2	0	.500	1st in East Division	1	1	Lost in Grey Cup
MTL	2007	8	10	0	.444	3rd in East Division	0	1	Lost in Division Semi-Finals
MTL	2013	2	5	0	.285				Season In Progress
Total		12	18	0	.400	1 East Division Championship	1	3	0 Grey Cups

External links

• Montreal Alouettes profile