Ed Willes

Class of 2022


Willes spent 38 years as a prolific and talented sports writer at several newspapers, including the Medicine Hat News, the Regina Leader-Post and the Winnipeg Sun, while also contributing freelance articles to the New York Times. He was hired as a columnist for The Province in Vancouver in 1998, to cover numerous sports, but he always had a penchant for the CFL. As newspaper staffs shrank, he assumed beat-writing duties for the Lions, while continuing as the lead columnist in the Lower Mainland.
In addition to writing two hockey books, in 2013, Willes wrote End Zones and Border Wars: The Era of American Expansion in the CFL as a look into the league’s venture into seven U.S. cities during the mid-1990s. Willes retired in 2020.