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On August 23, 2006, Eric Tillman was introduced as the new General Manager and Vice-President of Football Operations for the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club.
Tillman has been involved in the CFL for the last 16 years during which time he has served as General Manager for four teams – B.C., Toronto, Ottawa and currently Saskatchewan. During that time he has captured three Grey Cups - the most recent being in 2007 with the Roughriders.
He graduated with a Journalism Degree from theUniversity of Mississippi in 1979.
Tillman began his football career in 1981 when he joined the public relations department of the NFL’s Houston Oilers.
He then moved to the CFL in 1982 when he took the job of Director of Player Personnel with the Montreal Concordes.
In 1984, he became executive director of the prestigious Senior Bowl, held annually in Mobile, Alabama. During his eight years with the NFL-sponsored All-Star game, he gained invaluable contacts in collegiate professional football.
In 1993, he accepted the vacant General Manager position with the B.C. Lions, inheriting a team that had finished 3-15 the previous year. The team went on to win 31 games over the next three seasons which included capturing the Grey Cup in 1994 in Vancouver 26-23 over the Baltimore Stallions thanks to Lui Passaglia's winning field goal.
Tillman then left the CFL to head overseas where he worked as the Director of Football Operations for NFL Europe. In that role, Tillman also spent extensive time in the NFL office in New York.
He returned to the CFL in 1997 as the General Manager of the Toronto Argonauts. The Argos went on to capture the Grey Cup that season, knocking off the upstart Roughriders in that game with standout quarterback Doug Flutie at the helm for the Boatmen. Tillman was with Toronto for the 1997 season and the 1999 season as the team's GM.
In his most recent Manager role in the CFL, Tillman worked with the Ottawa Renegades for the expansion clubs' first three seasons prior to heading into broadcasting where he worked with CBC and Sportsnet as a television analyst for the CFL.
Over the course of his CFL career, Tillman has brought many noteworthy players into the CFL including Kerry Joseph, Jason Armstead, Fred Perry, Jeremy O’Day and Korey Banks.
The 50-year-old was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He and his wife Francine have two children – Alexandra (4) and Jackson (3).
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