I never met Bob Ackles. But I couldn't help but get a little misty when I heard the Dal Richards classic 'Roar You Lions Roar' this morning on the radio.

Ackles died Sunday at the age of 69, spending 40 of those years with the Lions in some capacity, ranging from water boy to team President and CEO, his final job in the organization.

He left the B.C. Lions' organization for the first time when I was a year old and the team was a year removed from a Grey Cup win, and didn't return until I was a teenager and the team was teetering on the edge of financial and competitive collapse.

Within a year of his return, he had assembled a team that included one of the greatest coaches in professional sports in Wally Buono, the most accurate quarterback in CFL history, Dave Dickenson, and several other players who would help shape the future of the Leos.

But his biggest challenge would be off the field: Would anybody care?

Owner David Braley was understandably on his final nerve with the fickle Lower Mainland fans and reached out to Ackles to try and right the ship.

Years of terrible ownership by the likes of snake oil salesman Murray Pezim, the Brick boss Bill Comrie, and dubious real estate investor Nelson Skalbania alienated the few fans who remained in the 1990s.

Ackles knew the one thing that would bring people to games: fun, exciting, but most of all, winning football.

Vancouver isn't Green Bay. The Lions have to win if they want to draw more than flies to cavernous B.C. Place Stadium.

As Dickenson began to live up to his advanced billing, a youngster from Texas named Casey Printers emerged, creating a quarterback controversy that finally got people talking again about the Lions in positive terms.

The Lions hit a climax in 2006, winning their fifth Grey Cup, dropping the Montreal Alouettes. This gave Ackles his third championship ring with the Lions, adding to titles in 1964 and 1985.

But perhaps the most important thing Bob Ackles did in his final years was stand up for the CFL in its time of need, which is seemingly every year.

Teaming with former Vancouver mayor and current member of the Canadian Senate Larry Campbell, Ackles helped promote a bill that would bar the NFL from infiltrating the Canadian border, which is an admirable goal, with the Buffalo Bills coming north to play several games in the coming years.

Who will continue his fight?

Campbell will provide the needed political muscle, but who can represent the interests of Canadian football better than a Canadian who has been on both sides of the border in a management capacity?

In his second tour of duty in Vancouver, Ackles helped make a jaded city care about its football team again.

And speaking as a lifelong Lions fan, there is no greater final gift to the city.

Even if he didn't know it'd be his last gift.