Neil Joseph "Piffles" Taylor (March 29, 1895 – May 24, 1947)[1] was a CanadianWorld War I pilot,Canadian football player, coach, and executive. He was "largely responsible for the development of football inWestern Canada".[2]
Born inCollingwood, Ontario, and raised inYellow Grass, Saskatchewan, he studied law and played collegiately at theUniversity of Toronto before joining theRegina Rugby Club in 1914. In 1916, he joined theRoyal Flying Corps and became afighter pilot. He lost an eye when he was shot down and spent a year in aGermanprisoner of war camp during World War I.[3] His brother Sam, also a pilot, was shot down and killed.
Despite the loss of an eye, Taylor returned to the Regina RC in 1919,quarterbacking the team to theHugo Ross Trophy overCalgary.[4] He played for them through 1921, and served as their coach in 1922 and 1923. He joined the newly renamed Regina Roughriders as their executive in 1926. In 1934, he was named team president, a post he held until 1937, when he was briefly president of theWestern Interprovincial Football Union. He presided over the WIFU again from 1941 to 1942, and served as president of theCanadian Rugby Union in 1946 before his sudden death the same year. He was posthumously inducted to theOrder of the British Empire.[1]
The home of the Roughriders, Park de Young, was renamed the now-defunctTaylor Field in his honour in 1947, and theHugo Ross Trophy, awarded annually to the champions of the WIFU, was replaced with theN. J. Taylor Trophy in 1948. Taylor was posthumously inducted to theCanadian Football Hall of Fame in 1963. In 2006, the street directly in front of the now-defunct stadium's west entrance was renamed Piffles Taylor Way.[5]