Riley also spent 14 seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL), most notably as head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1974 to 1977 and as a front office executive for the Calgary Stampeders from 1985 to 1987.

[7] His father died when he was 12,[8] and he quit high school at age 17 during World War II to join the U.S. Navy.

Following the war, he returned to western Alabama and later enrolled at nearby East Mississippi Junior College in Scooba.

[10][11][12] In the home opener against Oregon in 1948, Riley scored the Vandals' only touchdown in a 15–8 loss in his first game at Neale Stadium.

The 1948 Webfoots featured Norm Van Brocklin and John McKay,[13] and finished the regular season at 9–1 as PCC co-champions.

[1] The school superintendent was short-handed for instructors and asked him to fill in as a teacher, and he agreed to try it on an interim basis, with the mining company's permission.

[1][18] Riley met his wife, Mary Shumaker from nearby Mullan,[19][20] while working in Wallace; they were married in November 1951 and their first two sons were born there.

[1][22] The Vandals posted their first winning record in a quarter century in 1963,[23] and in 1964 they beat neighbor WSU for the first time in a decade[24] and barely lost the week before at Rose Bowl-bound Oregon State 10–7 on a second half punt return.

[25] When Tommy Prothro left OSU for UCLA, Andros moved over to Oregon State and the Pac-8 in February 1965,[23] Riley followed him to Corvallis as the secondary coach,[18][26] later defensive coordinator, from 1965 to 1972.