Green was the colour … of the traffic light.
A mid-20s version of Andre Bolduc was being a responsible driver, obeying all the rules, as he motored through an intersection one fine day in 1996.
A graduate of the Concordia Stingers football program, Bolduc was destined for another Montreal campus — McGill University — for a workout that was to precede an audition with the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders.
The problem, though, was that the operator of another vehicle was determined to transform driving into a collision sport.
“I was going through a green light and somebody just rocked me from the side,” recalls Bolduc, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ newly appointed running backs coach. “It destroyed the car.”
But not his resolve.
“I took the bus and I made it to the workout,” Bolduc continues. “It was a couple of days before the final touches (on an agreement with the Rough Riders), with the running and the testing, so I really wanted to make it.
“I guess adrenalin was hitting me hard, so I hit the workout hard.”
Two days later, Bolduc impressed the Rough Riders’ brass at a free-agent camp that was held at Ottawa’s Frank Clair Stadium. A contract was soon signed.
It shouldn’t have been that complicated, really.
The blueprint should have called for him to be selected in the 1995 CFL draft, but paperwork got in the way.
“If you remember, the drafts back in the day were going by credits,” Bolduc says. “So if you had enough credits in university and they thought that you were graduating, your name was in the draft.
“I wanted to graduate pretty fast from Concordia, so I was doing summer semesters. So my name was in the draft in my third year, but no one knew about it. It was just my third year and I was getting ready for my fourth year.”
By the time his fourth year with the Stingers came and went, the oversight had been flagged. He consequently became a free agent after catching 35 passes for 635 yards and seven touchdowns with Concordia in 1995 and being named an all-star slotback for the second consecutive season. He had caught 31 passes for 549 yards and three scores the previous year.
There were overtures from the Rough Riders, Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders once Bolduc’s status was clarified.
He chose the eastern Riders and, although the team struggled, it was a productive year personally.
A receiver by trade, he caught 32 passes for 287 yards and one touchdown.
When Ottawa encountered an injury-related personnel crisis in the offensive backfield, Bolduc was called upon to accept handoffs.
He rushed 32 times for 121 yards while wearing a number — 87 — that is routinely associated with a receiver, not a tailback.
Down the road, when Bolduc was an assistant coach with the Alouettes, he showed his colleagues footage from his rookie CFL season in order to prove that, yes, a running back was wearing No. 87.
“Some guys did not believe it,” the personable Bolduc says, “but we had YouTube to prove it.”
Bolduc quickly proved himself as a first-year CFLer, only to have the Rough Riders fold after the 1996 season.
As a minor consolation, the unfortunate events did allow for Bolduc to finally be drafted by a CFL team. He went fifth overall to the Edmonton Elks in a dispersal draft that was held March 12, 1997.
Saskatchewan, with the first overall selection, drafted David Archer. A lucrative offer was made with the objective of having Archer fill the Roughriders’ glaring void at quarterback, but he opted to become part of CBC’s broadcast crew for 1997.
In the meantime, Bolduc was getting to know another quarterback of note. Roughriders legend Ron Lancaster was Edmonton’s head coach when Bolduc was chosen in the dispersal draft.
“I really enjoyed playing for Coach Lancaster,” Bolduc says. “He wasn’t saying much, but his hands on the team were so solid.
“He was a players’ coach and we really played hard for him. He connected well with the veterans but also with the young guys.”
Bolduc spent the 1997 campaign with Edmonton before joining Montreal for what would be a four-season stay on the Alouettes’ roster. He was Montreal’s special-teams captain in 1999 and 2000.
From there, he made a smooth transition into coaching while attaining a long-standing goal in the process.
His initial plan was to teach geography and coach football at the same high school. Instead, his first foray into coaching was at the collegiate level — as the Montreal Carabins’ offensive co-ordinator in 2002.
The next coaching stop was at College Montmorency in Laval, Que., where he was the head coach and offensive co-ordinator in 2005 and 2006.
A product of Alma, Que., he proceeded to spend five seasons (2007 to 2011) as the head coach with the Universite de Sherbrooke Vert et Or, earning conference coach-of-the-year honours in what turned out to be his final season at the school.
Bolduc resigned following the 2011 season in order to spend more time with his family — his wife (Patricia Dufort) and four children (Thomas, Raphael and twin daughters Justine and Elizabeth).
Coaching came calling again in 2014, when Bolduc joined the Alouettes’ staff for what proved to be an extended stay.
He was an offensive assistant (2014), receivers coach (2015) and special-teams assistant (2016) before serving as the running backs coach from 2017 to 2022.
As well, he was named the Alouettes’ assistant head coach in 2020 and remained in that capacity until his appointment to the Roughriders’ coaching staff was announced in early February.
“I met a lot of great people, great coaches and great players in Montreal,” says Bolduc, who turned 52 on Saturday. “I was able to stay there with all the changes.
“I went through eight head coaches. I was able to get an interview every time and find a way to have a spot on that coaching staff, so I was very fortunate.
“I think one of my strengths is being loyal. Regardless of who you are or what your mentality is, I’m going to help you and take the same direction that the head coach is going to. That certainly helped me stay in the same place for a long time.”
Bolduc had aspired to be the current head coach of the Alouettes. He was among five candidates to be interviewed for the position by Alouettes general manager Danny Maciocia, who ultimately chose former Roughriders offensive co-ordinator Jason Maas.
“As soon as the process went on, I felt that I needed to challenge myself,” Bolduc says. “Even before Danny called to get me an interview and give me a chance to do a presentation and all that, I was telling my wife, ‘Maybe I need some change. It has been a long time. I need to challenge myself. I need to see different techniques and meet different people, different coaches.’
“I can’t say that I have experience in the CFL as a head coach, so I understood when Jason got it. He gave me a call. We had a great conversation. He was talking about the off-season already and I was like, ‘Jason, I’m going to think about that a little bit. I need some time. I might move on.’
“The kids are getting older, so I had the family backing me up. That was the main thing. I wouldn’t have done that five years ago. You can’t leave home for that long but now, family-wise, the timing was perfect.”
So was the fit in Saskatchewan, given Bolduc’s long-standing relationship with Kelly Jeffrey — who was named the Roughriders’ offensive co-ordinator by head coach Craig Dickenson on Dec. 12.
Jeffrey, a former head coach of the Mount Allison Mounties, had crossed paths with Bolduc in the U Sports ranks and elsewhere on the football trail.
“I had always stayed in touch with Kelly,” Bolduc says. “I knew what was going on in Saskatchewan and that he had a chance to be the OC there. He knew what was going on with me in Montreal, too.
“I had already told him that if I didn’t get (the Alouettes’ head-coaching job), maybe it was time for me to move, so he knew about that.
“I’ve also heard so many great things about Craig Dickenson and I heard great things about the members of the staff.”
Not to mention the running backs — most notably incumbents Jamal Morrow and Frankie Hickson.
“I did my research on those running backs,” Bolduc says. “I knew what I was getting. I did my research film-wise and stats-wise and I knew I could take these guys and get them to the next level. They’re good. They’re talented.”
And, as a bonus, they wear actual running backs’ numbers — 20 (Hickson) and 25 (Morrow) — as opposed to Bolduc’s old No. 87.
“They have good numbers,” the Roughriders’ new running backs coach says with a chuckle. “That’s the first thing I checked out.”
