Doug Collins played eight years as a defensive tackle and offensive tackle in the Canadian Football League. He is a three-time Grey Cup Champion who suited up for Ottawa and Hamilton in the 1960s and ’70s.

Collins was born in Windsor on February 18, 1945.

At Patterson Collegiate, Collins was an outstanding football, basketball, and track and field athlete between 1958 and ’63. Collins was a unanimous First-Team All-City selection as his Panthers team won the ’61 WSSA Football Championship. He won a second First-Team All-City place in ’62, when he also earned Second-Team All-City honours in basketball.

Collins won WSSA gold medals in shot put and discus in 1958, ’60, ’61, and ’62, plus javelin golds in ’60, ’61, and ’62. At the WOSSA regional meet, he won gold medals in all three events in ’60, then further golds in shot put and discus in ’61 and ’62. His record in the eight-pound shot put (53 feet, five inches) stood for 22 years. In ’60, Collins competed at the Canadian Junior Championships, where he won gold in javelin and silvers in shot put and discus.

After graduation, Collins enrolled at the University of Detroit, where he made the football team as a linebacker and offensive guard. Collins played for Detroit between 1963 and ’64, at which point he transferred to the University of Cincinnati. He played three years as a defensive tackle with the Bearcats between ’65 and ’67.

Collins joined the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders after university. At the same time, he began a teaching career. Collins taught physical education and history at South Carleton High School in Ottawa, where he also coached basketball.

All in all, Collins played eight years in the CFL, first as a defensive tackle (from 1968 to ’70) and then as an offensive tackle (’71-75). His Ottawa teams won Grey Cups in ’68 (defeating Calgary 24 to 21 in the Grey Cup Game), ’69 (defeating Saskatchewan 29-11), and ’73 (defeating Edmonton 22-18).

Before the 1975 season, Collins was traded to Hamilton for CFL Hall of Famer Tony Gabriel. He played one season with the Tiger-Cats before calling it a career.

Collins retired from CFL play in 1975 and devoted himself fulltime to teaching. He taught elementary school in Ottawa between ’75 and ’76 and Kirkland Lake between ’76 and ’79. Collins moved to Lindsay, in Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes region in ’79 to take a position as Head of Special Education at I. E. Weldon Secondary School. He spent eight years in the role, during which time he coached the school’s football team to two championships.

In 1987, Collins obtained a Master’s Degree in Special Education from the University of Toronto. He remained in Lindsay and began teaching in that discipline in the region’s elementary school system.

As of 2015, Collins resides near Lindsay in Little Britain, Ontario.