Lefko on Passaglia: More than a kicker

Some kickers become offended when you refer to them as strictly kickers.

“I’m not a kicker, I’m an athlete who kicks,” is one such response.

Well, Lui Passaglia is a kicker who did so well in his career. He has racked up numerous awards and achievements, the latest of which is induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, of which Sportsnet is a sponsor.

Passagalia did some amazing things in his career, which lasted 25 years, a pro football record. The Vancouver native did it with his hometown B.C. Lions. He had a storybook career and no one was loved more by the Lions’ faithful than Passaglia, who was serenaded with “Luuuuuuu” every time he stepped on to the field and after he made a key play, of which there were many. He registered CFL record for total points (3,991) and regular-season games played (408). He is the all-time punt leader with 3,142 for 133,826 yards. Four times he was voted a CFL All-Star (including one year in both the kicker and punter category) and nine times a Western Conference All-Star.

It can be said that his longevity was a product of not facing the kind of physical contact that limits the careers of football players, which can make them disrespectful of the kickers. There measure of worth is a product of simply doing their job on only a few plays a game. Passaglia did that from start to finish. He was one of the few players of his era to kick and punt, and do so with a high level of efficiency. In the CFL more than the National Football League, players who can both kick and punt with a significant degree of skill and success are a premium. If they are Canadian and can do they are that much more valuable.

In that respect, Passaglia was a rarity.

Yet people will remember him for one play in particular, his 38-yard field goal with time expired on the clock in the 1994 Grey Cup. His kick gave the Lions a 26-23 victory over the Baltimore Stallions, the first time the championship game featured an American team. Passaglia received a second chance to make good in the game after missing a 37-yarder with 1:02 left on the clock. That the game happened inside B.C. Place and featured the game-winning points by a B.C. player who was born and raised in the province, well, those are the types of things you can’t script any better.

He scored what became the game-winning points in the 2000 Grey Cup, hitting a 29-yard field goal with 1:25 left on the clock in a 28-26 victory over the Montreal Alouettes. It would be the last game he played in his career, an appropriate ending to be sure.

Passaglia was voted the Most Outstanding Canadian in two of the five Grey Cups in which he played. He recorded his first Grey Cup win in 1985.

In 2004 he was inducted in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, one of only 14 players to receive that honour in their first year of eligibility. On that list, he is the only player who did so primarily as a kicker.

But what’s a little known fact about Passaglia is that he scored a touchdown in both his first regular-season game and his final one: the first, a 10-yard touchdown pass, and the final one a one-yard run. Passaglia played receiver in university, which clearly spoke of his athletic skills beyond just kicking. He completed 21 of 35 passes in his career and ran 15 times for 206 yards.

Passaglia is also a member of the B.C. Hall of Fame and the B.C. Lions Wall of Fame.

Passaglia was born on June 7, 1954, two months before the Lions played their inaugural game in franchise history. Perhaps it was meant to be that he would be a Lion for life and almost 47 years later would be recognized as one of Canada’s greatest athletes by virtue of his induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.