When B.C. Lions kicker Lui Passaglia found out he’d become an inductee into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, he had to admit it was a pleasant surprise, given that he’d been retired for 11 years.
“I think the ultimate is to be included in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame with all the other athletes from all the other sports. That’s a humbling thought in itself,” Passaglia said on Friday in a phone interview from Vancouver, where he was born and raised and played with the Lions for a pro-record 25 consecutive years.
Hockey Hall of Fame defenceman Ray Bourque, 10-time Paralympic medallist Lauren Woolstencroft, triathlete Peter Reid, soccer player Andrea Neil and International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound are also part of the 2011 class.
The induction ceremony into the Hall, of which Sportsnet is a sponsor, is Nov. 8 in Calgary.
Passaglia registered a 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 kicker and once a punter, too.
Passaglia has already been inducted into every B.C. Hall of Fame and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
He joins one-time teammate Jim (Dirty 30) Young and executive Bobby Ackles as members of the Lions inducted into the Hall.
“It really wasn’t in the back of my mind. It truly wasn’t,” he added. “When I was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, you start thinking that maybe one day (it will lead to an induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame), but 11 years after the fact you never know if it was to happen. Getting that call was pretty neat.”
Passaglia is the only true kicker/punter to be inducted into the Hall.
“Everybody else has probably played a full-time position, so to speak,” he said.
Passaglia, who achieved a dream come true playing for Lions, did punting, field-goal kicking and kickoffs for most of his career and took pride in what he did as an athlete.
“Some of us made some plays – ran the ball, threw the ball, made some tackles – so you always felt you were more than just a kicker because we were more than just a kicker,” he said. “We did the other jobs, too, and that was the beauty of playing in the Canadian Football League, especially in our position because of the ratio (of Canadian and non-Canadians) to do the multitude of kicking jobs, so that was pretty neat. The key I think is to perform well and to perform well for a long, long time. I never thought I’d last 25 years. I was happy when I got to 10 or 12. I always think of the first game I ever played, where I scored a touchdown (on a pass reception) in 1976 playing in front of your home crowd and the team you grew up watching.”
He recalled winning the 2000 Grey Cup as something special because he knew it would be his final game having already announced months before he was retiring. But he said winning the 1994 Grey Cup at home and scoring the winning points on a 38-yard field goal with time expired on the clock was the pinnacle.
“When it comes to enjoying the moment with your teammates, the nation and the province, I don’t think it gets any better than winning the Grey Cup in front of your fans,” he said. “To do it with a last-second field goal – you’re dreaming about kicking game-winning field goal – it doesn’t get any better than that. Doing it in front of 60,000 fans and doing it as underdogs and kicking it in the last play of the game, that’s your Cinderella story right there. “
