Kadie Smith
Lui Passaglia looked at the crowd gathered at the 2014 CFL Alumni Lunch during Grey Cup weekend where he was being honoured as the Alumni Association’s Man of the Year.
“When you go through cancer, you look forward to dates on the calendar. I circled the Grey Cup weekend on my calendar because Iknew I was going to meet old friends and have a good time,” he said. “That’s what life is all about.”
Just a few months prior to the event, Passaglia had been diagnosed with stage-three colon cancer.
“When you first hear it, it’s a devastating word, but it’s not a devastating word any more,” he told the large crowd, many of whom had come to hear him speak. When he left the stage, he left to an extended standing ovation.
But that’s Lui: a born leader with a quiet humility. Determined in his resolve whether on the field or in his personal life. You get the sense that he’s always been older than his years. It was 20 years ago last November that Passaglia solidified himself as the hometown hero in BC with his no-time-left, field goal to give the Lions the Grey Cup over their heated American rivals the Baltimore Stallions.
The kick that then head coach Dave Ritchie still maintains he couldn’t watch. The kick that was named the greatest play in Lions’ history in 2007.
Passaglia is the definition of hometown hero, playing football at Notre Dame High School in East Vancouver, before moving onto the Clansmen at SFU.
The Lions selected Passaglia fifth overall in 1979, and the Coquitlam-born kicker made good on the first-round selection. The CFL’s all-time leading scorer would go on to play in 408 games for the Leos amassing an astounding 3,991 points, nailing 875 field goals on 1,203 attempts.
In his final year with the Lions, at age 46 and after 25 years in the league, he walked away with the highest single-season field-goal percentage at 90.94% (40 of 44). Another Lions’ kicker, Paul McCallum currently holds that record at 94.3%.
Toppling record after record and nabbing three Grey Cup rings in the process, the All-Star remains, in the eyes of many, as the greatest Lion in history. Immediately following the Lions’ 2000 Grey Cup win, Passaglia’s last game, the club retired his iconic #5 jersey…no one else could fill it.
Accolades:
Grey Cup Wins: 1985, 1994, 2000
CFL All-Star: 1979, 1983, 1984, 2000
West Division All-Star: 1977, 79, 80, 83, 84
92, 98, 99, 2000
Dick Suderman Trophy: 1985, 1994
Canadian Football Hall of Fame: 2004
BC Sports Hall of Fame: 2011
BC Lions Wall of Fame: 2000
Canadian Sports Hall of Fame: 2011
Career games played: 408 – CFL Record
Most Career Points: 3,991 – All-Time Pro Record
Most Career Field Goals: 875 – All-Time Pro Record