Lui Passaglia’s formative football years growing up and maturing into a professional were spent while residing in North Burnaby. His legendary gridiron exploits led him to induction into the BC Lions Wall of Fame, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the BC Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and now the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame.
Lui’s family moved to Burnaby in 1968 when he was 14 years old and attended Notre Dame High School where he started playing football with the Jugglers juggernaut coached by Al Blesch and George Oswald (a 2012 Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame inductee). Passaglia helped lead Notre Dame to three provincial championships (1968, 1970, 1971) playing quarterback, safety, punter and place kicker.
After graduation he headed up Burnaby Mountain to play for Simon Fraser University where he played wide receiver along with his kicking duties. He also played on SFU’s soccer team. Passaglia’s pigskin exploits caught the eye of the local Canadian Football League team and the BC Lions chose him fifth overall in the 1976 CFL draft. He remained living at home in Burnaby during his first four seasons with the Leos. He even caught a 10-yard touchdown pass in his first CFL game, July 22, 1976 against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Lui went on to play 25 seasons in the CFL, all with the Lions. No one has played more CFL games than Passaglia’s 408, and no one has scored more points, 3,991, than Passaglia. He also holds CFL career records for most converts, 1,045 (he only missed three in his career), most field goals, 875, and best single season field goal percentage, 90.9 per cent in 2000 his final season. He is second all-time in punting, behind only Winnipeg’s Bob Cameron, with 3,142 punts for 133,826 yards. Passaglia also holds the CFL record for most points in a season, 210, and is tied for most field goals in a season with 48. Passaglia was a CFL Western Division all-star nine times and a CFL all-star four times.
Most importantly, he was a member of three Grey Cup championships for the Lions (1985, 1994 and 2000). Passaglia retired after kicking the winning points in the Lions’ 28-26 victory over the Montreal Alouettes in the 2000 Grey Cup. He also kicked the winning field goal on the last play of the 1994 Grey Cup when BC beat Baltimore 26-23 at BC Place. In 2007, the Lions named that kick the greatest play in the club’s history.
