Gerry Dattilio

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Gerry Dattilio
Date of birth (1953-06-11) June 11, 1953 (age 70)
Place of birth
Montreal Concordes
CFL East All-Star1980
Awards1980 Most Outstanding Canadian

Gerry Dattilio (born June 11, 1953) is a former professional Canadian football quarterback in the Canadian Football League (CFL).[1]

Early years

Dattilio played his high school football with the Chomedey Chiefs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he won a City Championship by beating St. Thomas High School of Pointe-Claire, Quebec. He also played in the Quebec Junior Football League with the Verdun Maple Leafs.

He attended the University of Northern Colorado[2] playing for the Bears from 1972 to 1974.[3] He led the Bears in rushing as a quarterback in 1972 and 1973 and led the team in passing yards in both 1973 (1,367 yards, 18 TDs) and 1974 (1,367 yards, 14 TDs). He ranks 10th on the Bears' all-time passing yards list with 2,953 passing yards and was an All-Great Plains Conference player in both 1973 and 1974.

Professional career

In 1975, Dattilio was the first territorial exemption of the

NFL star quarterback Vince Ferragamo. However Ferragamo struggled for most of the 1981 season and Dattilio played enough to tally 1095 aerial yards, including a 427-yard performance (which stood as a record for yards thrown in a game by a Canadian-born QB for more than 40 years before Nathan Rourke eclipsed the record during the 2022 BC Lions season).[5] Prior to the 1982 season he was traded to the Calgary Stampeders. That year, he threw for 2788 yards, marking the last time (until Nathan Rourke, with BC in 2022) in which a Canadian quarterback threw for over 2000 yards in a season. Dattilio completed 194 out of 387 passes, but he had only 11 touchdowns to 22 interceptions. 1983 saw him used mostly as a back-up, this time to first year quarterback Bernard Quarles
, but got in enough playing time to throw for 1213 yards. In March, 1984, Dattilio was traded back to Montreal (by then re-named the Concordes) where he served as a back-up or a third-string quarterback for two more seasons.

Among Canadian quarterbacks Dattilio is second all-time in statistics with 9952 passing yards on 697 completions from 1271 attempts with 53 touchdowns and 79 interceptions. He also had 993 rushing yards on 189 carries and added eight rushing touchdowns. He appeared in three Grey Cup games: 1977, 1978, and 1979, but did not throw any passes. Instead, in 1977, he was used as a receiver and caught two passes for 39 yards in the Alouettes' victory over the

Edmonton Eskimos.[6]

He is a business person in Calgary, and was inducted into Northern Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004[7] and had the Gerry Dattilio Sportsfield named after him in Laval, Quebec, in honour of his great Chomedy High School playing days.[8]

References

  1. ^ Dattilio hears cheers in a big comeback
  2. ^ Dattilio signs
  3. ^ Gerry Dattilio will be Wade's backup for crucial battle with Blue Bombers
  4. ^ Als ink Mul-Key, Fanuci; swap Raines
  5. ^ "Canada's Nathan Rourke throws record-setting 436 yards, Lions dominate Argos". Sportsnet.ca. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  6. ^ "The Story of the 1977 Grey Cup". Archived from the original on 2011-01-08. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  7. ^ UNC Bears Hall of Fame
  8. ^ Laval Liberty Panthers History
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