Born May 20, 1930, Died August 29, 2009
Class of 1969 – Career highlights and awards:
1954 – Schenley Most Outstanding Player
1954, 1958 – Jeff Russell Memorial Trophy
1953-57, 1960 – East Division All-Star
Among his single game exploits, Etcheverry set a single-game passing record of 586 yards in 1954 that stood for 39 years until the 1993 season. He also passed for a record 508 yards in the 1955 Grey Cup game, albeit in a losing effort.
In 1954, he led the Als to an 82-14 blowout win over Hamilton, a point total that is still the most for a single game over 50 years later.
His offensive prowess was underlined by leading the Als in becoming the first team to average more than 30 points per game over an entire schedule in the 1955 season.
By the end of his career, Etcheverry had rewritten many quarterback records in Alouettes history. He finished with 30,303 passing yards and 186 touchdowns and is still regarded as one of the all-time greats in franchise history. As a testament of his dominance and value to the franchise, his number 92 has been retired by the Montreal football club.
After an aborted trade to the Hamilton Tiger Cats and a two year stint in the NFL, Etcheverry returned to Canada to coach the Quebec Rifles of the United Football League. This league folded at the end of the season and Etcheverry remained out of coaching until 1967 when he became an assistant at Loyola College in Montreal.
His legacy is underscored by the fact that he recorded outstanding passing yardage totals in an era where football was still predominantly a game based on the running attack. He routinely topped the 3000 yard mark for passing yards in a season, with a high water mark of 4723 yards in 1956. That 1956 total marked the first time any CFL quarterback passed for more than 4000 yards in a single season.
It is worth noting that the Als floundered immediately prior to, as well as following, his career. Perhaps that underscores his value to the Montreal franchise more than any other fact.
On December 9, 1969, Etcheverry was hired to coach the Alouettes. In his first season, he led the Als to victory in the 58th Grey Cup Game. He resigned at the end of the 1972 season, having compiled an overall record is 14–24–1. Though historically not many great players have ever enjoyed any successee Als to victory in the fall classic. His fever mirrored that of the Montreal fan base, serving as a rallying cry which focused his team in their pursuit of the ultimate goal.
For the outstanding achievements in his career, as a player and coach, Sam Etcheverry goes down in CFL history for revolutionizing the quarterback position and for his loyalty to football in Montreal.