Canadian History for Kids: Anthony Calvillo

2011, July 15 – Football – Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo throws his 395th career touchdown in leading the Alouettes to a 40-17 defeat of the Toronto Argonauts; surpasses Damon Allen’s record as the CFL’s all-time leader in TD passes.

This Canadian History for Kids exclusive looks at the amazing career or Anthony Calvillo.

From a training camp tryout in a parking lot with a team called the Las Vegas Posse to becoming the all-time passing leader in the Canadian Football League, Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo can only look at his career and think: “Wow.”

Calvillo was born in Los Angeles, California. While attending La Puente High School, he was a two-sport standout in football and basketball.

Calvillo spent two seasons at Mt. San Antonio College before transferring to Utah State University in 1992. With Calvillo leading the offense, USU won the Big West Conference championship for the first time since 1979.

After not being drafted by an NFL team, Calvillo started his Canadian Football League career in 1994 with the US expansion Las Vegas Posse.

The Posse folded a year later in the CFL U.S. expansion experiment, Calvillo was selected first overall by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the dispersal draft. While in Hamilton, Calvillo served as a backup quarterback.

In 1998, Calvillo signed as a free agent with the Montreal Alouettes, where he became one of the most outstanding CFL quarterbacks in history. He led the Alouettes to the 2002 Grey Cup, their first in 25 years, where he was named the most valuable player in the game.

And from there, records continued to fall for Calvillo.

In 2003, he completed 408 of 675 pass attempts for 5,891 yards and 37 touchdowns, which were all Montreal franchise records at the time. As a result, he was named the league’s Most Outstanding Player.

Calvillo became the first QB in CFL history to reach the 5,000-plus yards mark seven times over his brilliant career. He also threw for over 300 yards in eight-straight games, breaking Doug Flutie’s single-season CFL record of seven.

On Oct. 10, 2011, in front a home crowd on Thanksgiving, Calvillo broke the all-time passing record with a 50-yard touchdown pass to Jamel Richardson. Calvillo surpassed Damon Allen’s record of 72,381 yards, the most by any quarterback in professional football history.

And that’s this week’s Canadian History for Kids, exclusive!

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