Don Sweet

Don Sweet (born July 13, 1948 in Vancouver, British Columbia) was a star football kicker for the Montreal Alouettes and Montreal Concordes of the Canadian Football League.

College years

Sweet graduated from Washington State University in 1971. He was a Pacific-10 Conference all star kicker in 1971. Perhaps his greatest moment happened when WSU upset defending conference champions Stanford 24 to 23 in 1971. His 27-yard game-winning field goal was scored with no time left on the game clock. Sweet had never played football before he tried out for his university team.

Professional career

In 1972, he began a successful 13-year career with Montreal, the second longest in team history. He played with the Alouettes until 1981 and with the Concordes three more years.

He played 185 regular season games, scoring a team record 1,342 points, including 312 field goals and 325 converts. His most points was in 1976, with 141, and he was an all star in 1977, 1978 and 1979.^[1]

Perhaps his greatest fame came in the ultimate CFL limelight, the Grey Cup. He played in 5 games with the Alouettes, winning in 1974^[2] and 1977^[3] and losing in 1975, 1978, and 1979. He scored 61 total points, and his best game was the 1977 Ice Bowl, when he scored a record 23 points and kicked a record 6 field goals. He won the Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian awards three times, in 1974, 1977,^[3] and 1979.

Sweet travelled from the heights of glory with the Alouettes to the basement as a member of the newly franchised Concordes. He played 48 games over three years, including the dreadful 1982 season, with 2 wins and 14 losses.^[4] After retirement, Sweet returned to British Columbia and is now a teacher in Vancouver.

Sweet now is a coach and mentor to many college a professional kickers. Various CFL All-Stars credit Sweet, also known as "The Kicking Whisperer", for all of their accomplishments in the CFL. Don is the kicking coach for the BC Lions throughout the season. It is safe to say that Sweet is the most prolific kicking coach in all of Canada and has the resume to back it up. College kickers are also being mentored by Sweet and hopefully will end up in the CFL under his guidance.

References