The Canadian Football League has developed a well-earned reputation for being pass-happy.
With mad bombers like Doug Flutie, Dieter Brock, Anthony Calvillo, Damon Allen, Danny McManus, Kent Austin, Matt Dunigan, Ricky Ray, Warren Moon, Henry Burris and so many more, CFL passers have logged a lot of air miles over the years. But it wasn’t always that way.
In the early-to-mid 1960s, the ground game ruled and the stars were running backs such as Lovell Coleman, George Reed, Earl Lunsford and George Dixon.
Then, Peter Liske came along. After two relatively modest seasons — with the Argos in 1965 and with the Stamps in 1966 — the Plainfield, N.J. native started filling the air with footballs and striking fear into the hearts of opposing defenders.
Liske joined forces with a receiving corps that included Terry Evanshen, Herm Harrison, Gerry Shaw and Bob McCarthy and produced back-to-back seasons with more than 4,000 passing yards. That made the Penn State alum the first professional quarterback in North America to accomplish that feat.
The 4,479 yards Liske threw for in 1967 were the best ever total by a West Division quarterback and shattered the previous Stampeders record by an astonishing 1,353 yards.
His 40 touchdown passes that year set a CFL record that stood for 26 years until another Stamps pivot — Flutie — eclipsed the mark in 1993.
The record-smashing performance resulted in Liske becoming only the second Stampeder to be named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player.
The numbers produced by Liske were made all the more remarkable by the fact that, by his own admission, he wasn’t a rifle-armed passer.
“My weakness was not being a strong-armed guy who could carry the team on his back, nor was I a scrambler type who could make a big play out of a tough situation,” Liske once said when asked about his abilities. “I was more of a . . . thinking-type quarterback.”
Liske’s performance with the Red and White drew attention south of the border and after his second straight big season he signed with the National Football League’s Denver Broncos. It was a return to the NFL for him as he had played one season with the New York Jets prior to coming to Canada in 1965.
While he had played sparingly with the Jets, Liske saw significant action for the Broncos as he was called upon to fill in for injured starter Steve Tensi and completed 255 passes for 2,185 yards and 16 touchdowns over two seasons in the Mile High City.
He was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1971 — where he was briefly reunited with former Stamps head coach Jerry Williams — and threw for 2,930 yards and 14 touchdowns in two seasons.
Liske returned to the Stamps in 1973 but by then the team was in rebuilding mode as many of the stars of the late ’60 and early ’70s had retired or moved on. Calgary was in the midst of a string of four consecutive 6-10 seasons and the Stamps traded the 32-year-old to BC late in the 1974 season.
He played one full season with the Lions before deciding to call it a career. Well, a playing career anyway.
He remained involved in football by working as an official in the college ranks for seven years and in the NFL as a back judge for seven seasons.
Off the field, he served as a general manager for Calgary’s Belting Industries for nine years until he left to become associate athletic director at the University of Washington. In 1992, he became athletic director at the University of Idaho and moved on to the University of Toledo in 1996.
In 2001, he returned to his alma mater — Penn State — to take a job in the athletics department.
Liske was added to the Stampeders’ Wall of Fame in 2002.