Picture: Raiders quarterback Mathieu René receives offensive MVP trophy from Quebec Junior Football League president Joe Pistilli, right, and managing director Don Stark, both former Chateauguay residents
It will probably be a long time before his record of 47 years as a volunteer in amateur football is matched, and it’s unlikely anyone will fill as many positions as he has during a lengthy career in the game.
So it’s only fitting that the name Joe Pistilli has been engraved alongside those of the greatest personalities in Canadian football history. And he did it without ever lacing up a pair of cleats or donning bulky shoulder pads.
Pistilli, 68, who was too small to play football while growing up in east-end Rosemont, launched his gridiron career when he was asked to be the public-address announcer at a senior game in Châteauguay shortly after his marriage in 1963. By midseason, he was president of the Châteauguay club.
Pistilli has never left the amateur game since, becoming a coach, referee and team official in south-shore Châteauguay, president of Football Quebec and Football Canada, and now president of the Quebec Junior Football League, the second time he has held the post.
He has touched the lives of thousands of kids across the country, and last month he was named to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame as a builder. Pistilli joins an esteemed group of 2010 inductees, including former Alouettes stars Elfrid Payton and Tracy Ham.
Pistilli’s knowledge of the game and his passion for it got him into football as a PA announcer, but it was his skill as an organizer and talent for diplomacy that propelled him to the top of amateur football in Canada.
“I think it’s about time that the people in Canadian football recognized the contribution that people like Joe make to grass-roots football,” said Graham Pilon, the president of the QJFL’s South Shore Monarx, who has known Pistilli since the 1960s.
“He is very gentle and very tough. He has always worked to treat people fairly. He has always worked for the good of the sport and he’s been a gentleman the whole way in a sometimes harsh sport.
“It’s a great honour for him and a great honour for amateur football.”
The Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton has chosen to recognize Pistilli at a time when the sport is thriving, with 100,000 players registered across the country and nearly 400 teams in Quebec alone.
Pistilli, 68, will be one of only a handful of officials from the amateur ranks in the Hall, joining playing greats like Sam Etcheverry, Doug Flutie, Russ Jackson and Warren Moon.
There is also a long list of players – 28, in fact – who graduated from the junior ranks and made it into the Hall, indicating the rich source of elite talent at the community level. There are also 27 Hall of Famers from Canadian universities and 110 from U.S. universities.
“I’m still amazed that he is so well liked and respected in amateur football and the professional ranks as well,” said former Alouettes tight-end Peter Dalla Riva, a member of the Hall’s selection committee and a long-time friend of Pistilli.
While Pistilli served as president of Football Canada from 1992-98, he has put in a total of 29 years in several posts at the national level. His roots go even deeper in Châteauguay, where he has served in so many capacities in minor football, including coaching, overseeing volunteers and training referees.
At Football Canada, Pistilli helped persuade Quebec and Ontario to return to the national fold following a dispute over funding and voting rights. He’s been president or commissioner of the QJFL for 22 years.
He made one of his most difficult decisions two years ago when he declared the Ottawa Sooners ineligible for the league championship Manson Cup game after using illegal players.
“That put Châteauguay into the final and they had to regroup the players who were in the process of handing in their equipment at the end of the season,” Pistilli said.
One of his proudest moments came just a few weeks ago while attending the year-end banquet of the Ottawa Junior Riders.
“The team had 12 graduating players and all were university students,” he said. “That shows we’re not just a league for school dropouts.”
By DAVID YATES, Freelance
Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.
