There’s No Stopping Pitts

Allen Pitts made up his mind to give professional football one more try.

It was April 1990, and Pitts decided to go to an open tryout camp at UC Irvine despite being away from football for more than three years.

Roy Shivers, director of player personnel for the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders, recognized Pitts’ name on the camp’s roster from the days when Shivers coached running backs at Nevada Las Vegas and Pitts was a wide receiver for Cal State Fullerton.

“He took me aside and worked me out on my own,” Pitts said. Shivers offered Pitts the chance to try out again in Calgary a month later, and Pitts began training camp with the team that summer.

“They had 18 receivers in camp that year, and when I looked at the depth chart, my name was on the bottom,” Pitts said.

Eleven seasons later, Pitts’ name is at the top of the list--the list of the most successful receivers in CFL history.

Pitts has set CFL career records for receptions, receiving yardage and touchdown receptions. He broke the league’s record for career receptions last month, and now has 946 catches for 14,626 yards going into the Stampeders’ game Friday night at home against Saskatchewan.

He finished fifth in the league in receptions in his first season with Calgary in 1990, and was named to the CFL all-star team the next year and scored 15 touchdowns.

Since then, Pitts has helped the Stampeders reach the Grey Cup championship game five times, and played on championship teams in 1992 and ’98. Numerous honors have followed. He was awarded the Nicklin Trophy that goes to the most outstanding player in the Western Division in 1999, and has been chosen four times as Calgary’s most outstanding player in voting by Stampeder fans.

“I’ve been blessed,” said Pitts, 36. “I look back and wonder if I had done something different, how it would have turned out.”

Pitts wasn’t drafted by the NFL after his college career ended. With Fullerton, he had 16 touchdown catches--second on the school’s all-time list--and 790 yards receiving over four seasons, which doesn’t rank in the top 10 at a school that dropped football after the 1992 season. He played on the 1984 team that won 11 of 12 games and was ranked in the top 20 nationally.

Getting the Breaks

Pitts was given a free-agent tryout with the Rams in the summer of 1986 after his final season at Fullerton, but was cut during training camp.

Pitts says he believes he would have done better in the Rams’ camp if it hadn’t been for an injury he suffered during an off-season workout with a few of his former Titan teammates. Mark Collins, who went on to play 13 seasons in the NFL, stepped on Pitts’ foot when he was running a pass route. Pitts fell and broke a bone in his leg.

“I was down and disappointed after I was cut by the Rams,” Pitts said. “I decided to go back to school, and I worked here and there for the next three years, mostly in warehouses and then for a while in a toy store in sales.”

But being away from football gnawed at Pitts.

“I still had it in my mind that I could play pro football,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I had been able to give it my best shot. When I heard about the tryout camp at Irvine from one of my friends, I decided to give it one more try.”

It was fortunate for Pitts that Shivers, now general manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, decided to stop by the camp.

“There must have been more than 300 players there,” Shivers said. “There was no way you can look at that many players, but I remembered that Pitts could really catch the ball when he played at Fullerton. I worked him out for a while, and I could tell he could still run well.”

Pitts, 6 feet 4 and 210 pounds, proved Shivers was a good judge of potential.

“I liked his height, and I thought he might be the kind of player who could help us at slotback,” Shivers said. “But I never had any idea he would attain the status he has. He certainly deserves it, though. He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around, and he’s always in fantastic shape.”

Calgary Coach Wally Buono said he was impressed by the work ethic Pitts showed in his first season with the Stampeders.

“You could tell when he came to us that he hadn’t played in a while, but you could see there was something there,” Buono said. “He really pushed himself to get better that first season, and you could see his skills resurface. He’s the kind of player who has always kept working to get better, and he’s never satisfied with what he’s done.

“He’s a very intelligent person, and a very intelligent football player. He communicates well with the quarterbacks. He’s not the kind of guy who just goes out there and runs a pass route. He contributes in other ways because of his understanding of the game.”

Gene Murphy, who coached Pitts at Fullerton, said he thought Pitts had the ability to play in the NFL when he came out of college.

“I thought he was good enough, but I wondered if the NFL people would think he wasn’t fast enough,” said Murphy, who now coaches at Fullerton College. “I thought they might take a little guy who could run 4.2 [seconds] in the 40 over someone like Pitts. But I just knew he could catch the ball well, and he ran great routes. He always used his height to his advantage.”

Pitts says he thought about switching to the NFL at various times during his CFL career.

“Some teams showed interest in me--the Chargers, the 49ers and the Colts,” he said. “But we never were able to work out the financial arrangements. But I’ve enjoyed playing in the CFL. It’s a good brand of football, better than most people in California probably realize.”

Pitts, who played in high school at Claremont, is one of three former Titan players who are having successful CFL careers.

One of Pitts’ Titan teammates, Damon Allen of the B.C. Lions, is among the league’s top quarterbacks and recently became the all-time CFL leader in regular-season pass completions. Mike Pringle of the Montreal Alouettes, who played at Fullerton after Pitts and Allen had left, is one of the CFL’s top running backs.

Pitts and Allen were opponents in last season’s Western Division championship game won by Calgary, 26-24.

“Damon and I were close friends at Fullerton, and we’re still good friends now,” Pitts said. “We totally respect each other. I want him to do well, and I know he feels the same way about me.”

Winding Down

Pitts said he hasn’t made a decision on how much longer he will play.

“I’ll think more about it after this season is over, but as of now I’m looking at no more than than the 2001 season,” Pitts said.

Pitts, who is single, considers Calgary his permanent home after buying a house there, but he says he still spends some time in Southern California during the off-season.

He said he considers himself fortunate to have had only two injuries that cost him significant playing time during his professional career. He played only seven regular-season games in 1993 because of a knee injury that required surgery. He also missed the first seven games of the 1997 season because of a broken hand.

“But I don’t get up as fast as I used to after a play, and I don’t feel as good when I get out of bed in the morning,” he said. “I still enjoy competing.”

Pitts said he eventually wants to coach, and Buono thinks he probably would be good at it.

“One of the things I asked him to do this year in training camp was to spend some time helping our younger players,” Buono said. “A lot of our players look up to him because of his work ethic and what he’s done.”

Buono also shares Pitts’ concern about how much longer he can keep playing at the high level he has maintained in recent years.

“After 11 years, the wear and tear is starting to show on his body, but he has been good about taking it one year at a time and seeing how it goes,” Buono said.

Buono said one thing appears certain: “He’s a future Hall of Famer in this league.”