Justin Dunk
CFL.ca
His famous NFL father never pushed him into it, but top CFL prospect Austin Anderson eventually found his passion for putting the ball through the uprights.
“I’ve heard a lot of stories of dads that want their son to play this position or that sport, but my dad let me discover kicking on my own,” Anderson said.
Anderson’s dad, Gary, had a 23-year NFL career, playing for five different franchises over three decades. Of those, 13 seasons were spent in Pittsburgh, suiting up for the Steelers.
In the midst of his time there, Austin was born in 1989, and two years later brother Douglas.
“From right when I was very small, my mom would sit us in front of the television and we would watch my dad play,” Anderson said.
With his dad living the pro sports lifestyle, Anderson would never develop childhood roots in one city. He moved around with his parents and younger brother living in Philadelphia for two years while his dad was with the Eagles in 1996-97.
Then it was on to San Francisco for a year before Gary found a home in Minnesota for five years, from 1998-2002, kicking for the Vikings.
“I never had the experience of growing up in one town and having the same friends for my whole childhood,” Anderson said. “But I think it was really good because you learned to be flexible, you learned to adjust to new environments, meet new people and make friends quickly.”
It was in a town named Hopkins, just outside of Minneapolis, where Anderson got his start in football. He started playing in the Hopkins Junior Football League, as a quarterback, when he was in the fourth grade.
As his dad’s career was winding down he was looking for a city to call home after he retired. Anderson’s parents took a vacation to Banff, Alberta, and his dad as a very avid outdoorsman, fell in love with the place.
After the trip they enjoyed the area so much they decided to move close to the Canadian Rockies and call Canmore, Alberta home.
“It’s just a beautiful area in the mountains and there is a fishing river that runs through town and golf courses – it was pretty much my dad’s little slice of heaven,” Anderson said.
The timing was perfect for Anderson and his brother, who were used to change, both were going to be switching schools anyways – Austin had just graduated from grade eight and Douglas the same from grade six.
Gary would play one last NFL season for the Tennessee Titans, while his family lived in Canmore before he would hang up the cleats.
The move north of the 49th paid off in more ways than one: Gary could enjoy the many outdoor activities mere minutes from his home and Anderson, though it was an afterthought, would be considered a non-import if he ever had CFL aspirations.
Anderson played football from grade four to grade eight just outside Minneapolis and he kept his career going in high school when he moved to Canada, suiting up for Canmore Collegiate as a quarterback and kicker.
“In ninth grade I started kicking the ball. I had played soccer for a really long time ever since I could walk and run around. And because of what my dad did, I was more naturally inclined to kick the ball,” Anderson said.
“Eventually I decided that I was a little bit too small to play the quarterback position and I thought I was developing a little more in kicking, so I focused on that in my grade 12 year.”
Of course the genes, and his NFL kicking father, supported the decision to focus on being a kicker.
“When I asked for advice he would gladly give it, but it was never something he pushed me into,” Anderson said.
After his senior year at Canmore Collegiate, Anderson was set on attending a post secondary institution held in high academic regard and one where he could continue to ply his trade kicking the football.
“I wanted to go to a school that was very academically focused. I was looking at schools like Stanford, USC, Texas and Vanderbilt,” he said.
Anderson would gain acceptance from the University of Texas, no football scholarship was offered however.
“I was all set to head down there until I got a call from Coach [Sonny] Wolfe and the McGill Redmen,” Anderson said.
Behind the scenes, one of Anderson’s high school coaches, Jay Harris – who was a former Yates Cup champion with the Redmen in 1969 – had been in contact with Wolfe and told him he should take a look at the talented kicker from Canmore.
Coach Wolfe liked what he found when he did the research and watched the film on Anderson so much that he flew all the way out to Canmore and met Anderson and his parents.
“He’s probably got as good a coach living with him as there is in all of captivity. You knew right from the get go that this kid was special and had great potential,” McGill head coach Wolfe said. “It was certainly worth spending the time to recruit him.”
“Coach Wolfe gave us the whole scoop on what McGill was all about. Out of all the Canadian schools McGill was highest on my radar because I wanted to go to a school where I could really focus on my academics first and play football as well.
“The fact that coach Wolfe flew out to Canmore really spoke a lot to my family and I about the kind of care, and the kind of environment I was going to experience at McGill.”
And just like that, he was destined to be a Redmen.
Anderson is studying entrepreneurship and organizational development in the management faculty at McGill and he is looking at a career in business, should a professional football career fall by the wayside.
Now in his fourth season with the Redmen football program, Anderson has proven to have the kind of accuracy in the kicking game like his dad possessed in his NFL days.
In fact his dad was the first kicker ever to successfully complete a perfect season kicking the football, making all of his extra points and converting 35 of 35 field goal attempts in 1998 with the Minnesota Vikings.
In his first ever game with the Redmen, Anderson knocked all five of his field goal attempts through, foreshadowing a successful university career to come.
In his junior year he tied a McGill record, set in 1984, by making six field goals in one game against the cross-town rival Concordia Stingers on September 24, 2008 – earning CIS specials teams player of the week honours in the process.
After his third season the 5-10 180-pound kicker was invited to play in the East West Bowl a showcase event for CIS players heading into their draft year. Anderson certainly showed well in front of CFL scouts.
He hit on three of four kicks in the game, a win 34-27 by Anderson’s East squad, with a long of 40 yards.
“It was one of the best weeks of my life, being around such high calibre players and high quality young men,” Anderson said. “It was a very encouraging experience for me personally.”
In 2011 he is one of just three kickers, across the CIS, to have attempted 10-plus field goals while maintaining an 80 per cent success rate – he is 8 for 10, including a long of 48 yards, on the season and one of those misses was blocked.
“The biggest difference has been that his range has increased over time,” Wolfe said.
“Austin is one of our team captains, selected by his teammates. He has a great work ethic and is a very positive young man.”
Number 13 for the Redmen has connected on 37 of 47 attempts, a 79 per cent success rate, during his time at McGill. Anderson has also earned two CIS Aca
demic All-Canadian awards for his exemplary work in the classroom
“It’s absolutely been a phenomenal experience,” Anderson said of his time at McGill.
“The school is very good, it’s very challenging academically. We’re student-athletes, not athlete-students. It’s always the studies that come first, which means a lot to myself and my family.”
Speaking of family, Anderson said there are home movies of himself and his dad in the living room kicking a little foam football when he could just barely walk. It seems as though that was just the start of another great Anderson kicking career.
