Peter Dalla Riva (born December 11, 1946), is a former professional

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

player with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

at the

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

and wide receiver positions. Dalla Riva played with the Alouettes for his entire 14-year career. He is a member of the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...

, and has had his jersey number #74

retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

by the club.

Amateur football career

Born in

Treviso, Italy Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

, Dalla Riva arrived in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

with his family in 1953. Dalla Riva played amateur Canadian football with the

Burlington Braves The Burlington Braves were a Canadian junior football league team. Founded in 1958 in Burlington, Ontario, they played in the Ontario Football Conference of the Canadian Junior Football League. Following the 2015 season, the club moved its opera ...

and Oakville Black Knights of the

Canadian Junior Football League The Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) is a national Major Junior Canadian football league consisting of 19 teams playing in five provinces across Canada. The teams compete annually for the Canadian Bowl. Many CJFL players move on to profess ...

Alouette career

Dalla Riva began his professional football career with the Alouettes in the

1968 CFL season The 1968 CFL season is considered to be the 15th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 11th Canadian Football League season. CFL News in 1968 J.G. (Jake) Gaudaur was appointed CFL Commissioner and the league adop ...

as a

. He would play for a franchise record 14 seasons, until the

1981 CFL season The 1981 CFL season is considered to be the 28th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 24th Canadian Football League season. CFL News in 1981 The Eastern and Western Football Conferences, which had carried on as ...

, including 197 regular season games. He would catch 450 passes for 6,413 yards and scored 55

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether Rush (gridiron football), running, Forward pass, passing, returning a Kickoff (gridiron football), kickoff or Punt (gridiron football), punt, or recovering a Turno ...

, he was also an excellent blocker. He played in 6

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

games, winning three: the 58th Grey Cup of 1970, the

62nd Grey Cup The 62nd Grey Cup was played on November 24, 1974 before 34,450 fans at Empire Stadium in Vancouver. The Montreal Alouettes beat the Edmonton Eskimos 20–7 on a slick, wet field. Many balls were fumbled and passes dropped on a rainy Vancouver da ...

of 1974, the

65th Grey Cup The 65th Grey Cup, also known as The Ice Bowl, was played on November 27, 1977, at Montreal's Olympic Stadium. The hometown Montreal Alouettes defeated the Edmonton Eskimos by a score of 41–6. Game Summary The 1977 Grey Cup was Canada's versio ...

of 1977, scoring a touchdown in the latter game, a 7-yard pass from

Sonny Wade Jesse "Sonny" Wade (born April 1, 1947) is a former All-American football player at Emory & Henry College in Virginia. He played professionally for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League from 1969 to 1978. High school Wade attend ...

. He also lost three: the

63rd Grey Cup The 63rd Grey Cup was played on November 23, 1975, before 32,454 fans at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. In a tight, defensive battle, the Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Montreal Alouettes 9–8. Just before the contest began, a young woman was "streak ...

of 1975, the

66th Grey Cup The 66th Grey Cup was played on November 26, 1978, before 54,695 fans at Exhibition Stadium at Toronto. The Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Montreal Alouettes in a close game, 20–13. Box Score First Quarter Edmonton - FG – Dave Cutler 37 y ...

of 1978, the

67th Grey Cup The 67th Grey Cup was played on November 25, 1979 before 65,113 fans at Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Montreal Alouettes 17–9. Box Score First Quarter Edmonton - TD – Waddell Smith 43 yard pass from Tom Wilk ...

of 1979. Dalla Riva was named a CFL All-Star 3 times.

Awards, honours, and post-football life

Dalla Riva's jersey number #74, was

by the Als on October 24, 1981. In 1993, he was inducted into the

. In 2006, Dalla Riva was voted to the Honour Roll of the CFL's Top 50 players of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN. Since his retirement from professional football, Dalla Riva has given much time to participating in community and charity sports events.

References

External links

CFL Historical Montreal Alouettes - Peter Dalla Riva
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalla Riva, Peter 1946 births Living people Players of Canadian football from Ontario Canadian football offensive linemen Canadian football wide receivers Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Italian emigrants to Canada Montreal Alouettes players Sportspeople from Hamilton, Ontario Canadian football people from Montreal