If Don Cherry had been a football coach, Gord Knowlton would have been his type of player.
"They nicknamed me 'the Kamikaze Kid'," said Knowlton, who was usually the first man downfield on special teams, the type who would sacrifice his body without care or concern. "I was a nutty guy."
For four years in the late '70's, Knowlton was the anchor of the Argo special teams, as well as playing outside linebacker, where he alternated with fellow Canadian Rick Sowieta. How he ended up playing linebacker is an interesting story in itself, as the former fullback was originally cut by the Argos and asked by assistant coach Lamar Leachman to hang around training camp and act as a sort of "line dummy", since they needed bodies to work on their offensive and defensive schemes.
Well, the "line dummy" did quite all right, and he ended up beating the people he was supposed to lie down for, impressing the coaches in the process.
"I ended up as a starting linebacker," said Knowlton with a laugh. "It ended up I was a better hitter than a runner."
Turning down a chance to play for his hometown Montreal Alouettes in 1970 after playing junior for the Verdun Invictus, Knowlton attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama and was their starting fullback in a backfield that included future CFL'ers Dieter Brock at quarterback and Richard Crump at tailback.
The Alouettes selected him as their territorial pick in the 1974 draft, but then traded him to Winnipeg after that first year. He came to the Argos in 1976, and remembers his time in a Double Blue uniform as the best in his football career.
"I really believe that was the last hey-day of the Argos," said Knowlton, in reminiscing about what football meant in his life. "I lived a childhood dream, and it was the easiest and hardest part of my life. You first get into it and it was wonderful, and then there was an end, and it was terrible."
Knowlton did end up finishing his career with the Alouettes in 1980, and then went to work for a string of companies, starting with Xerox and then moving to Motorola, where he stayed for four years and became an assistant manager. After that, Knowlton went to work for Anixter, a wire and cable company that had him based in New York, and when he returned to Canada he worked independently in personal investing as well as acting as the Canadian distributor for Serengeti Sunglasses.
Today, Knowlton is the national account rep for a paging company called Page Mart, and has recently moved into a new place with his wife of seven years, Helen. They also bought a cottage on Lovesick Lake near Peterborough, which is on the picturesque Trent waterway system. In recognition of their location, they have named their boat Mal D'Amour, which means "lovesick" in French.
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