Bill Bewley

Bill Bewley was born in Hamilton and played college ball at the University of Toronto before starting his CFL career with Calgary in 1953.  After playing one year with the Stampeders, Bill Bewley joined Montreal in 1954 and played 8 seasons for the Alouettes from 1954 to 1961 plus an emergency recall to help with the kicking in 1965.  With Montreal, Bewley did just about everything that was asked of him other than play quarterback - it seems they had a guy named Sam Etcheverry for that.  In the first part of his career, Bewley was used mainly as the backup running back behind such notables as Pat Abbruzzi and George Dixon.  As a running back, Bewley's best years were 1956 and 1958 when he had 166 yards rushing and very credible averages per carry of 5.9 and 5.7 yards. In the middle part of his career, Bewley saw significant action as a pass receiver with 33 catches in 1958, 36 in 1959 and 27 in 1960.  Bewley also saw signifiant action as a defensive back, especially from 1957 to 1960 when he recorded 11 interceptions, including 6 in 1957. Not convinced about Bewley's value to the Alouettes?  He also handled the placekicking for Montreal.  His fieldgoals stats are not impressive by today's standards with a high of 6 fieldgoals in one season (1958), but they were about typical for placekickers of the time.  Bewley was quite proficient at kicking converts, hitting a high of 93.2% in 1960 and he led the East in scoring in 1958 with 62 points. In addition to all this, Bewley also filled in doing kickoffs when needed and returning both kickoffs and punts.

Bewley In Team Picture of 1956 Montreal Als - November 20, 1956

GP, Passing, Rushing and Receiving
Year Team GP PA PC % Yds TD Int Sacked Yds TC Yds Avg TD Rec Yds Avg TD Long PTS
1953 CAL
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1954 MON 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 123 6.2 1 6 98 16.3 0 29 5
1955 MON 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 67 4.2 0 3 42 14 0 20 14
1956 MON 11 1 1 100 12 0 0 0 0 26 166 5.9 1 8 130 16.3 0 29 57
1957 MON 14 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23 155 6.7 0 10 65 6.5 1 14 53
1958 MON 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 30 166 5.7 0 33 395 12 1 87 62
1959 MON 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 19 105 5.5 0 36 404 11.2 0 41 34
1960 MON 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 -1 -0.1 0 27 394 14.6 1 64 78
1961 MON 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 33 3 0 11 112 9.3 0 17 36
1965 MON 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6

 

GP and . Place Kicking
Year Team GP ConvA ConvG % Att Good FG% Long S MFG YdsMFG Avg PTS
1953 CAL
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1954 MON 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5
1955 MON 5 5 5 100 3 3 100

0 0 0 14
1956 MON 11 54 45 83.6 4 1 25
3 0 0 0 57
1957 MON 14 38 34 89.5 7 4 57.1
1 0 0 0 53
1958 MON 14 35 28 80 13 6 46.7
4 7 250 35.7 62
1959 MON 13 23 19 82.6 17 4 23.5
3 13 434 33.4 34
1960 MON 14 44 41 93.2 15 4 26.7
7 11 391 35.6 78
1961 MON 14 23 18 78.3 12 5 41.7
3 7 229 32.7 36
1965 MON 6 6 3 50 4 1 25 0 0 0 0 0 6

 

Kickoffs
Year Team KO Yds Avg Long S
1953 CAL 0 0 0 0 0
1954 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1955 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1956 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1957 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1958 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1959 MON 15 802 53.3 63 0
1960 MON 2 108 54 57 0
1961 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1965 MON 0 0 0 0 0

 

Kickoff and Punt Returns
Year Team KOR Yds Avg TD Long PR Yds Avg TD Long
1953 CAL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1954 MON 0 0 0 0 0 33 241 7.3 0 32
1955 MON 0 0 0 0 0 5 42 8.4 0 17
1956 MON 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1957 MON 2 21 10.5 0 16 0 0 0 0 0
1958 MON 1 9 9 0 9 1 10 10 0 10
1959 MON 2 27 13.5 0 18 0 0 0 0 0
1960 MON 1 13 13 0 13 1 13 13 0 13
1961 MON 0 0 0 0 0 2 27 13.5 0 25
1965 MON 3 49 16.3 0 26 0 0 0 0 0

 

Interceptions
Year Team Int Yds Avg TDInt Long
1953 CAL 0 0 0 0 0
1954 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1955 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1956 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1957 MON 6 80 13.3 0 23
1958 MON 2 25 12.5 1 25
1959 MON 1 0 0 0 0
1960 MON 2 25 12.5 1 19
1961 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1965 MON 0 0 0 0 0
1960 Topps Bill Bewley

 

1961 Topps Bill Bewley