Kingston kicker recorded a CFL record 69 consecutive field goals.

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Lewis Ward laughs at the irony of it.

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Asked for his most memorable moment to date in his job as the Ottawa Redblacks’ kicker, he picks one that happened not in a time of triumph but rather in a moment of failure. A lowlight turned a highlight.

In 2019, Ward, then in his sophomore season with the Canadian Football League club (CFL) missed a mid-range field goal. To his surprise, he was immediately showered with sustained applause from the crowd – a home crowd at that. Go figure.

A mocking standing ovation at Ottawa’s TD Place gridiron? Bytown patrons taken to rubbing salt in a wound?

Horsefeathers! Or as they might say in Ward’s native Yorkshire, England, “not bloody likely!”

The Ottawa faithful were merely recognizing the end of a record run of perfection by their gifted placekicker. Before that off-target 31-yard attempt, the graduate of Kingston’s Bayridge Secondary School had recorded a professional football record 69 consecutive field goals. Think about that for a second. That feat obliterated the former high-water mark of 45 set by retired National Football League kicker Adam Vinatieri.

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“I couldn’t believe it,” Ward remarks on the phone from the nation’s capital, recalling the initially puzzling salute by the home crowd. “I pushed the kick wide right, and all of a sudden I see all our fans are on their feet cheering. It was bizarre at first, because I didn’t realize why they were applauding.” When it dawned on him what was happening, he was gratified. “It felt great to be appreciated.”

Ward’s phenomenal streak started back in 2018, his first year in the CFL, a season that would end with the kicker earning CFL Most Outstanding Rookie laurels. In Ottawa’s opening game versus Saskatchewan, Ward made good on his first two field-goal tries before misfiring on the third one. It would mark his final miss of the campaign. He ran the table, as they say in pool halls. Overall, he connected on 52 of 53 attempts including the 41-yarder in Winnipeg that put him atop the all-time accuracy list among those who earn their keep kicking the pigskin through the uprights. Ward’s eye-popping 98.1 field-goal percentage was also a single-season pro football standard.

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“I was spoiled by success during my rookie year,” says the ex-Ottawa Gee-Gee who’s in his seventh season with the Redblacks and is one of six team captains. “The rookie award, special teams rookie award, the (field-goal) record, playing in the Grey Cup…everything just seemed to fall into place that year, except the loss to Calgary in the Grey Cup.”

The next year, the team faltered but Ward’s field-goal aim stayed true, that is until No. 70 sailed wide of its mark.

“Lew brings so much to the table, and not just his kicking,” says Redblacks veteran special teams coach Cory McDiarmid, who’s been coaching various special teams and kickers since 1999. “He’s a great teammate who’s super passionate and extremely focused on his craft,” he adds. “Lew’s every bit as good as any kicker I’ve coached and better than most. He’s so locked in that his teammates almost expect him to make every kick, that’s how much confidence they have in him, and that in itself isn’t a bad thing.”

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Ward, whose family moved to Canada when he was in Grade 8, fondly recalls his “formative years” at Bayridge Secondary, where the athletic soccer-playing Brit moved seamlessly into sports he’d never played before, including football, basketball and rugby.

“Lewis is just a natural athlete,” recalls Bayridge athletic director Sean Allen, who coached the teenaged Ward in rugby. “No matter the sport, Lewis played a key position: slotback and kicker in football, point guard and shooting guard in basketball , fly-half in rugby.” Ward also served as the keeper on a Cataraqui Clippers rep soccer club.

“My time at Bayridge was very special,” Ward recalls. “I did a lot of growing up and was fortunate to be part of a core group of athletes who played a number of sports.”

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Though his contract expires at season’s end, Ward, 31, is not setting his sights elsewhere, not even south of the border where top NFL kickers earn seven-figure salaries. Take Baltimore Ravens’ Justin Tucker, for instance. The 34-year-old recently inked a four-year extension at $6-million per season, and ol’ JT’s never come close to hitting 69 successive field goals.

“I’ve had some looks, some people interested, but I really don’t want to play anywhere else but right here in Ottawa,” confirms Ward, who shares a rented townhouse with fiance McKenna Willson. “I’m super happy here,” he adds. “I live in Ottawa year round, I love what I’m doing, and I want to keep doing it.”

Two years ago, Ward matched the second-best field goal percentage of his pro career, a hair shy of 86 percent (49-for-57). He sat out the final four games of the 2023 season with an injury sustained while trying to make a tackle following a missed field goal. So far this year he’s been good on 9 of 10 field-goal attempts including a recent game-ending (and season-long) 46-yarder that beat the Hamilton Tiger Cats. “Walk-off kicks never get old,” the 5’7” kicker remarked afterwards.

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The latter effort is 10 yards shorter than Ward’s personal-best boot of 56 yards, a distance he’s reached on two occasions, both times with plenty of room to spare. “I’ve had a few in practice in the low 60s and in perfect weather conditions – hot summer day, slight breeze,” he says before adding with a chuckle: “And no in-game pressure.”

Pressure comes with the job. Like baseball relief pitchers, football kickers must be cool and calm under pressure. Bayridge teacher Allen relates an anecdote from a few years ago that typifies Ward’s unruffled demeanor in the clutch.

“On the day Lewis was inducted into the Bayridge Hall of Fame, I challenged him right on the spot to drop-kick a rugby ball from one end of the gym and hit the basketball backboard at the other end,” Allen recalls. “I gave him three chances.”

In a gym packed with students and staff, Ward, in a pair of dress shoes, missed poorly on his first try. His second attempt landed a few feet short. On his final kick, the freshly-minted hall of famer nailed the backboard dead centre.

No doubt, Lew peeked at the backboard a split-second beforehand and envisioned a set of uprights.

Patrick Kennedy is a retired Whig-Standard reporter. He can be reached at pjckennedy35@gmail.com

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