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The absurdity that night reached a peak, or so Paul McCallum thought, when one of his kicks landed behind him.

“If I remember it right, I kicked an extra point, the ball went up and landed probably 25 yards behind me because the wind was so bad,” he said.

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It was Sept. 28, 1997, the night McCallum entered the Canadian Football League record book for most field goal attempts (13) and most misses (six) in a game.

The wind howled through Taylor Field, seemingly intent on sending great swaths of Saskatchewan farmland home with the visitors from Alberta, the Edmonton Eskimos.

“There was no way you could punt the ball,” said McCallum, then a member of the Riders. “First of all, catching the snap, the wind was accelerating it, moving it. That was hard. And then trying to punt it out of your hands was near impossible. So it was line up in field goal formation and kick the ball as far as you could and get it to the sideline. And keep it low.”