He also won league championships in 1983 with the Toronto Argonauts, in 2001 with the Calgary Stampeders and in 2006 with the B.C. Lions.

A career that long wasn't something he'd expect to happen.

"You just don't know how things are going to happen," he said.

Canada wasn't on his radar to begin with. Having been drafted by the NFL's St. Louis (now Arizona) Cardinals, he tried out with the AFL's Denver Broncos and was going to sign with the team, but things didn't work out.

So O'Billovich made a decision to head up North to Canada and to keep playing football.

"I decided to give the CFL a shot, and my life was led there and I've been there ever since," he said.

O'Billovich admitted that he didn't know much about the Canadian Football League. When he was trying out with the Broncos, the team's quarterback, Frank Tripucka, encouraged O'Billovich to give it a shot. Tripucka himself spent a few seasons in the CFL before joining the Broncos.

"He said, 'Maybe you ought to go up there and give it a shot and then see what happens,'" O'Billovich recalled.