A career dotted with magic, championships and awards was unfortunately cut short due to concussions.
St. Thomas More alum Jon Cornish announced Wednesday he was retiring as a player with the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders.
At 31, the end came too soon for Cornish and football fans.
“All good things must come to an end,” Cornish told those gathering at a press conference at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium.
Three head injuries, suffered in the span of two seasons, put the likeable running back on the sidelines for six weeks in 2014 and most of this past season. The New Westminster native played in just nine games in each of the past two years, with a broken finger and a neck injury curtailing his availability in 2015.
While his career, at 140 games over nine seasons, was short, the list of accomplishments was many.
Drafted out of the University of Kansas, where Cornish had set a single-season school rushing record, the Stampeders No. 13th pick overall in the 2006 CFL draft took a spot on specialty teams.
Soon he proved just how special he was when given the opportunity.
During his first season at running back, Cornish gained 254 yards on 30 carries, contributing to the team’s 2008 Grey Cup win.
In 2010 he earned the No. 1 ball carrier’s job and ran with it, averaging 7.3 yards per carry and 16.5 yards per reception.
From 2012 to 2014, Cornish put up league-leading numbers carrying the ball, while rushing off with the CFL’s most oustanding Canadian award each year.
In 2013 he would be named the league’s Most Outstanding Player, and accepted the Lou Marsh Memorial Trophy as Canada’s top athlete.
He broke Normie Kwon’s 56-year-old single-season rushing record in 2012, setting a new mark for a Canadian with 1,457 yards. Cornish would eclipse that record in 2013 with the current Canadian rushing standard of 1,813 yards.
Cornish’s final career rushing tally added it to 6,844 yards on 1,026 carries, scoring 44 touchdowns. He counted nine more majors from passes.
Calgary would win two Grey Cups in three tries during his tenure with the team.
