Christopher Dwight Isaac (May 15, 1959 – October 19, 2020) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

with the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded on September 19, 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup cham ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

(CFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the Eastern Kentucky Colonels.

Career

After starring as a quarterback at

New Smyrna Beach High School New Smyrna Beach High School (NSBHS) is a public high school located in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, United States. About The school mascot is the Barracuda, commonly referred to as the "Cuda." The high school opened in 1963 on what is now calle ...

in Florida, Isaac played

at Eastern Kentucky University from 1978 through 1981. In three of those years, the Colonels appeared in the

NCAA Division I Football Championship The NCAA Division I Football Championship is an annual post-season college football game, played since 2006, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). From 1978 to 2005, the game was ca ...

game, winning in 1979. Isaac subsequently joined Ottawa of the CFL for the 1982 season. In his first start, he set the team record with 471 yards passing and tied a record with five touchdown passes. He finished the year with 18 touchdown passes and 3,408 passing yards, and won the

CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie Award The Most Outstanding Rookie Award is annually awarded to the player judged to be the best player in his first year in the Canadian Football League. The two nominees for the award are the Frank M. Gibson Trophy winner from the East Division, and t ...

. He could not repeat this success, playing only one more year in the CFL, as he appeared in 11 games in 1983 and lost the starting quarterback job to J.C. Watts. After his playing career ended, Isaac worked as an assistant coach at several high schools and colleges, including Bethune-Cookman College. He has also been a mathematics teacher at Pine Ridge High School in

Deltona, Florida Deltona is a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. It is located on the northern shore of Lake Monroe (Florida), Lake Monroe. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city population was 93,692. It is a principal city of ...

. Isaac was inducted to the Eastern Kentucky athletic hall of fame in 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isaac, Chris 1959 births 2020 deaths Ottawa Rough Riders players Eastern Kentucky Colonels football players Canadian football quarterbacks American football quarterbacks Sportspeople from New Smyrna Beach, Florida Bethune–Cookman Wildcats football coaches Canadian Football League Rookie of the Year Award winners Coaches of American football from Florida Players of American football from Volusia County, Florida Players of Canadian football from Florida 20th-century American sportsmen