The Jon Cornish Trophy is an award given annually to the top Canadian player in

NCAA 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 ...

. The award is named after

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about the CFL, ...

r (CFHOF) Jon Cornish and has been presented since 2017, with the trophy debuting two years later on display at the CFHOF. It is awarded by a panel consisting of Canadian journalists, player personnel evaluators from 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 ...

, former NCAA players with a connection to Canada, and panelists from '' Gridiron Nation''. Nathan Rourke and John Metchie III are the only two to have ever won it more than once.

History

The trophy was first awarded at the conclusion of the 2017

season to honor the top Canadian player in American

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 ...

, where it was presented to Ohio Bobcats quarterback Nathan Rourke from

Oakville, Ontario Oakville is a town and List of municipalities in Ontario#Lower-tier municipalities, lower-tier municipality in Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. Generally seen as a commuter suburb of Toronto, it is located on Lake ...

. The award is named after Jon Cornish, a former running back at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

who would later play for the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium a ...

of the

, where he would win three Most Outstanding Canadian awards as well as the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award and Lou Marsh Trophy (now the Northern Star Award) in 2013 before being inducted into the

in 2019. Rourke would win the award again the following season before Oklahoma State running back and

Sherwood Park Sherwood Park is a large hamlet in Alberta, Canada within Strathcona County that is recognized as an urban service area. It is adjacent to the City of Edmonton's eastern boundary. While long confined to generally south of Highway 16 ( Ye ...

native Chuba Hubbard was named the winner for the 2019–20 season. Alabama wide receiver and

Brampton Brampton is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, and the regional seat of the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#L ...

local John Metchie III won the award for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons. Illinois running back and

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

, native Chase Brown won the award in 2022 after leading all Power Five teams in rushing. In 2023,

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

wide receiver Elic Ayomanor, a

Medicine Hat, Alberta Medicine Hat is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff to the northwest are within ...

native who amassed over 1,000 yards receiving, including a school-record 294 yards against

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. The most recent winner is

Kurtis Rourke Kurtis Rourke (born October 25, 2000) is a Canadian professional football quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ohio Bobcats and the Indiana Hoosiers. Rourke was selecte ...

, a graduate student quarterback from Oakville, Ontario who led the

Indiana Hoosiers The Indiana Hoosiers are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of Indiana University Bloomington, named after the demonym for people from the state of Indiana. The Hoosiers participate in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Coll ...

to an 11–2 record, their best season since 1946. Kurtis is the younger brother of Nathan, who won the first two awards. The patrons of the trophy are the Northern 8 group led by businessman L. David Dube and Football Canada president Jim Mullin. It is awarded by a panel consisting of Canadian journalists,

player personnel evaluators, former NCAA players with a connection to Canada, and panelists from '' Gridiron Nation''. The primary trophy, featuring an image of Cornish superimposed on a background that incorporates a maple leaf and a five-pointed star, is kept on permanent display at the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. The recipient is presented with a separate personalized trophy featuring an image from the player's trophy-winning season. This trophy originally featured the logo of

Football Canada Football Canada is the governing body for gridiron football in Canada headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Football Canada focuses primarily its own Canadian form of the sport, and is currently the world's only national governing body for Canadia ...

, the country's governing body for amateur

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

, but that logo has been replaced by a dedicated Cornish Trophy logo.

Winners

References

External links

* {{College football award navbox Canadian sports trophies and awards 2017 establishments in Canada Awards established in 2017

History

Winners

See also

References

External links