Paul Brule (born February 21, 1945) is a Canadian former 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 starred at

St. Francis Xavier University St. Francis Xavier University is a public undergraduate liberal arts university located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a member of the Maple League, a group of primarily undergraduate universities in Eastern Canada. History St. Fran ...

in the 1960s before playing professionally in 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 ...

. He was inducted in to the

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, ...

in 2018.

University football career (1964-1967)

Brule played fullback and defensive halfback at St. Francis Xavier University in

Antigonish Antigonish ( ; ) is a town in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, Canada. The town is home to St. Francis Xavier University and the oldest continuous Highland games outside Scotland. It is approximately 160 kilometres (100 miles) northeast of Hal ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, Canada from 1964 to 1967. In 1966 he set a Canadian university football record with 1103 yards rushing and became the first player in

Canadian Interuniversity Sport U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body for universities in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country and four regional conferences: Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Résea ...

history to score 20 touchdowns in a season. He also set a U Sports season record with 120 points scored. That season the St. Francis Xavier X-Men won the

Vanier Cup The Vanier Cup () is the trophy awarded annually to the champion Canadian football team in U Sports, the governing body for university sports in Canada. The U Sports football champion is determined in a one-game playoff (the Vanier Cup game), pl ...

Trophy as Canada's top university football team by beating Waterloo Lutheran University (now known as

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a Public university, public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Brantford, Ontario, Brantford and Milton, Ontario, Milton. The ...

) 40–14 in the

2nd Vanier Cup The 2nd Vanier Cup was played on November 19, 1966, at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, Ontario, and decided Canada's university football champions by way of a national invitation to participate in the game. The St. Francis Xavier X-Men and the Water ...

game at

Varsity Stadium Varsity Stadium is an outdoor collegiate stadium located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the "Varsity Centre & Arena", a sports complex at the University of Toronto's St. George Campus. Athletic events have been hosted on the site ...

in Toronto. Brule did not win another championship in 1967, but his senior year at St. Francis Xavier was perhaps his finest. He broke his own record for touchdowns in a season with 25. This included 21 rushing touchdowns, two receiving touchdowns, one punt return touchdown and one interception return touchdown. This record still stands as of the completion of the

2017 U Sports football season The 2017 U Sports football season began on August 25 with the St. Francis Xavier X-Men visiting the Saint Mary's Huskies in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Montreal Carabins visiting the Concordia Stingers in Montreal, Quebec. The season conclud ...

. Brule's 150 points in the 1967 season were also a new Canadian record. Remarkably, eight of Brule's touchdowns in 1967 came in a single game. On October 20, 1967, Brule scored seven rushing touchdowns and one punt return touchdown against

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

. This record still stands, as does his record of 48 points in a single game. He finished his four-year university career with 51 all-purpose touchdowns, a record that still stands as of the completion of the 2017 U Sports season.

U Sports records

When Brule graduated after the 1967 season, he held the records for most rushing yards in a season (1103), most touchdowns in a game (8), most touchdowns in a season (25), most touchdowns in a career (51), most points in a season (150) and most points in a career (306).

Professional football career (1968-1972)

Brule was selected second overall in the first round of the Canadian Football League's 1968 amateur draft by 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 ...

. Brule became the property of the Blue Bombers and played both fullback and defensive back for Winnipeg from 1968 to 1971. He enjoyed his most productive season offensively in his rookie year, when he rushed for 32 yards and one touchdown on 13 carries and caught five passes for 43 yards. Defensively, Brule's best season was 1970, when he had nine interceptions to rank third in the West and earn a Western Conference All-Star selection at defensive back. Brule had another four interceptions in 1971 with Winnipeg before moving to the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: ''Les Alouettes de Montréal'') are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has disbanded twice and been re-established thrice. The Alouettes compe ...

for his final season in 1972. With Montreal, Brule had two more interceptions to raise his career total to 16. Besides playing fullback and defensive back, Brule was also used as a punt returner and kick returner, averaging over seven yards per punt return for his career. His best season returning punts was 1969 when he finished second in the Western Conference with 498 yards.

Career honours

Brule was inducted into the St. Francis Xavier University Sports Hall of Fame in 1988. He was inducted into the Nova Scotia Football Hall of Fame in 2009. In March 2018, it was announced that Brule would be inducted in to the

in the class of 2018. He was inducted in September 2018.

Personal

Brule is the father of journalist, entrepreneur and magazine publisher

Tyler Brûlé Jayson Tyler Brûlé (born November 25, 1968) is a Canadian journalist, entrepreneur, and magazine publisher. He is the editorial director of ''Monocle''. Early life Jayson Tyler Brûlé is the only child of Canadian football player Paul Bru ...

References

External links

CFL career profile

Nova Scotia Football Hall of Fame

St. Francis Xavier Sports Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brule, Paul 1945 births Living people Canadian football defensive backs Canadian football fullbacks Montreal Alouettes players Canadian football people from Montreal Players of Canadian football from Quebec St. Francis Xavier X-Men football players Winnipeg Blue Bombers players Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees