Thomas A. Haskins (born August 11, 197

is a former

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

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 ...

(CFL).

College career

Haskins played for

Virginia Military Institute The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the U.S. In k ...

for three seasons. There, he finished his collegiate career holding 21 school records, co-holding 5 school records. In addition to scoring 50 all-time touchdowns, he set the all-time rushing record for

Division I-AA The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Sponsored by the National Collegiate A ...

with 5349 yards. As of 2002, this ranks him third all-time in Division I-AA. As of 2008, Haskins is the only VMI football player to have his jersey number retired. He is also set to be inducted into the VMI Sports Hall of Fame in November 200

Professional career

In 1997, Haskins joined 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 ...

of the CFL and played there for the next six seasons, winning a

Grey Cup The Grey Cup () is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners ...

championship in his final year with the team. On February 22, 2003, Haskins signed a free-agent contract with the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at Commonwealth Stadium. The E ...

. However, a month later, Haskins suffered from a

benign Malignancy () is the tendency of a medical condition to become progressively worse; the term is most familiar as a characterization of cancer. A ''malignant'' tumor contrasts with a non-cancerous benign tumor, ''benign'' tumor in that a malig ...

brain tumor A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...

the size of an orange which was remove

As a result, Haskins did not suit up for a single game for the Eskimos. Despite that, the Eskimos honoured his contract for the 2003 season. In March 2004, Haskins was released by the Eskimos. Despite vowing to return to professional football after recovering from the tumor, Haskins decided to retire.

External links

Stats Crew profile
Living people 1973 births Montreal Alouettes players Canadian football running backs Players of Canadian football from Virginia VMI Keydets football players American football running backs Players of American football from Virginia {{Canadianfootball-runningback-stub