Each Wednesday for a six-week period from May 31 to July 5, one of the newly minted 2023 inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame will be profiled. In our fifth installment, read about football player Dr. Robin Bélanger (BA '89).
Born Sept. 25, 1964 in Quebec City, Robin Bélanger played high school football at Séminaire Saint-Joseph, where his team went undefeated for two seasons (1979-1980), winning back-to-back Bol d'or championships. He then moved up to the CEGEP ranks at Collège de Trois-Rivières (1981-1984), winning two additional consecutive Bol d'or league titles in 1982 and 1983.
Bélanger was recruited to McGill in 1984, where he played five seasons while studying economics and management before graduating with a bachelor of arts in 1989. When the fall campaign was done each year, he joined the track and field team as a sprinter during the winter semester, where he reached the finals of the 60-metre dash.
A two-time OQIFC all-star (1985 and 1986), the rugged 5-foot-9, 178-pound defensive back was named as the team's rookie of the year (Fred Dupré Trophy) and twice won the Molson Cup award as the team's most outstanding defensive player.
He was a key figure on McGill's hard-hitting defensive unit that won the last nine games of the 1987 football season, including four post-season victories. Those playoffs opened with a 27-24 come-from-behind win over Queen's at Molson Stadium. Arguably, one of his most memorable moments occurred the following week, in the Dunsmore Cup league championship game against division-leading Bishop's in Lennoxville, Que. After the Gaiters had scored a touchdown at 7:33 of the fourth quarter, Bélanger answered back on the ensuing kickoff with a spectacular 55-yard return for TD that gave McGill a 25-point lead en route to a stunning 32-16 upset. It was the program's first league title since 1973 and paved the way for a first national championship since 1960.
From there, McGill became an unstoppable force en route to subsequent road victories, including a 30-29 win at Saint Mary's in the Atlantic Bowl and a lopsided 47-11 decision over heavily-favoured UBC in the Vanier Cup at Varsity Stadium in Toronto.
"He was a brilliant athlete and a great player. We never had a better athlete on the defensive side of the ball during my five years at McGill," recalled Larry Ring, who served as defensive coordinator at McGill from 1984 to 1988 and later coached at Concordia and Ottawa. "On a very talented athletic defence, Robin played both at cornerback and at halfback. He could cover man-to-man and was a great tackler. In the 1987 Vanier Cup game, we defeated undefeated UBC – the top passing attack in the country – and we assigned Robin to cover their best receiver Mike Bellefontaine, a future CFL player."
In 35 career regular season games with McGill, Bélanger snared 13 interceptions for 169 yards and registered 146 tackles, which ranked second at the time among DBs on the team's all-time leader list. He was second in kickoff returns (698 yards, 37 KORs) and fourth in punt returns (657 yards, 78 PRs). His longest kickoff return for TD was a 95-yard effort against visiting Carleton on Oct. 3, 1986. He also had a 55-yard fumble recovery for touchdown in a Shaughnessy Cup win over Concordia on Sept. 28, 1985.
In his draft year (1987), Bélanger set a Canadian Football League Combines Camp record of 3.91 seconds in the pro agility shuttle, composed of lateral runs of five, 10 and five yards. That record stood for 25 years, until it was surpassed with a clocking of 3.89 at the 2012 Combines. He was a fourth-round selection (36th overall) by the B.C. Lions in the 1987 CFL Draft. Bélanger returned to McGill to complete his degree, then went on to play four years in the CFL, including his rookie campaign, where he dressed for all 18 games. From 1989 to 1992, he registered 100 tackles in 62 CFL regular season contests with the B.C. Lions and Toronto Argonauts.
After his playing career, he attended Palmer College in Iowa, graduating with a doctor of chiropractic in 1996. He become a licensed chiropractor and opened up a successful practice in Trois-Rivières.
"Robin was admitted to McGill as a unilingual francophone and had an exemplary academic record, graduating with a bachelor's degree, followed by a chiropractic degree elsewhere," said Pat Sheahan, the team's former offensive coordinator who has won Vanier Cup championship rings while coaching at McGill (1987), Queen's (2009) and Calgary (2019). "He was a generational player and by any measure, Robin was an elite athlete. He was smart, fast, and tough. There are few athletes that have had that combination during my time at McGill. He was a Hall of Fame calibre player and definitely a shining example of what every McGill student-athlete aspires to be."
The 1987 squad was inducted in the team category in 2008 and Bélanger joins the late Michael Soles as the Hall's only individual players selected from that group. Bélanger was previously honoured by his high school's football hall of fame at Séminaire Saint-Joseph in 2010.
Other laureates accompanying Bélanger in the McGill induction class of 2023 include hockey goaltender Charline Labonté (B.Ed. '12; M.A. '15), hockey forward Francis Verreault-Paul (B.Sc. '12), swimmer Steven Bielby, hockey coach Peter Smith (B.Ed. '79; M.A. '86) and the 1969 McGill championship football team.
Founded in 1996, the McGill pantheon – located inside Tomlinson Hall at the Sir Arthur Currie Gymnasium – now has 175 honoured members, 31 of them Olympians. The induction ceremonies – slated for Friday, Oct. 20, as part of McGill Homecoming 2023 – will be held at The Windsor Ballroom on Peel Street. Ticket information will be announced in early September.
Profiles for previous year's honourees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame are available online and submissions for next year's induction can be made by completing an online nomination form before April 1, 2024.
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Off.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
