Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Chase Brown takes home Jon Cornish Trophy for best Canadian-born college football player

Andrew Peters

By Andrew Peters

Published:

Chase Brown received a high honor Wednesday. The standout running back for Illinois took home the Jon Cornish Trophy awarded to the best Canadian football player each year.

Brown is a London, Ontario native and earned the award after a monster year where he picked up 1,643 yards rushing and 13 total touchdowns to lead Illinois to an 8-4 record this season. It was Brown’s second consecutive year with over 1,000 rushing yards.

Brown is not the only Canadian on the Illinois roster. His brother Sydney Brown was also born in Canada and plays DB for the Fighting Illini.

Last season, the award went to Alabama’s John Metchie III, who took it home in back-to-back years.

The award started in 2017 and is named after Jon Cornish, who played for Kansas in the early 2000s and went on to have a successful career in the Canadian Football League.

Brown and the Illini take on Mississippi State Jan. 2 in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

Andrew Peters