CFLPA: Tom Pate Award

Every year the Canadian Football League Players’ Association (CFLPA) presents the Tom Pate Award; an award held in high regard. It is an award given to players who display qualities that distinguish them from their peers.

It is this rare quality that these players maintained and made them recipients of the award. Tom Pate had a unique combination of outstanding sportsmanship and dedication to the league and his community.

Tom Pate was educated at the University of Nebraska and played first-stringer with the Cornhuskers. After shuffling through various teams, he became a star with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

In October 1975, however, his stardom as well as his life, was abruptly ended, when in his fourteenth game, against the Calgary Stampeders, he suffered an aneurysm in the fourth quarter. Pate, only 23 at the time, never regained consciousness and died two days later.

Each year each team nominates a team member for this award. The recipient should embody the qualities that distinguished Tom Pate; qualities that recognize a player with outstanding sportsmanship, who has made a contribution to this team as well as to his community Association.