| File:Grover Covington.jpg Grover Covington - Photographed by Mike F. Campbell | |
| No. 77 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth: March 25, 1956 | |
| Place of birth: Monroe, North Carolina | |
| Career information | |
| No regular season or postseason appearances | |
| Career history | |
| Roster status: Retired | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Canadian Football Hall of Fame | |
Grover Covington (born March 25, 1956 in Monroe, North Carolina) is a former Canadian Football League defensive end for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.[1]
Personal life[]
Grover Covington didn't begin playing football until his junior year of high school, but was good enough to earn a scholarship to Johnson C. Smith University, an NCAA Division II school in Charlotte, North Carolina.[2]
Professional career[]
Grover Covingtons career began in 1981 as a free agent signing by the Montreal Alouettes. However a pre-season trade that year sent him to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, where he played his entire career.[3] Covington was a seven-time CFL All-Star and often led the league in quarterback sacks. He won the Schenley Award for Most Outstanding Defensive Player once and also lead the Tiger-Cats to a Grey Cup victory in 1986. He finished his career with 157 sacks, a CFL record. In 1995 Covington was inducted along with former teammate Chet Grimsley into the Johnson C. Smith University Sports Hall of Fame. (Grimsley's 2011 book The White Golden Bull: How Faith in God Transcended Racial Barriers includes a chapter on the relationship between the author, a white student at the historically black university, and Covington.)[4] Covington was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and, in November 2006, was voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#28) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Life after retirement[]
Covington lives in Surrey, British Columbia with wife Natasha and three children. In addition he serves as a football consultant and motivational speaker. Covington's son Christian has been recruited by several NCAA Division I schools to play football in the US and plays for the Rice owls in Houston, Texas on a full-ride scholarship for football. His daughter Asianna will now be attending the University of Georgia on a full-ride scholarship for track and field as she signed her Letter of Intent February 6th 2013.
References[]
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