CIS CORNER: STRACHAN HARTLEY, McGILL FOOTBALL CAPTAIN, LOSES CANCER FIGHT

The overused word "tragedy" fits upon learning former McGill football captain Strachan Hartley lost his battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma earlier today, just 30 years old. I didn't know him personally, but Hartley by all accounts was everything one would want to see from a CIS athlete, an academic all-Canadian who graduated in the top 15% of his McGill med school class even while underdoing cancer treatment.

It's a brutal story for any family, let alone one as accomplished athletically as the Hartley clan, which includes the Olympic medallist diver Blythe Hartley and Wyatt Hartley, who played tailback for the Queen's Golden Gaels around the turn of the decade.

One memory stands out from the Hartley brothers' only meeting during their CIS football careers, in the last Queen's-McGill game in September 2000 at Molson Stadium in Montréal. After the game (Strachan's Redmen won 30-15, but Wyatt got both Gaels touchdowns), the players were doing the usual post-game catching up with families and friends on the field before heading into the locker rooms.

The duelling Hartleys had by far the largest contingent around them. A couple of little girls, maybe cousins, had slipped on their helmets, which were comically oversized on their tiny heads, and were ramming into each other. Knowing about the family's athletic reputation — Blythe Hartley competed in her first Olympics that same month — it was comical to see all that vigour had spread across their friends and family.

I didn't know the family beyond having interviewed Wyatt a couple times after games, obviously. It's hard to imagine that same family that was there seeing the brothers face each other in football that day seven years ago going through such heartache now.

Condolences to the Hartleys, Strachan's friends, his spouse Dr. Chloe Roumain and his football families at McGill and the University of British Columbia, where he was a captain on the Thunderbirds team who beat the Ottawa Gee-Gees in the Vanier Cup 10 years ago this fall. Before his death, he expressed hope to the Montreal Gazette that his fight would move people to give blood or register for a stem cell donor registry, and hopefully some work will be done in his name that once the mourning period has passed.

Related:
A simple story of heart and grit (Jack Todd, Montreal Gazette, Dec. 16, 2006)