Sports Career
| Date of birth: | (1929-10-24) October 24, 1929 (age 83) |
| Place of birth: | Calgary, Alberta |
| Career information | |
|---|---|
| Status: | Retired |
| CFL status: | Non-import |
| Position(s): | RB |
| Height: | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) |
| Weight: | 170 lb (77 kg) |
| Organizations | |
| As player: | |
| 1948-1950 1951-1960 |
Calgary Stampeders Edmonton Eskimos |
| Career highlights and awards | |
|
|
| CFL West All-Star: | 1951, 1953, 1955, 1956 |
| Records: | Eskimos Record
|
| Canadian Football Hall of Fame, 1969 | |
After playing football at Western Canada High School, he went on to play for the Calgary Stampeders from 1948 to 1950 and, after a trade, the Edmonton Eskimos from 1951 until his retirement in 1960. Nicknamed the "China Clipper", Kwong was the first Chinese Canadian to play on a professional Canadian football team. A powerful fullback, in 11 years of recorded statistics Kwong rushed for 9,022 yards for an average of 5.2 yards per carry and scored 93 touchdowns. He won the Grey Cup four times during his career (1948, 1954, 1955, and 1956). Kwong was a Western Conference all-star running back and three-time winner of the Eddie James Memorial Trophy, in 1951, 1955 and 1956. He was named the Schenley Most Outstanding Canadian in 1955 and 1956. He was named Canadian Athlete of the Year in 1955. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1969, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1975, the Edmonton Eskimos' Wall of Honour in 1983 (where his jersey No. 95 was retired), and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. In November 2006, he was one of very few of his contemporaries to be voted one of the Canadian Football League's Top 50 players of the sport's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN. Kwong set the CFL record for the most yards rushing by Canadian in a season with 1,437 in the 1956 season. This record held for 56 years, being broken by Jon Cornish only in 2012, though Kwong accomplished his record in fifteen games, rather than eighteen for Cornish.
He was president and general manager of the Calgary Stampeders from 1988 to 1991, leading the team to a loss in the Grey Cup final in 1991. Between 1980 and 1994, Kwong was a part owner of the Calgary Flames, having been one of the original group of six Calgary businessmen who bought and moved the NHL's Atlanta Flames hockey team to Calgary in 1980. The Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989, making him one of few people whose name is on both the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup.
Read more about this topic: Norman Kwong
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