Ronald L. Stewart (born September 25, 1934) is a former professional

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

for the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

. He played for 13 seasons for the Rough Riders, winning three

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

championships and won the CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award in

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

Queen's Golden Gaels The Queen's Gaels (also known as the Queen's Golden Gaels) is the Athletics program representing Queen's University at Kingston in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Team colours are blue, red, and gold. The main athletics facilities include Richardson Me ...

Early career

Born in Toronto, Stewart played football at

Riverdale Collegiate Institute Riverdale Collegiate Institute (Riverdale CI, RCI, or Riverdale) is a semestered high school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by the Toronto Board of Education until its amalgamation in 1998 into the Toronto District School B ...

in Toronto and then at Queen's University in Kingston between 1953 and 1957, where he was the team's most valuable player three times and played on two

Yates Cup The Yates Cup (french: La Coupe Yates) is a Canadian sports trophy, presented annually to the winner of the Ontario University Athletics football conference of U Sports. It is the oldest still-existing football trophy in North America, dating back ...

championship teams (1955 and 1956). He was voted MVP of the 1957 season.

Professional career

Stewart, though smaller than most players at 5 foot 7 inches, went on to a 13-year career with the

from 1958 to 1970. Stewart was an Eastern Conference all star running back in 1960, 1961 and 1964. Stewart played on

winning teams in

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

and

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

, and also played in the 1966 Grey Cup on the losing side. He especially starred in the 1969 Grey Cup with 2 TD receptions for 80 and 32 yards. Stewart rushed for 5,690 yards on 983 attempts and tallied 42 touchdowns in his career. He capped his 1960 season by winning the CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award and by setting the CFL record for rushing yards in one game with 287 against the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

on October 10, 1960. His totals were 139 rushes for 1,020 yards that year. Stewart was voted the winner of the

Lionel Conacher Award The Lionel Conacher Award is an annual award given to Canada's male athlete of the year. The sports writers of the Canadian Press (CP) first conducted a poll to determine the nation's top athlete, of either gender, in 1932. Separate polls for the ...

as Canada's top male athlete of the year. Stewart has been inducted into the Queen's University Sports Hall of Fame, the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame, the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...

(1977) and

Canada's Sports Hall of Fame Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (french: Panthéon des sports canadiens; sometimes referred to as the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame) is a Canadian sports hall of fame and museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dedicated to the history of sports in Canad ...

(1989).

Accusations

Stewart graduated from the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

with a law degree. After his retirement from football, he was appointed the ombudsman for the federal correction system in 1977, which post he held until his retirement in 2003. Since his retirement, Stewart has been the subject of an investigation by the Office of the

Auditor General of Canada The Auditor General of Canada is an officer of the Parliament of Canada to aid accountability and oversight by conducting independent financial audits of federal government operations. These audits provide members of parliament with objective e ...

Sheila Fraser Sheila Fraser (born September 16, 1950) served as Auditor General of Canada from 2001 to 2011. Early life and education Fraser was born in Dundee, Quebec, Canada to Kenneth Fraser (1917-2005), a Quebec Member of the National Assembly for Huntin ...

. Her report of November 28, 2006 made allegations regarding Stewart, who the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported was accused of "often skipping work and collecting $325,000 in improper or questionable salary, vacation pay and expenses during a six-year period of his 26 years in office." The file was handed over to the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

for investigation. The list of allegations included: * hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable payments, including money for days he spent on vacation * travel to cities hosting the Grey Cup championships that he billed as a trip taken to “investigate inmate complaints” * the purchase of two computers used by his family * collecting nearly $100,000 for vacation pay (claiming he hadn’t taken a vacation for 14 years of his 26-year stint as ombudsman) * handing out performance bonuses over six years and of budget surpluses to staffers, disguised as overtime payments, that totaled over $260,000 The RCMP investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing. Stewart eventually agreed to pay back $77,500 of the money.
The Auditor-General’s Top 10,

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

, Tamsin McMahon May 30, 2011

Personal life

He is married to

Wendy Stewart Wendy Stewart (née Thomas; born c. 1952) is a former Ottawa City Councillor and Ottawa-Carleton Regional Councillor. While on council, she was described as being a fiscal conservative. Stewart was born in Ottawa, and attended South Carleton H ...

, a former Ottawa city councillor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Ron 1934 births Living people Sportspeople from Toronto Players of Canadian football from Ontario Canadian football running backs Queen's Golden Gaels football players Ottawa Rough Riders players Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Canadian Award winners Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees University of Ottawa alumni