Source: Earl Zukerman, McGill Sports Info Office
MONTREAL – Jean-Philippe Darche, a former McGill University football star who went on to play in both the CFL and the NFL, has finally received his walking papers. The 39-year-old native of St. Laurent, Que., who earned a science degree in physiology from McGill in 1998, graduated from the University of Kansas school of medicine, Monday. He was one of only three in his class to merit a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
"J.P" as he is more commonly known, is the older brother of Mathieu Darche, a McGill hockey all-Canadian and commerce grad who had a lengthy pro hockey career, including a recent stint with the Montreal Canadiens.
Kansas and McGill are historicallly intertwined as James Naismith, the inventor of basketball in 1891, was a stellar athlete at McGill before graduating with a divinity degree in 1887. He later spent a significant portion of his life as a basketball coach and administrator at Kansas. Now following in Darche's footsteps is Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, also a medical student at McGill, who was recently drafted and signed by the Kansas City Chiefs.
An all-Canadian middle linebacker and long-snapper for five years at McGill, J.P. Darche received the Russ Jackson Trophy in 1998 as the CIS player who best combines football prowess with academic excellence and citizenship. He graduated in only three years, then attended McGill medical school for two additional years while serving as co-captain of the Redmen and concluded his five-year collegiate career as the all-time leading tackler in school history with 272 tackles, including 132 solos.
Drafted in the third round by the CFL's Toronto Argonauts in 1999, Darche played one season as the Argos long-snapper, then made the lofty jump to the NFL, where he had a productive nine-year career with the Seattle Seahawks and the Chiefs. In 2006, he became only the second CIS grad to play in the Super Bowl, where the Seahawks suffered a 21-10 loss to Pittsburgh. He dressed for 97 games over seven seasons with the Seahawks and served as a co-captain in his last season before moving onto the Chiefs for two years, where he suited up for 23 contests before retiring with a hip injury. Upon retirement from the Chiefs, he remained in Kansas City to complete the medical school journey that he began at McGill.
In 2013, he was named to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honour Medical Society for commitment to high academic standing, combined with leadership among peers, professionalism, a firm sense of ethics, promise of future success in medicine and a commitment to service in the school and community.