During the decade of the '60's and'70's, Canada was well represented on the Penguin grid rosters and one of the greatest from north of the border to rush a football for the Penguins was John Kinch, one of five former gridders to be honored at the Hall of Fame festivities tonight.
A native of Hamilton, Ontario, he attended both Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Wilfrid Laurier High School's before trekking south of the border and his first day of classes in the fall of 1973 at Youngstown State University.
He played for the Penguins from 1973 to 1976, his first two seasons under the tutelage of Rey Dempsey and his final two collegiate campaigns under the guidance of Bill Narduzzi.
There have been 11 2,000-plus yard rushers for a career that have played for the red and white, and the fourth to hit that plateau was Kinch, a rugged runner with excellent peripheral vision and a back who saw the entire field all of the time.
He helped the Penguins to a 21-18.0 overall ledger, a prominent member of the Penguin offense in 1974 when the team posted an 8-1-0 overall regular season mark and made their first ever post-season play-off appearance in the NCAA/Division 11 tournament.
They lost to the University of Delaware that year by a 35-14 count in Newark, Del., but it was that team that gave fans reason to believe that the program had turned the comer and would be a force in their division in years to come.
With 2,306 career yards during his four letter winning seasons, he still ranks eighth on the all-time career rushing list, hitting the 2,000 yard mark just one season after blocking back teammate Dave Garden (YSU Hall of Fame, class of 1994) turned the trick. He capped off his senior campaign by participating in the Ohio Shrine Bowl in Cincinnati.
After graduation, the Hamilton, Ontario, native played six seasons in the Canadian Football League; two with the Hamilton Tiger Cats (1977 and 1978), two with the Saskatchewan Roughriders (1979 and 1980) and the final two with the Toronto Argonauts (1981 and 1982). He was Hamilton's territorial protected player prior to the CFL's 1977 college draft, and while playing for the Argonauts, his head coach was former NFL great Forrest Gregg.
He is still tied for fifth on the single season rushing list with 1,158 yards (done as a sophomore in 1974), is ranked third with 523 career rushing attempts while he is tied for 17th on the single game list with 29 attempts, done against Wayne State University on October 26, 1974, almost 21 years to the day that he is being honored here tonight.
Currently a Juvenile Detention Officer for Lake County in Ohio, he and his wife Rhonda are the parents of two children, Stephanie and Jimmy.
