Jacques Richard
Sport: Baseball
Year Inducted: 2000
Jacques Richard was one of Cornwall’s most gifted young athletes when he was tragically killed in a boating accident near Sudbury in the summer of 1959. He was 18.
His memory lives on in the Jacques Richard Memorial Trophy which is given annually at the Cornwall Lions Club Sports Award Dinner to Cornwall’s Top Sports Personality.
The trophy was donated by his former teammates and was originally given to the city’s Top Athlete. The first recipient was Jacques’ teammate and close friend, Doug Carpenter.
Jacques, once described by Standard-Freeholder sports editor Frank Orr as “flawless”, “sure-handed”, and possessing a “shotgun arm and a big range”, was a versatile player. When he wasn’t playing shortstop, he could be found on the mound.
Jacques was member of the Cornwall New York Café Aces softball team which won the Ontario Juvenile Softball Championship. The team was arguably the greatest collection of junior talent ever assembled in eastern Ontario. That season Jacques had a 11-4 pitching record. The Aces were a power house in the Cornwall junior baseball league, and he was one of the most gifted performers.
At the time of his death, two major league teams, the Cleveland Indians and Washington Senators, were scouting him closely, a rarity for a Canadian in those days.
The Junior Aces also played in the St. Lawrence Valley Senior Baseball League, and Jacques was the team leading hitter when he was killed.
Jacques Richard was one of Cornwall’s top athletes of his day, excelling in several sports, but those who saw him play say his future would have been in baseball.