NAME: John Carson
UNIVERSITY: Brandon
CATEGORY: Student-Athlete
SPORT: Men’s Basketball
YEARS ACTIVE: 1982-1987
HIGHLIGHTS:
Four-time GPAC Player of the Year (1983-1986)
CIAU Outstanding Player in 1985-86
1987 CIAU champion and tournament MVP
Five-time All-Canadian First Team selection
BIOGRAPHY:
John Carson stands alone as the only five-time First Team All-Canadian in university basketball history, but while he piled up the stats and accumulated many accolades over his five seasons with the Brandon Bobcats, his greatest impact came in lifting the small university onto the national stage.
The six-foot-four forward from Huntsville, N.C. was named MVP of the CIAU championship tournament in 1987 when the Bobcats captured their first national title with a 74-66 championship final victory over UBC in Halifax.
Carson also won the Mike Moser Memorial Trophy as CIAU Outstanding Player in 1986. The Great Plains Athletic Conference feted Carson as its Player of the Year four times (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986) and as an All-Star in all five of his seasons.
Over his university career, Carson amassed 4,259 points and 1,179 rebounds. In 1985-86 he led the nation with a 27.2 points per game, and he ranked first in the Great Plains Athletic Conference with an average of 23.3 points in 1986-87.
Following his time at Brandon, Carson went on to a successful professional career with stints in Ireland and the World Basketball League as a member of the Calgary 88s and Saskatoon Slam.
Carson later settled in Calgary and returns to Brandon often to partake in alumni games and support the Bobcat program by being involved in youth camps and homecoming events.
He was added to the Brandon University Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, inducted into the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001, and enshrined in the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.