Established in October, 2022, the Liam Geddes Memorial Award Fund was created to honour the memory of Liam David Geddes. The Liam Geddes Memorial Award is intended to provide funding from its endowment for an annual award presented initially to the outstanding back row player at the Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship (CUMRC) and later when appropriate, the national university men’s Back Row Player of the Year consistent with the broad objectives and purposes of Rugby Canada and the Canadian Rugby Foundation to develop and grow rugby across Canada, while meeting CRA requirements.
The Liam Geddes Memorial Award is named for the late Liam David Geddes.
Liam David Geddes
October 27, 1999 – March 11, 2022
Gone far too soon, Liam is survived by his mother Alison, father Colin, sisters Casey, and Erin (Mitchell), as well as nephews Nolan, Ayden, and niece Paige. He had a very large and loving extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins across Canada and around the world including Ireland, England, China, and New Zealand.
Raised in the Kawartha Lakes, Liam graduated from Doctor George Hall Public School, where he was valedictorian, and won several awards including Honours, Dramatic Arts, French, Math, and the Principal’s award. He graduated from Lindsay Collegiate and Vocational Institute with Honours and won the Relations and Functions Award and the Olympia Athletic Award. Liam was always actively involved in many sports including baseball, hockey, rugby and most recently golf. He was an avid and accomplished swimmer and certified scuba diver, having enjoyed ocean dives with his family off the coasts of Cozumel and Barbados.
At the time of his passing, Liam was a 4th year student at Queens University and was to graduate with Honours with a B.Sc. in Kinesiology in the spring of 2022. Liam was awarded his B.Sc. degree posthumously in June, 2022. Liam had applied to and hoped to attend Queens University in the fall of 2022 to complete a Master’s degree in neuroscience, with the eventual goal of attending medical school.
Liam loved hard, worked hard, and played hard. He was a varsity athlete with the Queens Men’s Rugby Program, helping them to achieve gold medals in the OUA finals in 2018, 2019, and silver in 2021. He has represented Queen’s Men’s Rugby at the Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship since 2018 in Victoria, BC; 2019 in Montreal, QC; and most recently in Kingston, ON in 2021.
Liam was known by all for having a kind heart, quick wit, and keen intellect. He was ever humble, and known to give the greatest bear hugs to anyone he was with. Liam also worked part-time at Lululemon and was also known for being a clothes horse, with an eye for style. In addition to being very close to his sisters and numerous cousins, he had an extremely large group of well-loved friends throughout his home in Kawartha Lakes, ON, as well as his second home in Kingston, ON. Liam had registered as an organ donor of his own accord several years ago. Liam was identified as a match, and through his gift of organ donation, has been able to profoundly impact the lives of 4 organ donor recipients (lung, liver, and both kidneys), and their families.
Selection Process: The selection of the Award winner will be made by the CUMRC player selection panel choosing the tournament All Stars.
Metrics to be considered for selection include:
- Number of tackles and completion percent
- Number of breakdown steals / Number of turnovers created
- Number of offloads.
And additional traits are:
- Cross covering ability.
- Line out support and/or jumping
- Fit, strong, athletic
- Tenacious, hard working, tough
- Good basic skills, tough in contact
- Good tackler and disruptive in the breakdown
- “PITA” (pain in the ass) to their opponents
Presentation process: The presentation of the Award will be made at the national championship tournament banquet by a Geddes family member or designate. This will consist of an annual trophy, a keeper plaque for the player, and a cheque or facsimile.
USE THE FORM BELOW TO DONATE TO THE LIAM GEDDES MEMORIAL AWARD FUND:
