RSEQ renames Dunsmore Cup conference championship to honour Hall of Fame coach Jacques Dussault

After 11 consecutive seasons, you can be certain that the Laval Rouge et Or and the Montreal Carabins will not compete for the Dunsmore Cup this November.

That’s because the trophy will have a new name, as the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) announced on Saturday that their conference championship will now be known as the Jacques Dussault Cup, honouring the Hall of Fame coach.

“It is an honour to see the provincial championship now bear the name Jacques Dussault,” RSEQ CEO Gustave Roel said in a statement. “His dedication, leadership and impact continue to inspire the football community, and this trophy will stand as a living symbol for generations to come.”

An alumnus of the University of Ottawa and McGill University, Dussault became the first French-speaking coach in CFL history when he was hired as a defensive assistant with the Montreal Concordes in 1982. He spent five seasons with the team before returning to the collegiate ranks, spending time with Acadia, Mount Allison, and McGill.

He would later serve as a head coach in the World League of Football with the Montreal Machine before returning to the CFL with the Alouettes in 1997. He eventually landed back in the amateur ranks with the Carabins in 2002, serving as that program’s first head coach.

Dussault, who is now 75 years of age, was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2023 and the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame in 2024. He coached in two RSEQ title games with Montreal but fell to Laval on both occasions.

The Dunsmore Cup was first presented in 1984 to the champion of the Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference and continued to serve as the provincial trophy for Quebec after the Ontario teams split off. It was named in honour of Robert Dunsmore, a former player at Queen’s University — a school which hasn’t been in the same conference as the trophy since 2001.

The RSEQ says it will issue a call for proposals to select an artist or design firm to create the Jacques Dussault Cup, with details to be announced as the season progresses. The trophy is set to be officially unveiled at a news conference on the eve of the conference championship in November.