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PROVO — Former BYU receiver Ben Cahoon’s playing days are behind him, and have been since he accepted his second round as a position coach in Provo under new coach Kalani Sitake.
No other player with his longtime Montreal club in the Canadian Football League will look like him again, either.
The Alouettes announced Wednesday that the team will retire Cahoon’s No. 86 during a ceremony July 29 against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Cahoon played 13 seasons at slotback with the Alouettes, setting a league record with 1,017 career receptions at the time of his retirement.
The 5-foot-9 receiver and three-time CFL all-star led Montreal to three Grey Cup titles in 2002, 2009 and 2010 and was named the Cup’s Most Outstanding Canadian in 2003 and 2009.
A Utah native, Cahoon’s Canadian parents raised the budding football star in Alberta and Montreal before moving to Orem, where he was a three-sport athlete at Mountain View High. He played two seasons at Ricks College and transferred to BYU in 1996. After averaging 84.6 yards per game, Cahoon used his Canadian residency to his advantage as a lucrative first-round draft pick in the 1998 CFL draft, where he did not count as an international player.
Cahoon regularly hooked up with former Utah State quarterback Anthony Calvillo as the ironman duo paced the Alouettes in a pair of Canadian Football Hall of Fame careers. Cahoon was inducted into the hall in 2014.
“It was a pleasure to play with (Cahoon) for so many years, and it’s fun to see all the awards coming his way,” Calvillo said on the team’s website. “Well deserved.”
Cahoon becomes the 11th player in the Alouettes' history to have his number retired.
