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Ken Kirkwood fulfilled a childhood dream by becoming a vital cog for Queen's 1992 Vanier Cup championship team. The challenges he bested put him on the path from pads and playbooks to becoming a university prof.
 
The former offensive tackle, who is an associate professor in the School of Health Studies at Western University, came of age in a team environment that was uniquely Queen's. Those '92 Golden Gaels, under the command of the late Doug Hargreaves, were recognized for being the best on the field and bright academically. The mental and physical standards were exacting, but never eclipsed an emphasis on one's complete development through football.
 
"It was the hardest school to get into at the time, and the guys functioned at a really high cognitive level – they would pick up stuff so fast," says the Kingston-raised Kirkwood,  who wore the Tricolour from 1990-93 and in '95. "At any time, we had three engineers on the offensive line. We are talking borderline genius with some guys, like [guard] Kevin Parker. I was dealing with Dean's List people who played football. It was amazing to me.
 
"And most of Doug's coaches were professors. Mik [the late Bill Miklas, offensive line coach]. Bill Hurley [D-line coach] was a professor of finance. Hart [Cantelon, receivers coach] was a sociologist. There was really an enriched academic atmosphere around the football team. There were always these high-level discussions going on that were not what you would expect people to talk about while stretching hamstrings.
 
"You got the sense, it doesn't have to be one or the other [school or sport], you can really be both. I wasn't the best student when I came in but by third year, I had really decided that knowledge for its sake was pretty cool. People who fostered that were Bob Howes, and Bill Miklas, and Hart Cantelon. If I had not been on the football team, I might have got a three-year B.A. and got out."
 
Lines win championships. Through the O-line coach, Miklas, the 1992 Gaels had the depth to overcome injuries. Kirkwood parallels drilling that linemen do to the commitment to scholarly research.
 
"Mik used to say, 'this game requires a high tolerance for boredom' and we would groan, 'that's not what they told us during recruiting.' But he was right. Being good at something requires the grunt work, the pick-and-shovel hard work.
 
"All that thesis writing and coming up with ideas, it's not glamorous. Everyone has their memes with Einstein coming up with some brilliant idea. But that's not how it works. Academics is dig-dig-dig, doing difficult work, and coming out of that in a position to excel."
 
The grind of August two-a-day practices and meetings also imparted a life skill, trying to learn while physically fatigued. Kirkwood says that helped him channel desire to be at Queen's ("It was the only place I wanted to go ... I started out part-time and had to get my marks up") into determination.
 
"Football was something I wanted to do. But the barrier between that and doing it was bigger than I ever imagined. But I wanted to play football at Queen's that badly."
 
Kirkwood, who lives in London, Ont., with his spouse Suzanne Hammond and their daughters Solange and Simone, has taught at Western since 2004. His research includes ethics of ingestion, food ethics (questions about why cheap processed food costs less than fresh produce), as well as social class issues pertaining to health care.
 
"I had cancer in 1994, and I remember the oncologist at KGH telling me about how there are these disparities in treatment that stem from where you're from, your grasp of English, how rich your parents are. The doctors would all talk about it in the lounge, and sometimes they would talk about with me.
 
"And I started researching the ethical implications of it all. I realized how deep socioeconomic information can affect your physiological, mental state of your health and wellness. The jingle line for that field is 'it's not genetic codes, it's postal codes.' Now I teach in the Faculty of Medicine in the department of surgery here at Western. The surgeons all understand that every patient they see, something could have been done further up. We forget about prevention a lot."
 
As a Gaels alumnus who teaches at Western, Kirkwood always enjoys rivalry week. 
 
"Western is where I work and it's a great place, but your heart is in another place. When Queen's pulls it out and beats them, the following Monday is always wonderful because I've got the Queen's regalia in my office, and get to wave it in the face of the people around here.
 
"I usually have [Western] football players in my classes, so that's always good fun. I'll post pictures on next week's slides – those sorts of things."