Bio

Paul Desjardins was born in Ottawa in September 27, 1943. He began playing football in grade 11 and showed great promise quickly attracting the attention of the home town University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. After high school Paul embarked on a very busy 5 years as an offensive lineman. From 1960 to 1964, Paul played five seasons with the Garnet and Grey.

Desjardins was actually drafted twice, in 1964 by Hamilton and then again in 1965 by Winnipeg. The Ottawa Journal notes that "the Riders fought that [selection] on the grounds that the drafting was premature. So they had him put back in the draft, and Winnipeg grabbed him."

After graduating from the University of Ottawa, Paul was drafted with the second overall pick by the Blue Bombers where he played from 1965 to 1970 and then for the Toronto Argonauts from 1971 to 1973. He was two-time Grey Cup finalist in 1965 with the Bombers and in 1971 with the Argos. In his last year of football (1973), he was named to the Eastern All-Star team and for the first time ever was honoured by being named to the All-Canadian team as well. 

After the 1973 football season Paul decided to retire from football; since 1965 he had been doing post-graduate work at the University of Manitoba and now had both his Masters and Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Paul accepted a Post Doctorate Fellowship at the University of California at Davis and advised the Blue Bombers that his football days were over. Later on, Paul was offered a position as a Clinical Biochemist at Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg and became the Director of Clinical Chemistry for the Health Sciences Center where he stayed for over 25 years. Finally in January of 2004, Paul returned to Biovail and is currently the Vice-President and General Manager for Biovail Contract Research in Toronto.