Former CFL official Ken Lazaruk has officiated his last football game.
Lazaruk officiated in the Canadian Football League for 32 years, working over 500 regular season games and eleven Grey Cups. He served as the head official of the 1991 Grey Cup, the first ever to be played in his hometown of Winnipeg.
The 74-year-old has remained active since his final CFL game in 2008, officiating high school football and hockey while serving as a supervisor and mentor to young officials. He is leaving the game over 50 years after he first took the field as a player with the Kelvin High School Clippers.
“I want to be the one to say, ‘I think that’s enough,'” Lazaruk told CTV News. “I don’t want somebody to come up and say, ‘You know Ken, maybe you ought to retire.’ I’m making the call. I figured, you know, let’s get out now while I’m sort of at the top.”
Lazaruk also served as the head official for the 1999 Grey Cup in Vancouver. He was inducted into the Football Manitoba Hall of Fame in 2018.
