Val Belcher

Val Belcher (July 6, 1954 – September 12, 2010) was an

He was a part of the 1976 SWC championship team, receiving All-SWC and honorable mention All-American honors at the end of the season.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Belcher was drafted by the

He played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for two more seasons, before retiring in November 1984, after the team won the Grey Cup.

Personal life

Following his retirement from professional football, Belcher began a highly successful career as a restaurant entrepreneur. In 1986, he founded the Lone Star Cafe restaurant with former Ottawa Rough Rider teammate Larry Brune in the Ottawa suburb of Nepean. Over the years, it expanded into a franchise business. It was renamed Lone Star Texas Grill, operating under the Lone Star Group of Companies. As of 2020, Lone Star Texas Grill operates over 20 locations across southern and eastern Ontario, including seven in the Greater Ottawa Area where it originated, as a family-style restaurant specializing in wood-fire grill fajitas, authentic Tex-Mex fare and frozen margaritas. In 2008, he opened a new restaurant, Big Easy’s Seafood & Steak House, in Ottawa (since closed).

Belcher died September 12, 2010, at the age of 56. He died from congestive heart failure while waiting for a heart transplant at the Ottawa Heart Institute. He was survived by his three children (Layne, Ashton and Meagan) and his life partner, Leslie Hines.^[4]

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