John McMorran

Patrick Fogarty graduate John McMorran transitioned from being a top athlete to a published author, after a serious injury sidelined any further athletic pursuits.

John was a "gym rat" in high school. Friends could find him in the weight room on a daily basis as he trained for a university football scholarship. He reached his goal of making it to the university level and proudly played for the Western University Mustangs.

After three years' worth of football-related injuries, John decided to hang up the cleats and try something different. “I transitioned over to track and field, and that’s how I finished off my undergrad and my university athletic career,” he said.

However, John wasn’t done with his sporting pursuits. Unfortunately, in 2014, while participating in a bobsled recruitment event, John badly injured his hip, paralyzing his mobility.

“I now walk on crutches. I’m sort of permanently disabled and not able to walk anymore,” he said. “My injury changed my life forever. It put a hard stop to all sports, and I started searching for something to do while I pondered an extended period of time away from sports," he explained.

John's love of reading soon turned into writing, and his first book contracted for publication, "Crooked Taylor," is an historical fiction novel, set to be released summer 2023.

John McMorran is currently finishing his PhD studies in kinesiology, with a specialty in vertebral fracture mechanics. During his graduate studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, John constructed and taught a second-year biophysics course, and he is an author of five research articles, published in peer reviewed scientific journals.