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Create AccountMary Spencer, boxer, model, humanitarian (born 12 December 1984 in Wiarton, ON). Mary Spencer is one of Canada's premier boxing champions, holding eight national titles, five Pan-American titles, and three world titles. An Ojibwe of the Cape Croker First Nation, Spencer is involved in Motivate Canada’s GEN7 Aboriginal role model initiative, and in 2013 became a mentor with the CIBC Team Next program.
Derek Drouin, high jumper, track and field athlete (born 6 March 1990 in Sarnia, ON). Derek Drouin was the first men’s high jumper in NCAA history to win five national championships. He went on to win a silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London and a gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. He was the first Canadian to win Olympic gold in a field event since Duncan McNaughton in 1932. Drouin also won gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the 2015 Pan American Games and the 2015 IAAF World Championships. He is one of only 10 male high jumpers to clear a height of 2.4 m outdoors — the Canadian record. Drouin introduced innovative new techniques to the sport and has been called “the best high jumper of the modern era.”
Philip Anthony Esposito, hockey player (b at Sault Ste Marie, Ont 20 Feb 1942). He began his NHL career as a centre in 1963 with the Chicago Black Hawks and was traded to the Boston Bruins in 1967.
HE SPOKE OF HOCKEY as a game that consumed him, but the truth is Mark MESSIER was the one doing the feasting. He ate up opponents and he fed off pressure and when his number ascends to the rafters of Madison Square Garden next January, the honour alone won't seem sufficient.
Darrell Fox discusses his brother’s determination in a 2015 interview with Historica Canada
Three successive victories over the local champion Thomas Loudon led a group of Torontonians in 1876 to form the Hanlan Club to back Hanlan as a professional. The club bought him an English-made shell and equipped it with a sliding seat and swivel oarlocks.
Sam Langford, boxer (born 4 March 1886 in Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia; died 12 January 1956 in Cambridge, Massachusetts). Langford was a professional boxer who competed across multiple weight classes during his 24-year career. A well-rounded boxer with fierce punching power, Langford often found success against much larger opponents and garnered praise as a fearless competitor. Despite an impressive winning record and praise from icons of the sport, Langford faced racial barriers that prevented him from competing for a title during an era when White champion boxers didn’t want to be seen losing to Black opponents. Though he was crowned heavyweight champion of England, Australia, Canada and Mexico, Langford is considered one of the best fighters never to win a title in the United States. Langford lost his vision during a fight later in his career, which ultimately forced his retirement. He was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1955, one year before his death. Langford’s professional record varies depending on the source — with the most comprehensive listing 214-46-44 with 138 knockouts. Some historians contend that Langford may have fought in over 600 matches.
Alexandre Despatie, diver (born at Montréal 8 Jun 1985). Alexandre Despatie is one of Canada's most-accomplished athletes in diving, and is a three-time world champion and two-time Olympic medalist.
Kaillie Humphries (née Simundson), bobsledder (born 4 September 1985 in Calgary, AB). Kaillie Humphries is the only woman to win three Olympic gold medals in bobsledding. At the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, she and Heather Moyse became the first Canadian women to win gold in the two-woman bobsled. They won gold again at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Humphries won the 2014 Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year and won a bronze medal at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. She was also one of the first two women to compete in an international four-man bobsleigh competition. Humphries has alleged that she was “driven off” the Canadian bobsled team in 2019 after filing a harassment complaint against a coach. She obtained US citizenship in 2021 and competed for Team USA at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, where she won gold in women’s monobob. She is the only woman ever to win Olympic gold medals for two different countries.
Robert Daniel Emslie, baseball player (b at Guelph, Canada W 27 Jan 1859; d at St Thomas, Ont 26 Apr 1943). Emslie played baseball in Ontario and Kansas before a brief major-league pitching career in which he won 32 games for Baltimore in 1884.
Balarama Holness, professional football player, jurist, political activist, social entrepreneur (born 20 July 1983 in Montreal, QC). Balarama Holness put a wayward youth behind him to become a Grey Cup-winning professional football player with his hometown Montreal Alouettes. He then pursued a career as a jurist and political organizer and ran for mayor of the borough of Montréal-Nord in 2017. His community organizing efforts led to two separate reports (in 2019 and 2020) that acknowledged the existence and extent of systemic racism in the province, while also recommending solutions. In 2021, Holness ran to become mayor of Montreal but was defeated.
Cecil Henry Dye, "Babe," hockey player (b at Hamilton, Ont 13 May 1898; d 2 Jan 1962). His learning the skills of hockey from his mother on a backyard rink in Toronto became part of hockey lore.
Kevin Spraggett, Canadian chess grandmaster (b at Montreal 10 Nov 1954). His chess career gained momentum with a second-place showing at the 1973 Canadian Open.
Peter Biyiasas, chess grandmaster (b at Athens, Greece 19 Nov 1950). He moved to Canada as a child, began to play seriously in Vancouver in the late 1960s, and won the British Columbia championship 1968-71.
Arthur Howey Ross, hockey player, inventor/innovator and NHL team executive (born 13 January 1885 in Naughton [Sudbury], ON; died 5 August 1964 in Medford, Massachusetts). Ross was considered a top defenseman during a playing career that included several years as a professional (with a brief stint in the fledgling National Hockey League). Following his retirement as a player in 1918, Ross worked as an NHL referee and coached the NHL’s Hamilton Tigers in 1922–23. The Boston Bruins hired him when they entered the league in 1924, and Ross served as coach, general manager and vice president (often holding all three titles at once) until 1954. Ross also invented improved versions of the hockey puck and goalie nets that were used for decades in the NHL, and introduced many of the rules that modernized the game.
William Dickenson Hunter, "Bill," hockey coach, team owner and promoter (b at Saskatoon, 5 May 1920, d at Edmonton, 16 Dec. 2002).
Cochrane first began swimming with his twin brother, Devon, in the Red Cross Learn to Swim program. While attending swimming camp at Island Swimming, Cochrane began swimming competitively.
George F. Gate, SWIMMING coach (born 11 December 1924 in Carlisle, England; died 17 August 2014 in Montreal, QC). In 1942 this young local swimming champion joined the British Royal Navy where he spent his free time reading about swimming techniques. Five years later, George F.
