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Sport heritage by the numbers

Photo: Fergie Jenkins (Photo courtesy of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame)

By

Laura Walter

Sport heritage

Published Date: Feb 13, 2015

By the record book

3.3 seconds: Combined run advantage that secured Anne Heggtveit’s gold medal in alpine skiing at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, California – the first gold medal for Canada in this event.

48.8 seconds: Time it took the Canadian women’s relay team to win the gold medal at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in the 4 x 100-metre relay.

2 hours, 24 minutes: Time it took Tom Longboat to win the 1907 Boston Marathon and set a new world record that was five minutes faster than the previous record.

20 hours, 59 minutes: Time it took 16-year-old Marilyn Bell to swim 64 km (39 miles) across Lake Ontario in September 1954. She was the first person to swim across the lake.

129 hours, 45 minutes: The world record set by marathon swimmer Vicki Keith for the longest continuous swim in 1986. She was the first person to swim all of the Great Lakes.

By the years

1834: Fergus Curling Club formed. It remains the oldest continuously operating curling club in the province.

1838: Baseball played for the first time in Beachville, Ontario between Oxford and Zorra townships. This first version of the game featured five bases, and players used a hand-hewn stick and a ball made of twisted yarn covered in calf skin.

1860: First Queen’s Plate held on June 27 at Carleton Racetrack in Toronto, after Queen Victoria granted a plate with the value of 50 Guineas.

1867: National Lacrosse Association formed in Kingston. Twenty-seven clubs from Ontario and Quebec came together and adopted its official rules – making it the first sport organization in the province.

1891: Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball at the YMCA training school. He posted 13 rules to the game on the gym door, and nailed two peach baskets to the gym balconies.

1904: Galt Football (soccer) Club won Olympic gold in St. Louis, Missouri – before a national soccer association was created in Canada.

1917: National Hockey League (NHL) formed. Ontario represented by the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Arenas.

1930: First British Empire Games (Commonwealth Games) held in Hamilton, with 11 nations, 59 events and 400 participants.

1931: First live play-by-play hockey broadcast by Foster Hewitt from the gondola at Maple Leaf Gardens.

1946: First game of the National Basketball Association (NBA) was played at Maple Leaf Gardens between Toronto and New York.

1963: Sam Jacks invented the sport of ringette in North Bay.

1969: The first Special Olympics national competition held in Toronto, with 1,400 participants.

1991: Fergie Jenkins was the first and only Canadian (to date) to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

By the numbers

15 Rounds George Chuvalo fought Muhammad Ali in 1966 at Maple Leaf Gardens, without being knocked down.

18 Different sport teams that Lionel “The Big Train” Conacher played for during his 25-year career (1912-37) – including hockey, baseball, lacrosse and football.

42 Number of kilometres Billy Sherring ran to win the gold medal in the 1906 Olympics marathon event in Greece – the same course ran in 490 BC by Pheidippides between Marathon and Athens.

46 Age George Lyon was when he won the gold medal at the 1904 Olympics – the last time that golf was an Olympic sport.

1,657 Athletes competed from 32 nations, in 447 events at the fifth Paralympics held
in Toronto in 1976.

3,807 Number of spectators at the first Grey Cup, held on Rosedale Field in Toronto in 1909.

5,250 Salary Frederick “Cyclone” Taylor was paid in 1907 to play for the Renfrew Millionaires – the highest-paid hockey player of his day.

6,449 Horse races won by Sandy Hawley during a 30-year career (1968-98), including four Queen’s Plates and eight Woodbine Oaks.

70,000 People in Ottawa’s Confederation Square who welcomed Barbara Ann Scott home after her Olympic gold medal win in singles figure skating in 1948. She remains the only Canadian (to date) to have won an Olympic medal in the event.