Black Canadians have a rich sporting history that dates back to the 1800s. This timeline depicts some of the many stories of extraordinary Black athletes.;xNLx;;xNLx;Most of the Black athletes had to wage a personal battle for acceptance and respect. Some eventually received it while others never did. Facing racism and discrimination has been an unfortunate reality for almost all of them. How they dealt with that reality is what makes them unique. What seems to unite them, however, is their love of and passion for their particular sport. ;xNLx;;xNLx;In overcoming adversity and indifference, these Black athletes managed to leave a lasting mark upon sport in Canada and abroad in some cases. Their achievements helped instill Black pride and self-esteem and also served to improve the social inclusion of Blacks within Canadian society.;xNLx;;xNLx;Thanks to trailblazers like Sam Langford (boxing), Jackie Robinson (baseball), Willie O’Ree (hockey) and Angela Issajenko (track and field), they helped to pave the way for other Black athletes to follow and also achieve success, which has forever changed Canada’s sporting landscape. ;xNLx;;xNLx;Bob Dawson;xNLx;Sports Writer, Diversity Management Consultant and Black Hockey Historian;xNLx;
George Godfrey was a heavyweight boxer born 1853 in the Bog in Prince Edward Island. He left Canada for Boston and began boxing. Over his career, he fought over 100 matches. He won the World Colored Heavyweight Championship in 1883.
George Dixon from Africville, Nova Scotia, was the first Canadian-born Black boxing world champion.
The Coloured Hockey League of The Maritimes was an all - Black hockey league that began in 1895 and continued until about 1930.
Samuel "Sam" E. Langford is a boxing legend from Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia. He was a five-time World Colored Heavyweight Champion between 1910 and 1918. At this time Black men were not allowed the opportunity to compete for the world title.
Sam Agee of Dawson City, Yukon, played on the Renzoni Championship Hockey Team. He was the first Black person to play hockey in Canada's far north.
Born in Winnipeg in 1889, John Armstrong "Army" Howard is Canada's first Black Olympian, competing in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm.
Larry Gains from Toronto, Ontario, was one of the top heavyweight boxers in his time. He became the Champion of the Dominion of Canada and the British Empire.
Philip Aaron "Phil" Edwards was a middle-distance track and field athlete nicknamed "the man of bronze" for his five Olympic bronze medals.
Raymond Gray "Ray" Lewis was the first Canadian-born Black Olympic medalist.
William Oliver is the first known Black person to play on a Canadian university hockey team -- Acadia University in Nova Scotia.
Born in Toronto, Samuel Richardson competed for Canada in the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Herb Carnegie was a semi-professional hockey player that many believe had the skills and speed to play in the NHL.
The senior level Buffalo Ankerite team of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association featured the first all Black line in semi-professional hockey in the 1940s.
In 1946, the Montreal Royals signed Jackie Robinson, the first professional Black baseball player in the Triple-A minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Montreal was chosen as the test bed for the desegregation of major league baseball. In that season, the Royals went on to win the Little World Series and Robinson became a hero in Montreal.
Born in Chatham, Ontario, Jenkins is the first Canadian admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was invested into the Order of Canada and in 2010 Canada Post issued a commemorative stamp in his honour.
In 1955, John Utendale, from Edmonton, Alberta, was signed by the Detroit Red Wings. He never played for the Red Wings but did play in their farm system at the minor professional level.
Dave Downey of Halifax grew up in a family that produced three professional boxers. He held the Canadian Middleweight Championship from 1957 to 1970. After a defeat, he regained the title and successfully defended it three times. He was inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame in 1976.
Willie O’Ree was the first Black player in the NHL. Often called "the Jackie Robinson of hockey," he played a total of 43 games for the Boston Bruins.
Henry "Harry" Winston Jerome was a legendary track and field runner born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and raised in Vancouver, B.C.
When Willie O'Ree made his debut with the NHL’s Boston Bruins in1958, many Blacks playing semi-professional and minor league hockey in the late 1950s and early 1960s thought that the door had finally opened for other Black players to enter the league. This, however, was not the case. When O'Ree left the Bruins in 1961, a Black player wouldn't play in the NHL again until 1974.
Emery Barnes was a Louisiana-born football player who played for the Canadian Football League's B.C. Lions the year of their 1964 Grey Cup victory.
Harry Winston Jerome was born on September 30, 1940 in Prince Albert, Sask., and moved with his family to British Columbia and the Vancouver area in 1951. At age 18 the North Vancouver sprinter broke the 31-year-old Canadian record for the 220-yard sprint - held by 1928 double Olympic gold medallist Percy Williams. A year later he emerged as an international sensation by equaling the world record for 100 metres by clocking 10.0 seconds at the Canadian Olympic Trials in Saskatoon. That effort marked the young Canadian as one of the sprinters to watch at the upcoming 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome. His story is one of injurys, one of which the doctors said he would never be able to run again. He lived by his motto "Never give up" and in the years following this injury, he proved himself one of the fastest men of his time setting a world record of 9.1 seconds in the 100 meter dash in 1966.
Carnegie is the only Canadian Black amateur golfer to chalk up twenty-four championships. Some of his notable achievements have included being club champion at Summit Golf and Country Club four times (1967, 1968, 1973, 1976), Whitevale Golf Club champion three times (1963, 1964 and 1968), Canadian Senior Champion two times (1977 and 1978), Ontario Senior Champion three times (1975, 1976 and 1982), and was a member of the winning Ontario Senior Team four times (1977, 1978, 1980, 1982). Carnegie played with passion until he gradually lost his eyesight due to glaucoma in the 1990s.
The first all-Black forward line to play Canadian university hockey consisted of Bob Dawson, Darrell Maxwell, and Percy Paris, all from Nova Scotia. They played together in 1970 at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in what was then the Atlantic Intercollegiate Hockey League.
Mike Marson of Toronto is the first Black player to be drafted and to play in the NHL after the league's 13-year lockout of Blacks from 1961 to 1974.
Angella Taylor Issajenko is one of Canada's best sprinters.
Born in Jamaica, Milton Bruce "Milt" Ottey was the number one ranked high jumper in the world in 1982. He is a seven time Canadian National High Jump Champion.
Jamaican-born Razor Ruddock is a heavyweight boxer in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Born in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Grant Fuhr is the first Black goaltender to play in the NHL.
Darren Lowe of Toronto, Ontario, was the first Black player to be named captain of the Canadian Men's National Hockey Team that competed in the 1984 Winter Olympics.
Charmaine Crooks won a silver medal with Canada's 4x400 relay at the 1984 L.A. games. Born in Mandeville, Jamaica, she has won gold for Canada at the Commonwealth, Pan American, and World Student Games.
Rueben Mayes was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 1963. During his time at Washington State, he rewrote every Cougar rushing record during his career, firmly establishing himself as one of the finest running backs in Pac-10 annals. By career's end, the 1984 consensus First Team All-America set 15 school records, including single-season (1,632) and career rushing yards (3,519), rushing touchdowns (23), rushing average (5.53) and 100-yard games (13). A third round selection in the 1986 NFL draft, Mayes played six seasons in the league with the New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks. He received Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 1986 and earned two trips to the Pro Bowl.
Boxer Raymond "Sugar Ray" Downey is Dave Downey's son. He is a Canadian bronze medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He won silver for Canada at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
As an amateur, Lennox Lewis won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. In 1989 he turned professional and won his first 21 fights before he knocked out Donovan Ruddock in 1992, which ranked him number one in the World Boxing Council rankings. He became undisputed champion when he defeated Evander Holyfield in 1999. He defeated Mike Tyson by knockout in 2002. He retired from boxing in 2004.
At the NHL level, Dirk Graham played the finest hockey of his career in Chicago with the Blackhawks.
Clarence Edwin "Cito" Gaston managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1989 to 1997 and again from 2008 to 2010.
Angela James was called the "Wayne Gretsky of women's hockey." Born in Toronto, she grew up playing on boys hockey teams because there were no girls teams. Beginning in the late 1970s, she played in the Ontario Women's Hockey Association. She was the lead scorer in eight seasons and most valuable player in six. She led her team to numerous OWHA league and provincial championships.
Born and raised in Toronto, Kevin Weekes was a goalie with the New Jersey Devils. He is now a colour commentator on Hockey Night in Canada and a studio analyst for NHL on the Fly. He is the first Black national TV hockey analyst and colour commentator.
Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, John Paris, Jr. was the first Black head coach in professional hockey.
Bryant McBride is the first Black executive to work for the NHL. An American by birth, he was raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Paul Jones is a Canadian sportscaster. He was the colour analyst on Raptors radio broadcasts during the team's inaugural season in 1995. He is currently the Raptors' radio play-by-play announcer.
Nigerian-born David Defiagbon fought for Canada and won the heavyweight silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He won 180 matches with only 20 defeats.
Charles "Spider" Jones is a former Canadian professional boxer. He is a former three-time Golden Glove Champion and was inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996.
Born in Haiti, Bruny Surin, won a gold medal in the 4x100 metres relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Donovan Bailey is the first Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal in the 100m sprint (1996 Atlanta).
Born in Jamaica, Ben Johnson, succeeded in breaking the world record time with his new world record time of 9.84 seconds in the 100 meter dash at the 1996 Olympic Games. This earned him his first Olympic gold and the title, "world’s fastest man".
Jamaal Magloire is a professional basketball player drafted 19th overall in the 2000 NBA draft after playing college ball with the University of Kentucky Wildcats.
Baraladei Daniel Igali is a Canadian freestyle wrestler who won gold for Canada at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney in the 69 kg class. He won silver in the 74 kg class at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Born in Jamaica and raised in Vancouver, Jay Sharrers, who worked 642 NHL games as a linesman, became the NHL’s first Black referee.
Lesa Mayes-Stringer is a Canadian bobsledder who competed from 1999 to 2009. Lesa had 5 top 10 World Cup finishes in 2004/2005 season. Later, that season, she finished 11th in the two-woman event at the 2005 FIBT World Championships in Calgary.
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