Here we have our lovely country celebrating 150 years and people will be cooking burgers, hot dogs, steaks, corn on the cob, etc. There may be a beverage or two consumed and some fireworks ending the day.
During all this time, not only July 1st, but for the rest of the year some of us proud Canadians will begin the debate of our great sports moments over the last 150 years .
Now before we get settled on the top Canadian sports moment there are many others to at least recall and discuss.
We have the Blue Jays winning back to back World Series titles in the early 90’s, beating Atlanta and then Philadelphia. Touch ‘em all Joe!
It was a team Canadian moment but we embraced the players as ours so it counts.
On the football field the Eskimos dynasty during the late 70’s and early 80’s was something which may never be repeated. Of course for one province there was that one Grey Cup game in 1966 which will live forever in their history.
Another team event which makes us proud is curling and there was a team of great ladies from Saskatchewan who made history. Sandra Schmirler and her rink won the first Olympic Gold medal for our country at the ’98 games in Nagano.
On the subject of great Canadian ladies we have to include Barbara Ann Scott who skated to gold at the 1948 Olympics in St. Moritz. The popular figure skater was an absolute role model for young Canadian girls right away and deserved that recognition.
Then we have a 16 year old girl named Marilyn Bell who swam the 32 miles across Lake Ontario in 1954, enduring massive waves, lamprey eels and oil spills. Oh, and she never received a penny for her effort.That is so Canadian.
Back to the Olympics and the 1928 games in Amersterdam saw Canadian women in track and field events for the first time. The team won two gold, two silver and a bronze. The 4×100 metre team with Fanny Rosenfeld, Jane Bell, Ethel Smith and Myrtle Cook ran away with it, literally and Ethel Catherwood took home the gold in High Jump.
Still with track and the Olympics, we had two moments in the 100 metres which standout for different reasons. For 48 hours in 1988 Ben Johnson was the fastest man in the world until he had to pee in a bottle and steroids surfaced. We were proud for that period of time and look at all the testing Ben started so we can own that as Canadians.
Then Donovan Bailey set the record straight for Canadian sprinters by blazing 9.84 in the ’96 games. He also shut down Carl Lewis and many Americans thank us for that effort.
In 2010 Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal at the Olympic Games in Vancouver and it was gold medal number 14 for our country. That’s tops in the world.
Another great hockey moment was Gretzky to Lemieux during the 1987 Canada Cup which broke the 5-5- tie with the Soviets and just raised the roof on this country as far as dramatic goals go.
In the world of golf Mike Weir of course has the only green jacket from the Masters after he beat Len Mattiace in a playoff in 2003. For golf fans it was a huge moment north of the border.
While he didn’t win his fight against the best boxer ever, George Chuvalo showed Canadians are tough as nails. He went 12 rounds with the Champ and never hit the canvas during their bout in 1966. Ali said Chuvalo was the toughest man he ever fought and he never wanted to fight him again. Muhammad went to the hospital after the fight and George went dancing with his wife.
Now this wasn’t a sport but it did involve athletics and is certainly is an outstanding Canadian moment. For 143 days people were glued to tv’s, radios and reading newspapers to follow the exploits of a young, one-legged runner named Terry Fox. He essentially ran a marathon each of those days until cancer caught up to him but what he did for cancer is one of the greatest athletic feats of all time and in my opinion is tied with the moment most Canadians my age will say united a country and defended our sports honour.
The Paul Henderson goal in the 1972 Summit Series was so much more than a game and series winner. It was our pride on the line as our professionals went up against the Soviet Union amateurs (I use that term very loosely as the Red Army soldiers were trained for battle but mostly trained for hockey).
It was the Cold War on ice and we all know how it turned out but it was one of the most uniting moments in our sport history as it involved our game, our pride and our country like nothing else had before that time.
There are other moments you might recall but these ones stand out in my foggy memory. Of course we look forward to more great Canadian sports moments in the years to come. Keep playing and Happy Birthday Canada!
