Saskatchewan Sports: Lives Past and Present.

Michael Payne is head of the reasearch and publications program,
Historic Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and
co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

This is the fifth in a series of biographical dictionaries of politicians, agriculturalists, writers, Aboriginal leaders, and sports figures in Saskatchewan. In total, 241 people are profiled, ranging from famous figures from professional sports such as Gordie Howe and Ron Lancaster to lesser known figures with remarkable amateur careers in fields such as track and field, aquatics, or gymnastics.

Unlike other volumes in this series, this book does not include an introductory essay and this is probably sensible, given the wide variety of sports and sporting achievements represented here. It is hard to imagine how you might frame a survey of the long association between Saskatchewan athletes and sports such as hockey and football, let alone the dozens of athletes who participated with distinction in soccer, baseball, basketball, curling, waterskiing, racquetball, and baton-twirling. Instead, the individual biographies, when taken together, provide an anecdotal history of sports in the province.

This is not just a story of an athletic diaspora, however, as the book also profiles a fair number of athletes who moved to Saskatchewan to play football for the beloved Roughriders, and in earlier years for the many senior and minor professional leagues that flourished in Western Canada prior to the Second World War.

A valuable feature of the book is its inclusiveness. The book profiles many significant women athletes ranging from Ethel Catherwood, who won a gold medal in high jumping at the 1928 Olympics, Arleene Noga, who starred for Fort Wayne and Muskegon in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s, and Noel Robertson, who played with the fabled Edmonton Grads basketball team. The book also recognizes a number of notable Aboriginal athletes, such as Alex Decoteau, one of Canada’s greatest distance runners, David Greyeyes-Steele, an outstanding soccer player, and Fred Sasakamoose, who is credited with being the first member of a First Nation to play in the National Hockey League. These interesting individual stories, combined with the pleasure of encountering half-remembered names of sports heroes of our youth, make this an enjoyable book for anyone with an interest in sports history.