Champions: A British Columbia Sports Album

Robert Barney was Professor of Physical Education at the University of Western Ontario in London.

Canada’s sporting heritage is in its infant stage of being unfolded to reader and viewer alike. The unfolder agents are the country’s sports halls of fame, professional sport historians, journalists, and sport history buffs with some literary talent. With regard to the first entity in that group, several, sports halls of fame across Canada have seen fit to sponsor research and eventual publication of sport history legacy, whether that legacy be national or provincial in context. Champions: A British Columbia Sports Album is one such case. Be careful not to form an opinion of this book simply from the word “album” in its title. The work is not solely a pictorial collection of the great, the near-great, and the not-so-great of British Columbia sportsmen and women. Capitalizing on his pleasing journalistic writing style, author Kearney embellishes the quite marvelous graphic dimension of the work with a prose treatment that makes the book an enjoyable reading as well as viewing experience. Kearney himself is one of British Columbia’s most venerated sports journalists, having been a sports writer and broadcaster for some 40 years, including a 17-year stint with the Vancouver Sun. He is now manager of publications at Sport-British Columbia.

Kearney’s book is well organized. The story of British Columbia sport is told chronologically, beginning with a chapter on “Frontier Sports” (to 1900) and ending with a treatment of “Women’s World” (1965-1985). In between are “Stuff of Legend” (1900-1918), “The Golden Age” (1918-1930), “A Winning Blend” (1930-1945), and “Years of Glory” (1945-1965). Two important glossaries appear near the end of the volume: a list of all individual inductees into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame since its founding in 1966, and a chronology of milestone B.C. sporting events dating from 1843. A comprehensive index concludes the book.

A further positive strength of the work is reflected in its elaborate illustrations. Pictures, on almost every page, graphically capture the various athletic poses of the participants in the scenario of British Columbia sporting pastime and competition.

There is, however, a weakness in the book. Sport historians, although applauding the primary graphic evidence presented in the text by way of the abundant photographs, would surely have welcomed the documentation of primary sources for Kearney’s prose commentary. Nevertheless, B.C. citizens, and Canadians elsewhere, should greet with interest this historic profile of an important dimension of Western Canada’s social history. And those who fail to appreciate the social history aspect of the volume will certainly enjoy the glorious exploits of such men and women sports figures as sculler Bob Johnston, hockey great “Cyclone” Taylor, Olympic sprint champion Percy Williams, cyclist “Torchey” Peden, world welterweight boxing champion Jimmy “BabyFace” McLarnin, high jumper Debbie Brill, swimmer Elaine Tanner, and a host of other athletic stalwarts. British Columbia sport heroes all, to greater or lesser degree, their records and achievements on the provincial, national, and even international sports scene have established a heritage of which British Columbians as well as Canadians in general are justifiably proud.