Don Wilson 

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From 1936 to 1948 there were no Olympic Games held (due to world war 2) however the British Empire Games were held in 1938 - What in present day has been renamed the Commonwealth Games;   that was the longest span without world wide competition since the Olympics started in 1896.

The Olympic Games used the metric system for measuring all distances and all other competitions used feet and inches for all measurements.

The athletes had to be 100% amateur; no one was allowed to make any money out of sport or receive any help for transportation other than ones own family.  One Ottawa figure skater was presented with a new automobile for winning the Olympic gold medal - She had to say no to the city of Ottawa but later on she bought it for $1.00 from the city & her lawyer said it was legal and she would still be and amateur.

Another really different aspect was traveling. No one traveled by plane - hardly ever - you always traveled by train, buss or ship if there was water to cross.  Just imagine going to Australia for the 1956 Olympic Games by ocean liner. The trip took at least a month. (hard to practice things like Polevault or Javelin etc.)

High jumpers could not go over the bar backwards or Pole vaulters did not have the flexible fibre glass poles that bend into a half circle like the ones used today.  Track shoes if you had a pair had fixed spikes (you could not change them)

Track surfaces were only made of brick dust or cinders. No modern surfaces like today's tracks. (one high school in Victoria had an asphalt track surface.)  Most schools only had grass track surfaces. (they used to draw a track on the grass for sports day once a year.)

When the war started a great many athletes were conscripted into the military;  and later ended up in England.  Some of these were great athletes and they did very well in Military championships of England. When a Canadian competitor won or placed in an event the results were not always applied to the Canadian records back home in Canada. It would be possible for an athlete to come third in an event and still be the fastest Canadian to cover the distance.

One such runner to actual get credit for his efforts was Gerard Cote, the great canadian Marathoner.  He won the Boston Marathon 3 times while training in the army in Quebec.  He is still in the record books as a three time winner.

This same scenario took place when Canadian athletes went to Universities in the United States.  Some of those people no doubt broke Canadian Native records while competing in the U.S.A.

Bill Dale of victoria was one of these runners, a half mile runner who was hardly ever beaten in the U.S.A. university system for four years. He missed out on a trip to the Olympics because of the war years.

Eric Hughes was another Victoria runner who won many races in the U.S.A. while attending University of Illinois, he was a cross country, two and three mile runner.

Phil Edwards was another great Canadian runner who attended Columbia in New York.  He did however get to the Olympics for Canada.

I must explain something important at this point, Believe it or not Victoria and Vancouver were the leaders in Canada for Track and Field.  they had about 90% of the Canadian talent in those years either city could beat Toronto  or Montreal any day of the week.

Raphael Duke of Victoria was one of the fastest men in Canada over 100 yards.  He was never allowed to represent Canada at the Olympics or Commonwealth Games because he did not have citizenship papers. He was listed as a landed immigrant from San Salvador.  He never got to any major games but certainly should have.

The United States had a pole vaulter by the name of Cornelious Warmerdam a world record holder for many years, but he never got to compete in the Olympics.

Sweden had a runner by the name of Gunder Haage he was the World record holder in the mile for many years (he was practically unbeatable), he also never took part in the Olympic Games - Because of the 12 years during the war when there was no Olympics.

Syl Apps held the Canadian Polevault record from 1936 till 1948  ( after setting the record in 1936 he played hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs - He was then registered as a professional athlete and not allowed to compete as an amateur any more)

Other vaulters from around that time period were as follows:

• Bob Read of Vancouver Olympics was top notch vaulter for many years
• McLeod of Vancouver, another top notch vaulter.
• Doug Robinson, many time B.C. champion
• Nurmi Hanson, A Danish immigrant (I don't know if he stayed in Canada)
• Don & Dave Steen, Father and son were both decathlon men and vaulted well
• Ike Mullen, of Princeton, a B.C. high school champion.
• Bob Yard, of Trail B.C., a decathlon man but a top vaulter of his day.
• Alf Groom, of Summerside P.E.I. an Eastern Canada champion.
• Gerry Moro, of  Trail B.C.
• Charlie Abbs, of the Canadian Army, many times Canadian & Military Champ.
• Franks, of Maple Ridge, a B.C. high school champ.
• Barry, of Rossland, interior B.C. high school champ.
• Powers, all military Champion one year.
• Stan Egerton, Canadian Champion and Commonwealth Games medalist
• Miller, of Toronto, Eastern Canada University Champion.
• Bob Adams, of Saskatoon, another Decathlon man but a top vaulter.
• Bruce Simpson,  probably the best of all the Canadian vaulters up to that time.
• Salmond, a good vaulter, went to university in the U.S.A.
• Syme, another very good vaulter at university level.

• Dave Blaire, Canadian Champion for over 10 years.
• Art Jackes, Toronto, 1948 Olympic team member.
• Ron Waters, High school Champion, Vancouver.
• Jones, High school champion, Vancouver.
• Pat & Mike Haley, Trail B.C. went to university ion the U.S.A. held various University records between them.
• Art Chapman, Victoria, Canadian Army Champion.
• Hank Rowe, Victoria Inter high school champion
• Frank Lewis, Oak Bay high School Champion.
• Lorne Saxon, Canadian Navy Champion.
• Ian Hume, Quebec
• Vic Cassis Canadian Air Force Champ for several years.
• Leroy Elms, Nova Scotia Champion.
• John Hawkins, Vancouver, Early Canadian 7 foot plus jumper.
• John Beers, Vancouver Another top notch jumper
• Wedman, A good senior open Champion jumper for many years.
• Greg Joy, Silver medal in Montreal Olympics 1976
• Claude Ferrange, First Canadian over 7 feet, held Canadian record for many years.
• Ken Money, Canadian Champion , Olympic team member and an Astronaut for 20 years.
• Don Wilson, Competed at all levels for 14 years many times B.C. Champion, Was the first Canadian to join a French Track team; was on the stade Messine Track team in France, that team won the Alsace Lorraine Championship for those 3 years 1956-1959.

Several times in those days Canada did not have an athlete up to the Olympic standards for the event so Canada didn't send an athlete for the event to those games. (I remember it happened like that in Polevault and High Jump around that time).

The people who kept track and field alive in those days:

• The Vancouver Police Department -sponsored the Canadian Championships every year and the 1948 Olympic Trials
• The two Vancouver newspapers - The Vancouver Sun - the Vancouver Province - another Vancouver paper , the News Herald did good work too but it quit as a newspaper at around that time.
• The highland Games Association - sponsored The western Canada Championships in Track & Field several times.
• The YMCA in Victoria - the physical dept. head coach in Victoria, Archie McKinnon  was a three time Canadian Olympic Coach for Canada.
• The Hudsons Bay Company - Sponsored a women's track team for many years some of this teams members did go to the Olympics and British Empire Games.
• The Two Victoria newspapers - The Time and The Colonist did a great job and sponsored many meets over the years.
• The city of Nanaimo and the Native sons organization - sponsored the B.C. Championship every Labour Day.
• The three Armed Forces, Army Navy and Air Force put on some great championships. The Canadian army was the first to use radio walkie talkies to synchronize 3 and 6 mile races so the finish would arrive at the stadium at a pre determined time. (this was a giant step forward).
• Service Clubs - The Victoria Gyros built Victoria's first cinder track at Victoria High School. It was the first one on Vancouver Island.
• The Vancouver Inter High School Track and Field Championships were as good as any in the world - One runner in the half mile ran the race in 1:56 it was a world record that year for 16 year old high school students.
• The Canadian Legion always had time and money for all worthwhile Sports events.

This account was written with the High jumpers and Pole vaulters in mind if I wrote about runners & other Track & field athletes I would need 10 more pages...

P.S.
In 1947 Victoria held the first indoor Track Meet at the Bay Street Armoires on an asphalt floor.  The pole vaulters used a pole with a spike in the end and had to stick the spike into a piece of anchored cork instead of the regular pole vault trough of today.  The running track was marked out on the pavement with masking tape.  The track was 20 laps to the mile. The masking tape cost us $21.00 at that time.  The meet was a great success.

The Highland Games, Victoria 1948 at Mcdonald Park
Rowan of Los Angeles Athletic Club won this event.
Don Wilson was top Canadian at 13' 6" (4.12),  his career best which he cleared on two occasions.
The flexible fibre glass pole was starting to arrive on the scene and vaulting was about to change forever.
Rowan advanced to the U.S.A. trials that year.
This jump was a Canadian record for about one month only.
Photo and Caption supplied by Don Wilson

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Don Wilson, straddle jump at 6' 3 1/2" (1.92)
Dave Blaire of Vancouver was Canadian champion for over ten years (I never beat him once).
But at the time of this photo he was attending McGill University in Montreal - Dave used to come home to Vancouver and attend all the summer meets (this one year he did not come home) so I lucked in and won this event for Canadian competitors (there was an American who finished first but I was the top Canadian) Three weeks later someone else beat that mark (Dave Blair still held the Canadian record.)
Photo and Caption supplied by Don Wilson

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