Vancouver, British Columbia
"Races
The Trials and Triumphs of Canada’s Fastest Family"
By Valerie Jerome
Perhaps you remember Harry Jerome? If not, let me remind you that he is an indelible part of Canadian track and field history if not Canadian history. But who was Canada's fastest family? Was it Percy Williams, Olympic 100 meters champ in 1928, or Ben Johnson, Olympic 100 meter champ for a day in 1988, or Donovan Bailey, 100 meters champ in 1996 in Atlanta, or Andre De Grasse, 200 meters champ in 2021 in Tokyo? Guess again, we're sayng "family", so that implies a few more than one person from the same family.
How 'bout if your maternal grandfather was Canadian 100 yards champ and competed in the 1912 Stockholm Games. Or how bout if your sister made the Canadian Olympic team in the 1960 O's in Rome, and you made that team too? Three people in your family all ran on the Canadian team? And then you came back after a near career ending injury and won the bronze in 1964 in Tokyo, and your name is Harry Jerome? Then I think you have the bragging rights to call the Jeromes the fastest family in Canada.
Races was written by Valerie Jerome, the sister of the more famous Harry Jerome. Their maternal grandfather was Army Howard, Canada's top sprinter in 1912 and also 1913. He was on the Canadian team that went to compete in Sweden, but because of his being a man of African heritage, he could not stay in the same hotels or eat at the same table with his teammates while traveling in Canada. Yes, Canada, that bastion of liberalism at the end of the Underground Railway, but it was not the terminus where equality and non racist attitudes greeted the former slaves.
Like US newspapers, Canadian newspapers frequently mentioned race of an individual when writing stories about non-white athletes. And in those days the Canadian press rarely failed to mention his race in derogatory terms when writing stories about Army Howard.
As Valerie Jerome writes about her grandfather in her book:
"...He won the Olympic trials in the 100- and 200-meter dashes with ease and headed off to compete in the 1912 games in Stockholm, Sweden. A proud man, Army complained to the press that he wasn't allowed to stay with the other athletes when the team mustered in Montreal, because the hotel refused to accept a Black man. While his White teammates stayed in the hotel, he was sent to a shack near the train station. Army's willingness to speak up about the racism he encountered displeased Walter Knox, the Canadian team's coach and manager. Knox told reporters that "The coloured boy was outspoken and disobedient." Knox was not alone in describing Army, then twenty-four years old, as a "boy". An article in the Toronto Star about Army and the renowned Indigenous distance runner Tom Longboat repeatedly referred to Army as "the coloured boy" and was headlined "The Coloured Boy and the Indian."
I was able to confirm this story in the book with the following press clippings. (ed.)
If this reporting had been done in an American paper, I would not have been surprised, but Canada? The more I read Races the more I learned. After the American Civil War when slaves were technically free, some still continued to come to Canada including here on Vancouver Island where I now live. And after a less than welcoming reception, many chose to return to the land of the 'free'. After the 1912 Olympics, Army Howard came back to Manitoba where he had been born. He married a White woman which compounded the racism in his life, and he decided to move up north from Winnipeg to homestead a small farm, but the family was run out of that area and had to move still further north to finally settle down.
In the next generation Harry's father worked as a porter on the Canadian National Railway, the only steady job a Black man could get in Canada. He married a woman of mixed heritage who could pass for White. But with a Black husband finding a home was difficult and the children including Harry and Valerie experienced the racist taunts regularly in their schools in Vancouver. Valerie tells this story of unwantedness throughout the book and talks about how she and Harry moved into sport to try, unsuccessfully to get away from some of that treatment.
Both the siblings were injured and underperformed at Rome. It was especially hard for Harry as he was one of those favored to do well in the sprints. As a result the press labeled him as a 'quitter', which was not even close to the truth. He would go on to win the Commonwealth Games gold and set world records. But in those games he tore the rectus femoris in his thigh completely in two. This is the muscle that goes down the middle of the front of the thigh. Bruce Kidd noted in his book that when looking at the injury, the depression under the skin where the muscle tore was deep enough to put your fist into. Harry returned to Canada, and a friendly surgeon repaired the injury for free, because he admired Harry for his work. This was before the days of socialized medicine in Canada. Despite this terrible injury, Harry was able to rehab and get back into competition within a year and go on to win the bronze medal in the 100 meters in Tokyo behind Bob Hayes and Enrique Figuerola of Cuba. Bill Crothers (800 meters, bronze) was the only other Canadian medal winner in track and field. And he had a school named after him.
Another example of what Harry Jerome was up against with the press is recounted again by Valerie.
"...The staging of the Canada Olympic trials (1964) in St. Lambert, Quebec, in August was to prove as much of an ordeal for the athletes as any of the competition. The meet was badly run, and the conditions were atrocious. Gale-force winds lifted much of the track into dusty clouds. Canada's premier high jumper, Dianne Gerace and Irene Potrowski, queen of the sprints, were among those injured during the events as a direct result of the poor state of the facilities. The athletes complained, loud and unanimously, but reporters focused on Harry.
'When the rest of the athletes complained about things like this, we were looked upon as well-meaning young people who had been mistreated,' Bruce Kidd later said. 'For Harry it was different. It was because he was Black that the media was relentless in the abuse of him for the very same complaints that the rest of us voiced. And what was so remarkable was that he always forgave them.'
"Even the Fotheringhams and O'Briens (local journalists, ed.) he forgave after their malicious attacks that followed his injuries."
"Many athletes wore sunglasses to keep particles out of their eyes. Only Harry was assumed to be arrogant for wearing them."
"On cool days in the absence of the athletic tights for men that are now commonplace, he wore green long underwear under his shorts something he'd learned in Oregon. The press described this as cockiness. None of the athletes found Harry arrogant or cocky. At the closing banquet, for the first time anyone could remember, they honoured him with a prolonged standing ovation, a spontaneous outpouring of respect and good wishes for the challenge that faced him in Tokyo."
About a third of the book deals with Harry's track career and his time at the University of Oregon and his relationship with Bill Bowerman. He was not on a full scholarship and worked part time as a janitor on campus. He married a Canadian woman he met in Eugene, but the marriage was tumultuous to say the least. After his divorce he would rarely ever see his daughter as she grew up.
After retiring from competition Harry worked most of his life promoting fitness and sport for children through programs sponsored by Ottawa or the government of British Columbia. Tragically Harry would die at 42 of a brain aneurism.
Initially I got the book to read more about Harry's athletic career, but soon found myself absorbed reading it more for the story of his life outside the game. It gave me a better understanding of what it was and still is like to be a person of color even in a liberal country like Canada. As well, Valerie Jerome describes in depth the turmoil within the family that makes it a primer for a course in the study of family dynamics. I can highly recommend this book for these reasons.
George Brose
I checked out some of Valerie's claims of Harry's bad press at Rome in 1960. Here is a chronological sequence of stories from the Toronto Star from pre-Olympics leading finally to an admission by Harry's coach in British Columbia taking responsibility for Harry's so called 'attitude' with the press.
High Hopes July 16 Toronto Start
July 18, 1960 Toronto Start
August 26 , 1960 Toronto Star
Wins A Heat, Canada's Hopes Are High
Three weeks later they are still on his case
Finally in November, Harry's coach in Vancouver takes the blame.
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