view . summer 2012
19
Sam Balter, a U.S. point guard told Sports Illustrated that,
“A comedy of errors and unfortunate circumstances had
combined to make a sandlot affair of what should have been
the greatest basketball tournament ever.”
When you can’t run or dribble, being able to jump is the
deciding factor. The Americans were taller. They won 19-8.
The U.S. team won the gold medals but the Canadians
surreptitiously collected their own memento, wrote Atherton. As
the American players congratulated each other, Canadian player
Jimmy Stewart scooped up the game ball, strolled over to where
his wife, Mary, sat on the sidelines, and shoved the game ball
underneath her Hudson’s Bay blanket, saying, “Hold on to that.”
Meretsky went home without even the silver medal. Only
seven had been minted and he lost out when the team had
drawn lots for them.
Sixty-three years later, the International Olympic Committee
minted a new silver medal for Toots from the original mould.
In a May 2006 story about the well-loved Olympian’s
passing,
The Windsor Star
quoted his nephew, Harvey Strosberg:
“Every time I saw him he’d say ‘Hi Harvey, this is your Uncle
Toots, known from coast to coast!’”
n
v
OLYMPIC DREAMS
WHAT FOLLOWS IS A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF UNIVERSITY
OF WINDSOR INDIVIDUALS WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE
OLYMPICS EITHER AS ATHLETES OR COACHES.
•
Ian Alison ’32
- 1936 Olympics (Basketball Silver Medal)
•
Ed Dawson
- 1936 Olympics (Basketball Silver Medal)
•
Irving “Toots” Meretsky
- 1936 Olympics (Basketball
Silver Medal)
•
Stanley “Red” Nantais BA ’37
– 1936 Olympics
(Basketball Silver Medal)
•
Bill Couthard BA ’48
- 1952 Olympics (Basketball)
•
Bill Pataky ’57
- 1952 Olympics (Basketball)
•
Bernard Newman BA ’33
(coach) 1956 Olympics
(Gymnastics)
•
George Short MHK ’73
1960 Summer Olympics (Track)
•
Eli Sukunda
(coach) – 1967, 1980, 1984, 1988 (Fencing)
Eli Sukunda fought back from being stabbed five
times one night while working at a local tavern—one
wound only an eighth of an inch from his heart—to
compete in the Eastern Canadian Championships, the
Commonwealth Championships, the Canadian Winter
Games and the Olympics. He later served as coach of
the University of Windsor fencing team. He won the
University’s Gino Fracas coaching award.
•
Andrea Steen BHK ’79, DPB ’82, LLD ’02
– 1984 Olympics
(Track) “After one year everything came down to a single
race. Six hundred hours of training were on the line
for 57 seconds. Fifty eight seconds was too slow!” said
Andrea Steen, who sacrificed a year of school to qualify
for the Olympic trials in the 400-metre hurdles. She
succeeded and then made it to the Olympic semi-finals.
•
Jennifer Pace Hickey BHK ’81
– 1984 Olympics (Track
and Field) Enrolled at the University on a Commonwealth
Scholarship, Hickey originally came from Malta. She
threw her personal best at the Olympics, finishing 13th.
In 1994, she was inducted into the University of Windsor
Alumni Sports Hall of Fame.
1. Playing shuffleboard during the TransAtlantic trip.
2. Second from far right: American 1936 100-metre gold medallist
Jesse Owens.
3.
The Windsor Daily Star
bears sad tidings.
4. The basketball team flanked by a Nazi guard in the Olympic Village.
5. and 6. Resting up for the 1936 Games.
5.
6.
