Mark Hebscher - The Greatest Athlete (Youve Never Heard Of): Canadas First Olympic Gold Medallist

Copyright Mark Hebscher, 2019

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Hebscher, Mark, author
The greatest athlete (youve never heard of) : Canadas first Olympic gold medallist / Mark Hebscher ; foreword by Ron MacLean.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4597-4335-9 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-4597-4336-6 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-4597-4337-3 (EPUB)

1. Orton, George W., 1873-1958. 2. Runners (Sports)--Canada--Biography. 3. Athletes--Canada--Biography. 4. Runners (Sports)--United States--Biography. 5. Athletes--United States--Biography. I. MacLean, Ron, 1960-, writer of foreword II. Title.

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This book is dedicated to those who never received the credit or notoriety they deserved, regardless of their profession or walk of life. The achievements of those who endeavoured to make the world a better place should not go unnoticed.

Back in 1990, I was seated next to my esteemed CBC colleague, Brian Williams, at the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television Awards. We were both nominees in the Best Sportscaster category. On stage, Mark Hebscher had just opened the envelope and was about to present the winner. Brian cleared his throat in anticipation of delivering his winning acceptance speech (I often tease Brian about this). Of course, he always has the last laugh: he did win and was ever-gracious in his remarks.

But something else stood out for me that night. After Mark announced the winner, he made eye contact with Brian, then shifted his gaze to me and raised an eyebrow. There was a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye that said to me, Its okay, Ron, you are in the game. I never forgot that. I knew in that moment that Mark Hebscher saw beyond victory. He saw more than either the camera or the crowd was inclined to study. I knew back in 1990 that Mark could produce a book such as this.

Now, nearly three decades after that awards show, Mark has looked into something else unseen: the story of a little-known Canadian sports figure by the name of George Orton. This book is a remarkable mix of sleuthing and storytelling. And I love that it is a tale anchored in Canada, but set in Philadelphia, the cradle of democracy and the place where Orton came into his own. Its the city I associate with Thomas Paine, author of two must-read manifestos for broadcasters, Common Sense and Rights of Man.

A multitude of Canadian athletes have written great chapters of their lives in Philly: Flyer captains Bobby Clarke and Eric Lindros; Matt Stairs of Saint John, New Brunswick, who hit The Most Memorable Home Run in Philadelphia Phillies history; Todd MacCulloch of Winnipeg, who played basketball for the 76ers and at the same time for Team Canada at the 2000 Sydney Olympics; and Super Bowl champion Mark Rypien, who completed his last pass in the NFL as an Eagle.

But only one Canadian athletes story bridges Canada and Philadelphia by combining the worlds of sports doctrine and sporting deeds, one story in which public issues result in the forfeit of personal prudence. Its the story of a gold medal winner, but it is also much more. It is the story of a man who did not leave his mark in Canadian sports history until it was left to Mark to tell his story.

Ron MacLean, host of Hockey Night in Canada and the Olympics on CBC

It all started with a simple trivia question: Who was the first Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal?

The answer took me on a bewildering two-year odyssey.

Rendered disabled at age three, the individual in question recovered to become the most dominant athlete of his generation, despite a withered arm. As a distance runner and steeplechase champion, he was without peer. His skills in ice hockey and soccer were rarely matched. He was brilliant, too fluent in nine languages and armed with a Ph.D. in philosophy. His revolutionary instructional books on track and field can be found in the U.S. Library of Congress. He was an innovator in the sports world, introducing the idea of placing numbers on football jerseys so spectators could identify the players. He popularized the use of a stopwatch to ensure proper pace for track athletes. He introduced ice hockey to Philadelphia, forming the first teams and creating the first league, and he was instrumental in building the first indoor arena in the city. He founded the Philadelphia Childrens Playground Association, started two summer camps, coached championship track and field teams, and nurtured the Penn Relays into a world-class track meet. He taught and coached at some of the finest prep schools, was a respected and eloquent writer and poet, brought the Army-Navy football series to Philadelphia on a permanent basis, and was enshrined in seven Halls of Fame, all posthumously.

Surprisingly, the man Im speaking of was born, raised, and educated in Canada, but nobody ever knew of him. And his story blew me away.

What follows is the story of George Washington Orton, possibly the greatest athlete youve never heard of.