Hardcover - 592 pages (February 7, 2002)
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.ca
Weighing in at 592 pages, this massive, full-colour anthology lands punches in a flurry of "2000 moments of magic in Canadian sport."
Our Century is a heavyweight "homer" resource centre, replete with pertinent stats, highlights, lowlights, and lore.
Endless photos bolster myriad lists and text that's heavily buttressed by material from Maclean's archives, from which spews this mad offing: "violent, face-straining, face-dirtying, body-bouncing, sweaty, graceless, stumbling, struggling, wrenching, racking, jarring and floundering events that some girls see fit to indulge in"--from Elmer Ferguson's 1938 period piece, "I Don't Like Amazon Women." OK, Elmo.
Thoroughly broken down by sport, team, and individual, Canadian glory and histrionics--scandals, boycotts, and tainted urine samples--get a good going over, from the pros, Olympics, and British Empire/Commonwealth Games to the Special Olympics, Pan-Am Games, and Paralympics.
Trivia hounds can steel their mental traps with data on lesser-known athletes of distinction, such as marathoner Tom Longboat, women's basketball dynasty the Edmonton Grads, cyclist Archie McEachern, boxers Mickey MacIntyre and Sam Langford, pioneer NHLer Willie O'Ree, and Canada's first Olympic champion--"The Unknown Olympian," steeplechaser George Orton.
Naturally, hockey is the linchpin of this compendium, with the great Wayne Gretzky duly crowned "Male Athlete of the Century," while alpine skier Nancy Greene is his female counterpart.
Heady hockey hoopla aside, the renowned Canadian sports inferiority complex is hard to fathom considering this compelling collection of achievements.
--Sigcino Moyo
