Harry Jerome#Tributes

{{Infobox sportsperson

| image = HarryJerome.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Harry Jerome Statue

| birth_name = Winston Jerome

| nickname = Harold

| nationality =

| residence =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1940|9|30}}

| birth_place = Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada

| death_date = {{death date and age|1982|12|7|1940|9|30}}

| death_place = North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

| height = 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)

| weight =

| website =

| country = Canada

| sport = Track and field

| event =

| collegeteam =

| club =

| team =

| turnedpro =

| coach =

| retired =

| coaching =

| worlds =

| regionals =

| nationals =

| olympics =

| paralympics =

| highestranking =

| pb =

| medaltemplates =

{{MedalCountry | {{CAN}} }}

| show-medals =

}}

Harry Winston Jerome {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|OC}} (September 30, 1940 – December 7, 1982) was a Canadian track and field sprinter and physical education teacher. He won a bronze medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and set a total of seven world records over the course of his career.

Early life

Harry Jerome was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, the son of Harry Vincent Jerome and Elsie Ellen Howard, and moved to North Vancouver, British Columbia, at age 12. His grandfather was John Howard, an American-born railway porter who represented Canada in the 1912 Summer Olympics. Harry's sister, Valerie Jerome, was also an Olympian who competed for Canada at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.{{cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/je/valerie-jerome-1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418011647/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/je/valerie-jerome-1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-04-18|title=Valerie Jerome Bio, Stats, and Results |website=Olympics at Sports-Reference.com}}

Athletic career

Jerome competed at the university level for Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon. He was a member of the Canadian track and field team at the 1960, 1964, and 1968 Summer Olympics, winning 100 metre bronze in 1964. Jerome wore his University of Oregon sweats, rather than the contemporary practice of an official national outfit for all Olympic appearances, to warm up for the Olympic 100 metres in Tokyo. He won the gold at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Kingston, Jamaica.

During his career, Jerome set a total of seven world records, including tying the 100 metre record at 10.0 seconds in 1960, equalling the mark established a month earlier by Germany's Armin Hary. Later he tied the world record for the 100 yard dash at 9.3 seconds (1961), making Jerome one of the few athletes to own both the 100 yard and 100 metre world record simultaneously. Jerome was a member of the University of Oregon {{nowrap|4 × 100 m}} relay team that tied the world record of 40.0 seconds in 1962; during the 1962 season, Harry ran 9.2s at the 100 yard dash 2 times. In 1966 he again tied a world record with a 9.1 time in the 100 yard. From 1963 to 1966 he held or equalled four world records concurrently.

He remains the only man to have held the 100 yard world record with 3 different times and is the oldest 100y world record holder, at 25 years old. Jerome never owned the 100y or 100m WR solely but matched his contemporaries.http://www.sportshall.ca/accessible/hm_profile.php?i=19{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite web|title=Progression of the IAAF World Records 2015 |url=https://iaaf-ebooks.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/Progression-of-IAAF-World-Records-2015/projet/IAAF-WRPB-2015.pdf|date=2015|access-date=November 20, 2020|publisher=IAAF}}

Jerome won the British AAA Championships title at the 1961 AAA Championships.{{cite web|url=https://www.nuts.org.uk/Champs/AAA/index.htm |title=AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists |website=National Union of Track Statisticians |access-date=4 May 2025}}{{cite web|url=http://www.gbrathletics.com/bc/aaa.htm |title=AAA Championships (men) |website=GBR Athletics |access-date=4 May 2025}}

Jerome continued to sprint successfully until the late 1960s, despite suffering an injury so severe at the Perth Commonwealth Games in 1962 that doctors initially believed he would be crippled for life.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

Teaching and post-athletic career

Jerome received a bachelor's degree in physical education from the University of Oregon in 1964 and taught with the Richmond School Board (1964–65) and then with the Vancouver School Board (1965–68). In 1968, he received a master's in physical education from Oregon.{{cite web|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/harry-jerome|title=Harry Jerome|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia|date=30 September 2019}}

After retiring from athletics in 1969, Jerome was invited by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to help create Canada's new Ministry of Sport. Jerome held a number of senior positions in the ministry but resigned over the government's cancellation of a large public-private partnership he had negotiated with Kellogg's to promote youth participation in athletics. During the 1980s, Jerome headed the Premier's Sport Award program in British Columbia.

Jerome died of a brain aneurysm on December 7, 1982, at the age of 42, in North Vancouver.{{cite web|url=http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy|title=BC Archives|website=Royal BC Museum|date=30 September 2019}}

Honours and tributes

File:Harry Jerome, statue, Vancouver.jpg in Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia]]

In 1970, Jerome was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.{{cite web|url=https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-2769|title=Mr. Harry W Jerome, O.C.|website=The Governor General of Canada|date=30 September 2019}} The following year he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Jerome was posthumously inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2001 and was named a Person of National Historical Significance in 2010.{{cite web|url=https://www.theafronews.com/features/harry-winston-jerome-designated-as-one-of-canadas-greatest-athletes-and-olympic-medalist-and-national-historic-person|title=Harry-Winston-Jerome-designated-as-one-of-Canada's-greatest-athletes-and-Olympic-medalist-and-national-historic-person.|website=The Afro News|date=30 September 2019}}

In 1984, the Labatts International Track Classic Pre-Olympic meet was renamed the Harry Jerome International Track Classic.{{cite web|url=https://www.harryjerome.com/history/history/|title=Meet History|website=Harry Jerome International Track Classic|access-date=April 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125130953/https://www.harryjerome.com/history/history/|archive-date=January 25, 2019|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.vancourier.com/news/archives-sprinter-harry-jerome-sets-new-canadian-record-1.1946979|title=Archives: Sprinter Harry Jerome sets new Canadian record|first=Andrew|last=Fleming|date=May 27, 2015 }} The meet is held annually at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, British Columbia. The Harry Jerome Sports Complex in North Vancouver, one block from North Vancouver High School where he first went out for track in 1958, and the Harry Jerome Sports Centre, home to the Burnaby Velodrome, are named after Jerome, as are the weight room at the University of Oregon and the track and field stadium in Prince Albert. The Stanley Park sea wall in Vancouver is graced with a {{Convert|9|ft||abbr=|order=flip|adj=on}} bronze statue of Jerome.

The annual Harry Jerome Awards, the national awards dinner for Canada's black community organized by the Black Business and Professionals Association (BBPA), is named after him.{{cite web|url=https://harryjeromeawards.com/|title=BBPA Harry Jerome Awards|access-date=January 24, 2023}}

Another meet, called the Harry Jerome Indoor Games was created in 2011. It is held at the Richmond Olympic Oval, once used for Speed Skating events at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but now a multi-purpose sports facility. The meet is mainly attended by high school students representing lower mainland clubs, as well as some university student-athletes, and younger athletes.

On September 30, 2019, Google celebrated Harry Jerome's 79th birthday with a Google Doodle.{{cite web|url=https://doodles.google/doodle/harry-jeromes-79th-birthday/|title=Harry Jerome's 79th Birthday|website=Google|date=30 September 2019}}

Works about Jerome

Production began in April 2009 on a feature-length biographical documentary entitled Mighty Jerome. Directed by Charles Officer and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in Vancouver, the film was inspired by Fil Fraser’s book on Jerome, entitled Running Uphill.{{cite news|url=http://www.afrotoronto.com/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1661&Itemid=90|title=Charles Officer begins production on NFB Harry Jerome documentary |date=April 19, 2009|work=AfroToronto|access-date=April 21, 2009}}{{cite journal|last=Lem|first=Val Ken|date=June 22, 2007|title=Running Uphill: The Fast, Short Life of Canadian Champion Harry Jerome.|journal=Canadian Materials|publisher=The Manitoba Library Association|volume=XIII|issue=22|url=https://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol13/no22/runninguphill.html|access-date=February 23, 2014|archive-date=March 1, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301161418/https://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol13/no22/runninguphill.html|url-status=dead}}

NFB producer Selwyn Jacob had approached Officer — along with four other directors — in 2007 with idea of making a documentary about Jerome. Officer's proposal was selected by Jacob and the NFB, despite the fact that he had never directed a documentary before.{{cite news | url=https://www.straight.com/article-347139/vancouver/viff-2010-mighty-jerome-stylish-portrait-one-canadas-greatest-athletes | title=VIFF 2010: Mighty Jerome a stylish portrait of one of Canada's greatest athletes | work=Georgia Straight | date=September 23, 2010 | access-date=April 16, 2011 | author=Eisner, Ken | location=Vancouver}} The black and white film uses archival footage, interviews and dramatizations to explore Jerome's life and career. Officer recreated museum installations in Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver to interview Jerome's contemporaries and family members. Jerome's sister Valerie refused to participate in the film due to objections over his portrayal in Fraser's book. The film premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival on October 8, 2010.{{cite news|last=Zacharias|first=Yvonne|title=VIFF: The story of Harry Jerome is a moving piece of sports history|url=https://vancouversun.com/story_print.html?id=3642050&sponsor=|access-date=January 12, 2011|newspaper=Vancouver Sun|date=October 8, 2010}}{{dead link|date=October 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite news|last=Schaefer|first=Glen|title=REVIEW: Mighty Jerome|url=http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/viff/archive/2010/10/08/review-mighty-jerome.aspx|access-date=January 12, 2011|newspaper=Vancouver Province|date=October 8, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130118180635/http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/viff/archive/2010/10/08/review-mighty-jerome.aspx|archive-date=January 18, 2013}}{{cite news|last=Anderson|first=Kelly|title=VIFF Preview: "Mighty Jerome"|url=http://www.realscreen.com/articles/magazine/20100930/mighty_jerome.html|access-date=January 12, 2011|newspaper=Realscreen|date=September 30, 2010}}

Jerome's 100 metre bronze medal performance at the Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics is captured in the documentary film Tokyo Olympiad (1965) directed by Kon Ichikawa. Slow-motion close-up footage of Jerome (along with other athletes) preparing for the race begins at the 26 minute mark and then the race is shown in its entirety at full speed.

Achievements

1960 world record 100 m: 10.0 (tied record of Armin Hary)
1960 Summer Olympics 100 m Canadian team member
1961 world record 100 yds: 9.3
1962 world record 100 yds: 9.2
1962 world record 440 yds: 40.0 University of Oregon team member
1963 world record 60 yds indoor: 6.0
1964 Summer Olympics 100 m: 3rd 10.2 / 200 m: 4th 20.7
1966 world record 100 yds: 9.1
1966 Canadian record 220 yds: 20.4
1966 Commonwealth Games 100 yds: 1st 9.4
1967 Pan American Games 100m: 1st 10.2
1968 Summer Olympics 100 m: 7th 10.2

References

{{cite web | title=Harry Winston Jerome | work=Canada's Walk of Fame | url=http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductees/01_harry_winston_jerome.xml.htm | access-date=July 13, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060826111128/http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductees/01_harry_winston_jerome.xml.htm |archive-date = August 26, 2006}}

External links

[http://www.harryjerome.com Harry Jerome International Track Classic]
[http://www.nfb.ca/film/mighty_jerome Mighty Jerome] at the National Film Board of Canada (Requires Adobe Flash)
{{Find a Grave|6397}}
University of Oregon [https://web.archive.org/web/20110709132941/http://www.goducks.com/pdf1/4205.pdf?ATCLID=30960&SPID=243&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPSID=4592]
[http://www.lib.sfu.ca/system/files/28909/FINDING%20AID%20JEROME%202012_updated%202014.pdf Records of Harry and Valerie Jerome are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202032334/http://www.lib.sfu.ca/system/files/28909/FINDING%20AID%20JEROME%202012_updated%202014.pdf |date=February 2, 2017 }}
[https://www.criterion.com/films/709-tokyo-olympiad Tokyo Olympiad] at [https://www.criterion.com/ Criterion.com]
[https://www.google.fr/maps/@43.6469176,-79.3860066,3a,37.5y,65.35h,23.6t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shJLs3MXSMPIQATvBjqDJ4A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 Walk of Fame Simcoe Street (ontario)]