Standing up for his player

Stammberger remembers national team coach not letting one person be singled out

“I never forgot that statement and how quick-thinking he was and recognized that active racism for what it was at that point and didn't allow it to happen.”

Anna (Pendergast) Stammberger

Anna (Pendergast) Stammberger remembers seeing racism first-hand nearly 40 years ago while travelling internationally with Canada’s women’s basketball team.

The Kensington native and her teammates were passing through customs in another country in 1983. The squad, comprised of roughly 18 people, was decked out in Basketball Canada gear and looked the same.

Except in the eyes of one security official.

Sylvia Sweeney, a Black woman from Montreal, an outstanding player and cocaptain of the national team, was singled out. The security official wanted to do extra screening of her and only her.

“Coach (Don) McCrae stood right up and said, ‘No, you will not select her out of this group’,” Stammberger recalled.

“‘If you want to check her, he said, you are checking all of us’.”

He told his players and staff to all put their bags up on the table to be checked, but the security official said it wouldn’t be necessary.

“I never forgot that statement and how quick-thinking he was and recognized that active racism for what it was at that point and didn't allow it to happen,”

Stammberger said.

Sweeney is a two-time Olympian, who captained the national squad from 197984 and is known as Canada’s first lady of basketball. She was inducted into the Canada Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994 and earned the Order of Canada. U Sports presents the Sylvia Sweeney Award for

Student-Athlete Community Service annually.

Stammberger said she has shared the story with her Dalhousie Tigers’ women’s basketball team recently as the Black Lives Matter movement grows.

“I think that happens a lot to our Black Canadians, and it happens a lot more than we want to believe,” Stammberger said. “I think it has to stop and coach McCrae did that in 1983. He knew what was happening and he said no.”

The Tigers have four African Canadians on their roster and an African Canadian on their coaching staff. Stammberger said they are talking about the issues that have recently come up and are in touch to show their support for one another.

“It should be on everyone’s minds and in everyone’s discussion,” the coach said.

“I think all of this discussion is good. We just need to have open, honest discussion. We need to develop an understanding of each other’s situation.”