On track to never forget his name
Hamilton sprinter’s legend will live on with proposal to rename facility as the Ray Lewis Track and Field Centre
HE ADMITS IT SOUNDS a little unbelievable today, but until the early 2000s the man who would become the president of the oldest track and field organization in Canada had never heard of Ray Lewis.
The remarkable story of the Hamilton sprinting legend’s upbringing as the child of runaway slaves who faced racism as he trained for his sport by racing against railway cars, ultimately becoming the first black Canadian to win an Olympic medal, may be familiar to most of us now, but back then it simply didn’t register with the guy who would become the head of the Hamilton Olympic Club. Because the tale had never been told. Not to him, anyway. “I knew nothing of Ray Lewis as an athlete growing up,” Rich Gelder says.
It wasn’t until he came across a book about
the man that he started doing a little digging. Which led to the discovery that Lewis was still alive at the time. Which led to a meeting. Which led to the old runner speaking at Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School where Gelder was a teacher. Which led to eye-popping wonder at the tale he told.
Why mention this now? Making sure his name never fades away again and remains tip-oftongue for future Hamiltonians is why it’s such good news that the city’s Facilities Naming Subcommittee has voted to rename the track at Mohawk Sports Park as the Ray Lewis Track and Field Centre. The proposal will now go to city council where it will surely receive easy approval.
“There was no debate whatsoever,” says committee member and city councillor Jason Farr. “It passed faster than Ray ran the 200.”
For the handful of folks who don’t know the story of the man they called Rapid Ray, here’s your primer.
Born in 1910, he starred on the track for Central Collegiate, winning 17 national high school championships in the 100-, 200-, 400- and 800metre races. After working as a railway porter through the Great Depression, he won a bronze medal as part of the 4 x 400 relay team at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.
He won silver two years later at the British Empire Games as part of a long, incredibly successful career on the track.
Before anyone’s too hard on Gelder for not knowing this story, it’s important to point out that for the longest time after his running career finished, Lewis had faded into the mists. In fact, when Gelder and another teacher at Sir. John A. Macdonald decided to find the old sprinter and have him come speak at school, he was shocked at where they found him.
“He was living in relative obscurity in city housing of all places,” Gelder says.
It wasn’t until The Spectator’s John Kernaghan ran a wonderful four-part series on Lewis in 2001 — around the time the sprinter received the Order of Canada — that the current generation of Hamiltonians learned about the man.
At that point, he finally received the acclaim he’d earned. He’d been made part of the Hamilton Gallery of Distinction in 1992, but after passing away in 2003, an elementary school on the Mountain was named after him, he was included in the inaugural class of the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame, a children’s book was written about him, and a community service award in his name began getting presented annually at the city’s sport volunteer dinner.
It was the naming of the school in 2005 that really brought Lewis to the attention of Kevin Gonci, chair of the Golden Horseshoe Track and Field Council who submitted the trackrenaming request to the city.
That someone so accomplished and so successful could fade from view for so long isn’t really anyone’s fault. Yet, it highlights why it’s important for the city to honour its legends by naming things after them. We want those who have brought acclaim to Hamilton to be remembered for what they’ve done as a reminder of greatness that came from here and inspiration for others to come.
Choosing this method isn’t just a wonderful honour but it’s not a burden on tax dollars — it simply requires a sign or two and maybe some letterhead to be altered — which makes it all the better.
To the city’s credit, it’s become far better at making this happen in recent years. Where proposals to honour upstanding, accomplished citizens once seemed to grind on forever, the process has suddenly sped up and become far easier. That’s a good thing.
This one may have been the mostpainless of all. Which is terrific.
From now on, people won’t forget about him ever again. Lewis will be living in that school that bears his name. And in short order he’ll be remembered at a track used by thousands of young people each year.
Pretty sure he’d like that.
After working as a railway porter through the Great Depression, he won a bronze medal as part of the 4x400 relay team at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.