This impressive full-colour anthology celebrates the most exciting and memorable moments in Canadian sport in the 20th century.

Sport has always been an integral thread of Canada's social fabric, and virtually every popular sport is profiled in this massive book.  Sprinter Percy Williams' sweep of the 1928 Olympics; Rocket Richard scoring 50 goals in 50 games; Lorie Kane's golf victories; Marilyn Bell's grueling first-ever crossing of Lake Ontario in 1954; Paul Henderson's electrifying winning goal in the 1972 Canada-Russia games; Terry Fox's inspiring cross-country Marathon of Hope; the Blue Jays' two consecutive World Series wins - all these great stories, and hundreds more are gathered in this timeless, full-colour book.

Many of the early accounts are culled from Maclean's and other magazines and newspaper articles of the time, imparting a unique immediacy and flavour to the text.

In addition to the unparalleled amount of historical content, Canada Our Century in Sport contains articles and commentary by some of Canada's top athletes of the century: Ken Read, Mark Tewksbury, Hayley Wickenheiser, Ron Ellis, Brian Orser, and more.  As well as the extensive content from Maclean's archives, and other contributors include the Canadian Special Olympics, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and le Pantheon de Sport de Quebec.

This book celebrates all aspects of sport - not just the victories.   Many of the sports moments are memorable because of what they reveal about the character of the participants, or the passion of the moment.

The sporting moments profiled in Canada Our Century in Sport come from track and field, swimming, horseracing, curling, golf, hockey, skating, skiing, baseball, basketball, football, and so many more.

Dave Best is a Fitzhenry and Whiteside author.

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The way we play 100 years of sport in Canada Canada being Canada, there is no shortage of material on hockey in this comprehensive anthology. But the "sport" in the title should be taken literally - Dave Best, a former director of Olympic affairs for Canada, has covered the gamut of sporting life in this country, from high-profile professional events to relatively obscure amateur ones. For readers who cringe at the thought of another weighty book about sports packed with nothing but statistics, there's refreshing news. Best strikes a balance, including athlete profiles, event reporting, and behind-the-scenes articles about sports-related issues like steroid use, as well as enough stats to keep the number-crunchers happy. Not all of the words here are Best's. Some of the material is drawn from the archives of Maclean's magazine. These reports provide excellent historical snapshots of important events in Canadian sport as they happened. They also allow readers to eavesdrop on some of the best commentators in the history of Canadian sportswriting: the late Peter Gzowski's reminiscences on Wayne Gretzky, for example, or the debate that raged in 1938 between Elmer W. Ferguson ("I Don't Like Amazon Women") and Roxy Atkins ("Elmer, You—re Goofy") over whether "girls" belonged in sports. Other noteworthy contributions include "Becoming a World Champion," by Canadian squash great Jonathon Power, and "Winning all but Nagano" by women's hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser. Both are first-person views from the top of the athletic summit, and they help round out the anthology. Words aside, the volume is jam-packed with photos of all kinds. Images convey a lot about the determination and excitement of sport, and readers who have only heard about some of the great athletes, teams, and innovators in Canadian history -- like basketball inventor James Naismith or the legendary women's basketball team the Edmonton Graduates - will finally be able to put likenesses to the names. Just what was it like when Joe Carter belted that World Series-winning home run for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993” What was the exact date of Donovan Bailey's Olympic gold medal-winning 100-metre dash” And what was the name of that woman who won the 1978 Canadian figure skating championships” (It was Heather Kemkaran.) Canada: Our Century in Sport is not the kind of book to read cover-to-cover. But it is an anthology that fans and scholars of sport will turn to frequently to fill in important details or to revisit their favourite sporting moments. Its lively format and fact-packed content vaults it far above the average. (Paul Challen, whose latest book, Gardens of Shame: The Tragedy of Martin Kruze and the Sexual Abuse at Maple Leaf Gardens, is co-written with Cathy Vine.) - The Quill and Quire

With Canada on a post-Olympics sporting high, the timing was perfect for a comprehensive book on Canadian sports. And, lo! we have exactly that in the sumptuous and hefty Canada: Our Century in Sport. Here are the great and famous moments - Terry Fox's run, Paul Henderson's goal, Donovan Bailey's record-setting gold medal in the Atlanta Olympics 100-metre run, Ferguson Jenkins's baseball heroics, Silken Laumann and Catriona Le May Doan, as well as Pierre Trudeau's visits to the Grey Cup. But just as valuable, and often more interesting because less well-known, are the likes of early golf champion Ada MacKenzie, cyclist Torchy Peden and boxer Tommy Burns. Events such as the shocking death of Howie Morenz or the thrilling Kentucky Derby victory of Northern Dancer get their full due...Includes results from the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and the Pan-Am Games, year-by-year highlights, and synopses of all Grey Cup and Stanley Cup finals." - The Globe and Mail

This is a book that allows readers to taste those sweet moments of sports victory and wince at the bitter ones of loss, to meet old heroes and find new ones, to win arguments and lose bets. Dave Best, who has spent a lifetime in and around sports and has clearly loved every minute of it, should be awarded a gold medal for this wonderfully illustrated and handsome volume that does more than simply hit the high spots. He's got a winner here, and so do readers. It's a book that's crowded with names, incidents and photographs. More than a listing of Canadian sporting achievement, however, Best has also gathered together some of the finest of this nation's sports writers from the archives of Macleans magazine. Younger fans will be introduced to the likes of Trent Frayne, one of the best sportswriters this country has produced, and red Foster Hewitt's very own words on what it was like to broadcast hockey games across the country. They—ll also read of how Stampeder fans taught staid Torontonians how to party at the 1948 Grey Cup game when Calgary mayor Don Mackay checked into the snooty Royal York on horseback. They—ll meet the remarkable Fanny Rosenfeld, a now-forgotten track star who was Canada's female athlete of the first half-century and her male equivalent in Lionel Conacher, a sportsman who excelled in football, hockey, wrestling, boxing and lacrosse. There are essays on what The Edmonton Grads, the champion baseball team, meant to this city and the entire country when they were putting together their incredible string of victories in the “20s and “30s. They—ll be touched by the tragic story of how a broken heart killed Howie Morenz, whose No. 7 was retired by the Montreal Canadiens and who lay in state in the Montreal Forum as tens of thousands of fans paid him a final tribute. In this book are the stories of Tom Longboat, the native Canadian runner who could not be beaten unless it was by the bad luck devils that pursued and finally caught him; Sam Langford, the "Boston Tar Baby" whose shot at the heavyweight title was denied him because of his colour; jockey Johnny Longden and Count Fleet, the greatest horse he ever rode; Barbara Ann Scott and her figure skating victories; 16-year-old Marilyn Bell and her astonishing swim across Lake Ontario; George Chuvalo, who fought Muhammad Ali; and Yvon Durelle, who came within one right cross of downing Archie Moore in the greatest light-heavyweight match ever fought. There's golf, sailing, cycling, swimming, diving and track, all covered with the kind of encyclopedic thoroughness that should satisfy the most demanding of fans. There's plenty on the CFL and college football too. There are stories about the Edmonton Eskimos and their almost unbelievable string of victories, and the wacky things that can happen in a league where it doesn—t hurt to be just a bit off-kilter. There are essays on The Mud Bowl and The Fog Bowl and an unforgettable incident in Ottawa where a dead duck was inserted into the game. Not surprisingly, a great deal of this book focuses on hockey. There's much, of course, on Gretzky and his years here, including the famous photo where he wipes tears from his eyes during The Trade press conference, and a great deal on the Oilers. In fact, it's suggested in one of the articles in the book that the Oilers dynasty might well be the last Canadian dynasty in pro hockey. However, there is one hockey entry that stands out, and offers to readers a chilling forecast of what could happen to our national game. "Can the backers of professional hockey in Canada hold their own against the money-bags of rich United States promoters or will Canadian hockey fans be forced year by year to see their stars disappear to shine in another firmament?" sportswriter Charles Good asks. "It is only logical to presume that star puck chasers will gravitate to the place where they can fatten their exchequers. This applies to clubs as well. Hamilton was frozen out; and what can happen to one can happen to all," he writes. Good wrote the story in Macleans back in 1926. Those were the days when the average NHL player made $2,000 a season and Lionel Conacher pulled down a jaw-dropping seven grand. - Edmonton Journal

"Question no. 1 Winnipeg sports fans: The first Winnipeg football team to win the Grey Cup was a) Winnipeg Tammany Tigers; b) Winnipeg Winnipegers; c) the Winnipeg RCAF Bombers? Answer: the Winnipegers over the Hamilton Tigers 18-12, the first Western team victory in a Grey Cup, in 1935. Question No. 2, Winnipeg sports fans: In the 1899-1900 Stanley Cup series between the Montreal Shamrocks and the Winnipeg Victorias, what innovation was added to the game? Answer: Goal nets replaced the two sticks stuck in each end of the ice. Unfortunately, we lost two games to one, but we did defeat the Shamrocks in 1900-1901 for our first and only Stanley Cup win. These are two biased Winnipeg questions, but Canadians from all cities and provinces can find bragging rights for any number of sports heroes who hail from their own backyards. Ottawa resident Dave Best, formerly the Canadian Olympic Association's director of education, along with Sport Canada, the Canadian Sport's Hall of Fame, Maclean's and other partners, has produced a stunning panoramic perspective of Canadian sport. Although most of the stories Best has gleamed can be found in a variety of print sources, Canada: Our Century in Sport is without a doubt the premier one-stop sports book for Canadian sport history fanatics. It is superbly illustrated with archival and contemporary images of our greatest team and individual champions: hockey's Lionel Conacher and Bobby Orr, swimming's Marilyn Bell and Alex Baumann, basketball's Edmonton Grads, curling's Richardsons of Regina and the greatest team in CFL history, the 1960s-era Winnipeg Blue Bombers. No one who reads this book will be able to justifiably criticize the skill, courage and dedication Canadian athletes have demonstrated throughout the 20th century in virtually all sporting endeavours. The meaningless media chatter bemoaning a few medals lost or glorying in a few medals won, in a specific athletic event, does not embody the character of Canadians, which is evident on every page of this monumental work. Even more importantly, as a testament to generations of Canadian athletes and their heroic victories, crushing defeats, and inspiring performances, it will be a motivation to students and young athletes of today and tomorrow. - Ian Stewart, The Winnipeg Free Press

"...these pages are loaded with 2,000 separate 'moments of magic' from more than 50 sports, and more than 1,000 photos, sidebars and charts organized in a highly readable format that invites both quick peeks and return visits. This resource belongs in every proper Canadian library." - The Toronto Star

"Although most people would automatically think hockey when sports in Canada are mentioned, Canadians have a rich heritage and history of other sports as well, including football, baseball, basketball, track and field, swimming, golf, skating, skiing, and many more. In an elaborately illustrated volume, former Director of Education for the Canadian Olympic Association, Dave Best, puts the nation's best sporting foot forward, presenting Canada's top athletes and sports moments in a worthy patriotic collection-The usual names are here, including track's Donovan Bailey, hockey's Wayne Gretzky, and baseball's Joe Carter, but so are hundreds of other Canadians who contributed to the national sports legend-a handsome, reasonably priced anthology of sports in Canada." - American Reference Books Annual