Harry Jerome


Henry "Harry" Winston Jerome 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.

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 in the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and the 1967 Pan American Games.
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 set the world record for the 100 yard dash at 9.2 seconds, 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 4×100 m relay team that tied the world record of 40.0 seconds in 1962. In 1966 he again tied a world record with a 9.1 time in the 100 yard. From 1963 to 1966 he held or equaled four world records concurrently.
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 never walk again.

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 and then with the Vancouver School Board. In 1968, he received a master's in physical education from Oregon.
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.

Honours and tributes

In 1970, Jerome was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. 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.
In 1984, the Labatts International Track Classic Pre-Olympic meet was renamed the Harry Jerome International Track Classic. 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 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, is named after him.
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.

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 in Vancouver, the film was inspired by Fil Fraser’s book on Jerome, entitled Running Uphill.
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. 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.

Achievements