Track athlete.
Born at Dauphin on 7 May 1903, son of James Allen Ball (1874-1922) and Sarah Elizabeth Bowes (1879-1916), he attended Dauphin Collegiate and the University of Manitoba, where he studied pharmacy. He won Manitoba and western Canadian intercollegiate track titles in 1925 and won a place on the 1928 Canadian Olympic team, finishing second in the 400 metre race at the Olympics. He also won a bronze medal with the Canadian relay team. He won another bronze medal in the relay in the 1932 Olympics, and in 1933 he won the Norton H. Crowe Trophy as “Canada’s Outstanding Athlete.” On 15 August 1931, he married Violet Laird Parker (1906-1993) at Winnipeg. He was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (1980). He died at Victoria, British Columbia on 2 July 1988.
Birth and marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Death registration, British Columbia Vital Statistics.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 2 November 2022
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