‘The complete athlete’ blazed trails. with full force

AMSTERDAM, 1928 —What
all-round Canadian athlete
achieved Olympic gold and
was named Canadian Woman
Athlete of the Half-Century in
1949 although she never had a
coach?

By Marsha Boutton
Contributing Writer

Fanny Rosenfeld, popularly
known as “Bobbie,” has been
described as “the complete athlete.”

In fact, her biographers suggest
that the most efficient way to sum-
marize her career is to say that she
was not proficient at swimming. In
‘hockey, baseball, basketball, tennis
and track and field, Rosenfeld was
a champion.

She was born in 1903 in Russia
‘and came to Barrie. Ontario us an
‘infant with her parents. Early on
she attracted the attention of the

‘sporting establishment when she
beat the reigning Canadian "100-
“yard champion, Rosa Grosse, at a
track meet in Beaverton, Ont. Later,
Rosenfeld and Grosse shared the
world record for 100 yards at !1
“seconds fiat.

‘An 1922, Rosenfeld entered

We have

active competition in Toronto.
Constance Hennessey, one of the
founding members of the Toronto
Ladies’ Athletic Club, recalled the
determination of the diminutive
Rosenfeld. “She did not look pow-
ful, but she was wiry and quick.
Above all, she went after every-
thing with full force.”

Although hockey was her first
love, Rosenfeld’s prowess was irre-
pressible. In 1924, she won the
Toronto grass court tennis champi-

- onship and in the 1920s she played
on Ontario and Eastern Canadian
championship basketball teams.

In 1925, her “club” won the

points title at the Ontario Track and
Field Meet, with firsts in the discus,
the 220 yards and the 120-yard low
hurdles, and second in the javelin
and the 100-yard dash.

This was particularly i impressive
since her “club.” which was spon-
sored by the chocolate factory
where she worked, had only one
member: Bobbie Rosenfeld.

In 1949, she became onc of the
first inductees to the Canadian
Sports Hall of Fame, and a
‘Canadian Press poll named
Rosenfeld Woman Athlete of the

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Rosenfeld blazed other trails as
well,

For over 20 years she wrote a
3ports column in the Globe and

Mail, covering everything from
horse-racing to wrestling with an
irreverent humor. When she died in
1969, the newspaper paid tribute to
Fanny Rosenfeld as “that rarity, a

natural athlete.”

For more information aboul the
Heritage Project, a CR&
Foundation project for which this
was written, call 1-800-567-1867.

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