First Black player on national team is still waiting for Basketball Canada to set record straight

The first Black player to ever play on a national team says he was snubbed by the country's national sporting organization for basketball when they first recognized another player for his achievement.

Barry Howson, from London, Ont. is now in his 80s and has had a full career as a teacher, basketball player, Olympian and high school coach.

In 1964, he was the first Black player to make the national team when he played at the Tokyo Olympics. So when Basketball Canada finally recognized the first Black player who played for Team Canada in 2022 he was surprised because the man who was being honoured was someone else.

"Peter "Doc" Ryan called me and told me I should be the recipient after he'd already been interviewed," Howson said.

Ryan was chosen to play on Team Canada for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, though Canada ended up boycotting the event because of the ongoing Soviet-Afghan War and he would ultimately never play on the world stage.

Canada Basketball updated its information to indicate that Ryan was one of the first Black players after learning of the mistake. The organizaton said Ryan's contribution also helped amplify Black Canadian players, coaches and officials who are not in the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, said Matthew Walker, director of communications and content for Canada Basketball.

Barry Howson, first row far left, was a Western Mustang before he was Olympian and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2012. (John P. Metras Museum)

"Mr. Howson was previously inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame," Walker said. In 2001, Howson was recognized by the organization for his contributions in advancing and enriching basketball in the country.

But Howson said he has so far been unsuccessful in being officially recognized as the first player to represent Canada.

Representatives of Canada Basketball have been in touch with Howson to explain that he was already inducted into the Hall of Fame, when he requested a change to the record.

"They told me they would deal with it later but they kept just putting it aside and waiting," Howson said, adding that it's been over a year since he's last heard from them.

A long and storied life

Along with Howson's numerous athletic accomplishments, he also spent decades working as a teacher, and coach, at St. Patrick's Catholic High School in Sarnia until his retirement in 1997.

He would also go on to play for Team Canada four more times after the Tokyo Olympics. First, in 1966 at the Canada Winter Games where they won gold; in 1967 at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg; in 1971 at the World Championships in Yugoslavia and finally in 1994 at the World Masters Championship in Sydney.

"I met the guy in person and he's in his early 80s and looks like he could take me two out of three on the court very easily," said Jason Winders, a senior writer with Gameday London, an online publication that focuses on London's sports teams. He took an interest in Howson's story and wrote about it earlier in October.

"He's a real product of this great, citywide athletic system that we had back in the forties, fifties and sixties that created all these amazing athletes through competitions ran through the schools," he said.

Jason Winders is a senior writer with Gameday London. He says that Barry's story should be known by more Canadians. (Submitted by Jason Winders)

When reminiscing about his many accomplishments, Howson said his proudest moment was during his senior year at the now closed Sir Adam Beck Collegiate Institute when the Beck Spartans won the 1957 Western Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association (WOSSAA) championship.

"We played differently than the other high schools. You didn't wait until the other team came down soon as you scored, you picked them right up there at their end," he said.

The Beck Spartans are still the only senior boy's basketball squad from London to win the championship, a feat which helped induct them into the London Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

Despite wanting Canada Basketball to set the record straight, he'd never really considered himself a pioneer for Black Canadian athletes before finding out about it.

"I never worried about my colour. That's the thing about being on a team. You weren't chosen for the colour of your skin, you were chosen for what you could do on the court."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.