Respected soccer historian Colin Jose documented the beautiful game for decades

Canada Soccer Hall of Famer Colin Jose, a soccer historian who spent decades documenting the beautiful game, has died at the age of 88.

He died Saturday in London, Ont., 39 years to the day after Canada first qualified for the men’s FIFA World Cup in 1985, according to Canada Soccer.

Jose was a founding member of the Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum, now known as the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame, and served on the executive committee of the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.

Jose (pronounced Joze) was Canada Soccer’s press officer from 1972 to 1982 and the country's unofficial soccer historian for another 30-plus years thereafter.

He served as the official statistician for Canada Soccer’s national teams, the official statistician and historian of the old Canadian Soccer League, and as a liaison officer on the FIFA press and publications committee.

Jose wrote or co-authored several books covering Canadian soccer, the North American Soccer League, and the American Soccer League. His research and statistics served as the foundation for Canada Soccer’s national database and records management program.

Simply put, Jose was a soccer encyclopedia who did it for the love of the game.

"It’s my hobby and I get a great deal out of it," Jose once said. "I get to see a lot of games; there are some financial rewards, but most years it’s a trade-off; I spend as much as I make.”

Jose's influence was not restricted to Canada.

The Colin Jose Media Award, awarded by the National Soccer Hall of Fame in the U.S., honours journalists and communications professionals whose careers have made "significant long-term contributions to soccer in the United States." Jose was historian Emeritus of the Hall of Fame, which called him the "pre-eminent soccer historian of North America."

Past winners include Amy Rosenfeld, Grant Wahl, JP Dellacamera, Paul Kennedy and George Vecsey.

Born July 11, 1936, in Falmouth, England, Jose emigrated to Canada in 1957, living first in Hamilton and then Moose Jaw.

After returning to England, he moved back to Canada for good in 1964, He and wife Karen, whom he married in 1966, raised daughter Carla in Hamilton, Ont.

The late George Gross, the longtime sports editor of the Toronto Sun and former Toronto Telegram sports writer, wrote in 1995 that Jose “spent decades on the research of Canadian and American soccer history as well as facts about origins of leagues in the two countries. He (was) respected the world over.”

The late Don Lovegrove, who spent more than 30 years in the Hamilton Spectator's sports department called Jose "unquestionably the most knowledgeable soccer journalist in the country.”

Jose was honoured by both the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame (as a builder in 2009) and Hamilton Soccer Hall of Fame (in 2016) and recognized as a Canada Soccer Life Member (in 2014).

He received the Canada Soccer President’s Award (2007), the Ontario Soccer President’s Award (1986 and 2015), and the Soccer Québec Centennial Medal (2011).

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024

The Canadian Press