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Dark horse champions - 1964 Tokyo

Canada's sweetheart, an overlooked hockey team, the goodtime bobsleigh playboys, and the tiger from British Columbia – these are Canada's post-war Olympic gold players. In an era that predated big corporate sponsorship, these athletes were at the forefront of a dynamic, golden generation of Canadian Olympians. Humble but skilled, Canadian athletes staged upset after upset, inspiring future Olympians to try to match the golden trail they blazed.

By all accounts, this is the team that almost never was. George Hungerford had been dropped from his eight-man crew just months before the Olympics because he had a serious case of mononucleosis. Roger Jackson was left without a team when both a member of his crew and the team's spare suffered back injuries. To lessen the blow to both hopefuls, they were allowed to join forces and put together a coxless pair entry. They are indeed considered the Canadian dark horses.

Rowing in a shell borrowed from the University of Washington, George Hungerford and Roger Jackson take to the waters. Hungerford is still recovering from his illness and must conserve all strength. Setting low expectations, the two aspire just to make it to the finals. But after a strong showing in the preliminaries, they dig deep. Hungerford and Jackson pull ahead of their Dutch rivals to claim gold. In this CBC Radio interview, the Canadian pair discuss their shocking victory.
• Considering the pair the dark horse in the event, no Canadian journalist was on site to witness Hungerford and Jackson's victory. They were instead at the track and field events following Harry Jerome who won bronze and Bill Crothers who captured silver.

• Hungerford and Jackson were awarded the Lou Marsh trophy in 1964. Jackson continued to race and competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, finishing out of the medals. Hungerford retired in the spring following the Tokyo Olympics.

• Roger Jackson later acted as the Director of Sports Canada from 1976 to 1978. He also was the chairman of the advisory board for the Calgary Olympic Development Association. Hungerford served as chairman of the BC Sports Hall of Fame and is a lawyer in Vancouver.

Medium: Radio
Program: Assignment
Broadcast Date: June 11, 1965
Guest(s): George Hungerford, Roger Jackson
Host: Bill McNeil
Interviewer: Brian McFarlane
Duration: 3:12

Last updated: July 12, 2012

Page consulted on April 30, 2013

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