Of all the graduates crossing the stage at Western’s spring convocation, Jim McCormick just might have the most offbeat path to a university degree.
The 81-year-old is Western’s only octogenarian graduate this spring.
As a teenager, McCormick “couldn’t stand school and just wanted out.” But even then, the reluctant student, happier on a sports field than in the classroom, had already begun winding through an unlikely constellation of influences – from athletes to Indigenous Peoples to a 93-year-old Western professor – who would ignite his drive to earn a PhD.
While working as an auditor for the chain of S.S. Kresge department stores 1967, Jim McCormick, BA’17, MA’20, PhD’25, moonlighted as a model for the company’s print advertisements. (Submitted)
McCormick grew up in Sarnia, Ont., where camaraderie built while playing sports, and his admiration for peers who excelled as athletes, cemented many of his friendships. That circle of friends included Indigenous people from nearby First Nations. He visited their communities and kept in touch with some long after he left home.
As a young man “spreading my wings in the world,” he worked in various roles, including salesman and auditor, and even took an impromptu side gig as a fashion model.
After a decade working across southwestern Ontario and in the U.S., he landed a sales job at a Hamilton company run by retired NHL player Leo Reise. The defenseman was famed for his part in clinching two Stanley Cup wins for the Detroit Red Wings in the early 1950s, though McCormick was equally impressed by his off-ice achievements.
Journey to Western’s spring convocation began 50 years ago
“Leo took me under his wing, and he was so inspiring. He’d finished his BA while he was playing hockey and was always promoting education to the salespeople.”
McCormick took Reise at his word and enrolled at Western in the mid-70s. He steadily worked toward a bachelor’s degree, but just a few credits short of graduation, he had to leave his studies to return to full time work. Forty years later, following two decades of working globally, the final twenty years employed by various international organizations in Nicaragua including the U.S. Embassy, he came back to Canada.
“I didn’t want to hand out resumes at 70 years old. Then I thought, ‘I need to finish what I started,’ so I drove right to the Social Sciences Building.”
After a 40-year hiatus, Jim McCormick re-enrolled at Western in 2015 and presented his 1970s student number. Bemused staff told him it had since been retired. (Submitted)
McCormick had nearly enough credits to finish a degree in political science in 2015, but he felt done with politics. He explored new courses, including an anthropology course requiring him to write a critique of a published article about Indigenous Peoples in North America. He chose one about the Oglala Lakota in South Dakota, whose territory is remembered for the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.
He was struck by the presentation of the Lakota people as largely stagnated and facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles. That conflicted with what he saw in the Indigenous people he had known since childhood.
“It was a powerful article, but also really slanted towards the negative, so I started researching. I found many positive stories about the Lakota people pursuing higher education, developing new agricultural methods, even revitalizing buffalo herds. The article hadn’t mentioned any of that.”
The course would crystallize McCormick’s academic destiny. It made it a longer journey, too.
Early student of Indigenous studies at Western
Under the guidance of Janice Forsyth, former director of what was then called First Nations studies, McCormick dove into the program, though it required more credits to declare a major than other programs.
Ken Moore, from Peepeekisis Cree Nation, played on the Canadian Olympic hockey team that won a gold medal in the 1932 Games at Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo courtesy Jennifer Rattray)
“I had to add almost another year to my studies, but I loved it,” he said. “Janice was a blessing. She gave me support, direction and helped me navigate the program.”
McCormick’s enthusiasm grew when Forsyth presented him with a research opportunity. In 2015, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame had inducted the Firth Sisters as the first Indigenous Olympians in Canada, but Jennifer Rattray, a granddaughter of hockey player Ken Moore, argued he held that distinction.
McCormick investigated the claim, met with Rattray and saw the artifacts from Moore’s history, including his gold medal. He found evidence, now more widely accepted, that Moore was the first Indigenous Olympic medalist, of those known so far. The study became his master’s thesis, opening the door to doctoral studies.
The next challenge was finding a PhD supervisor who complemented his academic style and focus of study.
Research reveals untold stories of Indigenous athletes
Forsyth referred him to Bob Barney, a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences and founder of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at Western. Barney has been teaching, researching and supervising graduate students at Western for 53 consecutive years.
“‘You’re the oldest student of my work,’ was the first thing Professor Barney said to me,” McCormick recalled. “I told him, ‘You’re the oldest professor of my work.’ We got along famously. He’s such a lovely man.”
“To teach is to learn,” says Western professor Bob Barney (right) of his oldest ever student, Jim McCormick. Barney says the years he supervised McCormick’s PhD studies provided a valuable learning experience for both, and engagements he happily anticipated. (Colleen MacDonald/Western News)
Barney shares McCormick’s conviction that a more thorough and balanced understanding of Indigenous history is essential.
“I accepted Jim as one my PhD supervisees because I felt strongly about the need to research and write about Indigenous people and examine the role and value of sport in their lives,” Barney said.
McCormick planned to counter typical narratives focusing on the limitations they face by documenting achievements as well. He was soon disappointed in the lack of biographical information on Indigenous athletes. With Forsyth’s encouragement, he set out to write stories that would illustrate a more comprehensive picture of the lives of several Indigenous athletes for his PhD dissertation.
“I focused on athletes with complex stories,” McCormick said. “Many attended residential schools; some didn’t. Whether about achievement or survival, their stories reveal how little recognition Indigenous athletes received, even as elite performers who overcame many barriers to participation in mainstream sports.”
In 500 pages, McCormick produced athletic histories about ten Indigenous athletes, both men and women, across various sports. Referencing the sparse information in previously published material, he said his stories uncover new details, explain discrepancies and eliminate gaps in the storylines. He sees them as more than just sports stories, but windows into the athletes’ resilience despite colonial obstacles.
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Defending PhD dissertation
When it came time to defend his dissertation, McCormick understood the sensitivity around non-Indigenous researchers engaging in Indigenous history. Barney was confident his student would hold up well under the examiners’ intense intellectual scrutiny.
“Jim’s work is deeply researched, including material from museums, archives, libraries and newspaper repositories across Canada,” Barney said.
McCormick told the examiners his work supports the spirit of the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission in calling on institutions to tell the stories of Indigenous athletes in history. He stressed how few well-researched, peer-reviewed biographies of Indigenous athletes exist, and argued scholarship on their achievements can bring better recognition and understanding to a wider audience.
Academic partnership culminates at convocation
McCormick’s dissertation is already attracting attention, with university presses from the prairie provinces to B.C. showing interest in publishing it as a book. The Society of International Hockey Research has accepted McCormick’s story about Ken Moore for its journal.
The mentorship-turned-friendship between McCormick and Barney will have a crowning moment on June 13, when Barney presides over the hooding ceremony recognizing McCormick’s completion of a PhD in kinesiology and Indigenous sport history. Later that day, Barney and his wife are hosting a celebration at their home in McCormick’s honour.
McCormick is grateful for Barney’s enduring support and guidance in “getting my dissertation over the finish line,” and especially pleased with the reception from Indigenous friends.
“I hope my research leads to more studies, and more acknowledgment and appreciation of Indigenous athletes.”
Jim McCormick is one of 8,000 Western students graduating this week during spring convocation, joining the global network of 372,000 alumni around the world. Read more of Western News’ convocation coverage.
Jim McCormick’s PhD dissertation
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- Ken Moore: Gold medalist on the 1932 Canadian Olympic hockey team
- Tom Longboat: Record-breaking winner of 1907 Boston marathon
- Buddy Maracle: NHL player with the New York Rangers in 1930-31 season, and possibly the first Indigenous player in the NHL
- Fred Sasakamoose: NHL player with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1953-54 season
- Sharon and Shirley Firth: Four-time Olympians and winners of 79 medals between them in national cross-country skiing competitions from 1968 to 1984
- Roger Adolph: National boxing champion in the mid 1960s, remembered as the ‘Greatest Indigenous Boxer from B.C.’
- Waneek Horn-Miller: Gold medalist in water polo in the 1999 Pan American Games
- Bryan Trottier: Mètis hockey player named as one of the ‘100 Greatest NHL Players’ after 18 seasons, ending in 1994
- Wilton (Willy) Littlechild: Elite athlete in hockey and diving in the 1960s who later became a national advocate for Indigenous sports
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