JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY VOLUME 19 NO.3 DECEMBER 2011 71 s t

Obituary n James Worrall - Olympic Athlete, IOC Member, e m e

Canadian Olympic Association President c n u

On 9 October 2011, and the greater Olympic o World mourned the passing of James Worrall, age 97, n an iconic fi gure in the heritage of Canadian sport and n

Olympic matters. Born in Bury, on 23 June A 1914, a young “Jimmy” Worrall immigrated to Canada with his family in 1922 at age 8, settling in & where he eventually attended McGill University and s t became active in track and fi eld sports organized r and sponsored by the nation’s oldest sporting club, o the historic Montreal Amateur Athletic Association. p Envisioning a career as a teacher, he accepted a position e as “Master of Physics” at Upper Canada College R (UCC) in . Teaching at UCC, participating James Worrall then embarked on a career as a in the city’s track and fi eld culture, and attending professional lawyer. At the same time he immersed courses in law at Osgood Hall, taxed his considerable himself in the aff airs of amateur sports administration, energies--he was a busy man. His athletic endeavors serving the cause of Canada’s national and Olympic eventually qualifi ed him for membership on the sporting interests. He rose to become President of Canadian team for the 2nd British Empire Games held the Canadian Olympic Association (COA), now the in in 1934, where he won the silver medal in Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). In 1968 was the high hurdles event. Two years later he qualifi ed to chosen by IOC President Avery Brundage to become be a member of Canada’s Olympic team for the 1936 Canadian history’s 6th IOC member, succeeding Games in Berlin, where he was appointed the team’s Sidney Dawes of Montreal. He retired from the IOC fl ag-bearer for the opening ceremonies. He competed in 1989, having played major roles in Canada’s hosting in the 110 meter and the 400 meter hurdles. In each, of the 1976 Olympic Summer Games in Montreal and he failed to qualify for the fi nals. the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary. During hhis twenty year IOC tenure, he became the fi rst CCanadian elected to the Executive Board. In 1981 he rran unsuccessfully for the IOC Presidency, losing to tthe recently deceased Juan Antonio Samaranch.

NNotable among Worrall’s achievements in the service oof the IOC was his chairmanship of the Commission ccharged with the responsibility of updating and rrevamping a long-neglected and critically important ddocument—Th e Olympic Charter, the Constitutional aand Bye-Law constitution of the IOC. Th is task took 9 years to bring to a conclusion; the Commission’s wwork was ratifi ed by the IOC General Session at iits meetings in Tokyo in 1990.1 Notable, too, was Worrall’sW role as a member of Richard Pound’s three personp team that successfully negotiated the Broadcast MarketM Agreement (BMA) with the United States OlympicO Committee (USOC) in March 1986. Th e BMA,B while granting the USOC 10% of the income fromf American television rights (currently 12.75%), preservedp 90% of the rights income for the IOC and itsi NOC and ISF family members, and this at a time whenw American television rights fees dwarfed those ofo the rest of the world combined. Th e retention ofo most of the American TV rights income for the IOCI proved a triumph, particularly in the face of an activea movement within the United States Congress 72

s to limit the IOC’s control of Olympic matters and its James Worrall is survived by his wife Birgitte, four t commensurate revenues from American sources.2 children, numerous grandchildren, and a grateful n

e nation whose global Olympic standing resides in good Th ough the visual and oral memories of James Worrall stead. James Worrall contributed magnifi cently to m and his life in the service of amateur sport and the that standing. Honor to his name! c e global Olympic movement will fade as each who knew n him pass from the scene, a more lasting legacy will By Robert K. Barney endure. In 2000 Worrall published his memoirs in o u the form of an autobiography entitled, My Olympic Notes n Journey: Sixty Years With Canadian Sport And Th e n Olympic Games.3 Pertinent to a Canadian institution

A that is now over one-hundred years old (COC), 1 As much as this Session provided a singular triumph for Worrall’s work stands alone as the single best record Worrall’s long Olympic association, a severe disappointment also & of a long and important era in Canadian sporting and occurred at the Session. Th e City of Toronto’s bid to host the 1996 s Olympic history. Beyond this, Worrall leaves another Centennial Olympic Games, an eff ort that Worrall was among the t lasting legacy. Embracing a packrat mentality, quite leaders in advancing, was defeated in favor of Atlanta. similar to that of Avery Brundage, Worrall saved copies of every letter to and from him, the minutes 2 For a thorough discussion of the genesis and outcome of e p o r of every meeting he attended, and other important the Broadcast Marketing Agreement, see Robert K. BARNEY, R documents of historical value. Th is corpus of material, Stephen R. WENN, and Scott G. MARTYN, Selling the Five some 44 archival boxes, was donated by Worrall to Rings: Th e International Olympic Committee and the Rise of Olympic the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the Commercialism, Revised Edition (Salt Lake City, Utah: University University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, of Utah Press, 2004), pp. 245- 256. where it is available for examination by scholars worldwide. Th e James Worrall Papers rank as one of 3 James WORRALL, My Olympic Journey: Sixty Years With the most important Olympic archival collections in Canadian Sport And Th e Olympic Games (Toronto: Canadian the world. Olympic Association, 2000).