Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
"He was the ultimate professional. He had a great appreciation of the language... He had the passions of a fan, but he never permitted that to show in his copy." - Milt Dunnell, Canadian Press NewsWire, April 2, 2001
"Patience is a commodity a figure skater must possess in immense quantities if he hopes to survive at the highest competitive level - patience to live through the hours and days and weeks of repetitious practice, patience to await one's turn in the spotlight and the patience to persevere during the development of one's skills." - Jim Proudfoot, "Skating" magazine, February 1968
The son of Elsie May (Kennedy) and James Garrett Proudfoot, James Alan 'Jim' Proudfoot was born in 1933 in Kearney, Ontario. His father hailed from nearby Burk's Falls; his mother from Magnetawan. His grandfather was a doctor and his parents were followers of the United Church. Jim and his younger brother Dan began their education in a two-room schoolhouse with their father, who was a school-teacher. After graduating from Burk's Falls High School, Jim attended the University Of Toronto.
Photo courtesy University Of Toronto Archives
Jim's passion for sports journalism began when he was a student at the University of Toronto, working as the assistant sports editor for "The Varsity" newspaper. At the same time, he was just beginning his forty-nine year career at the "Toronto Star". Over the years, he covered everything from hockey and baseball to Super Bowls, Grey Cups and the Summer and Winter Olympics as the newspaper's sport editor. Though best remembered for his coverage of team sports, Jim's coverage of figure skating was ahead of its time.
Jim began writing about figure skating in an era when the sport was still often relegated to the 'society' pages. He covered the careers of a who's who of Canadian figure skating, including Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul, Donald Jackson, Maria and Otto Jelinek, Petra Burka, Karen Magnussen, Sandra and Val Bezic, Toller Cranston, Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini, Brian Orser, Elizabeth Manley, Kurt Browning, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler and Elvis Stojko. A 1978 article in "The Canadian Champion" recalled how he proved a jinx for the Jelinek's. Whenever he was in attendance covering one of their competitions, they faltered. It got to the point that he tried not to look at them when they performed. When the sibling duo competed at the 1962 World Championships in Prague, he finally "gave way to temptation and took a peek at them on the ice. The second he did that, Maria fell." The Jelinek's, as we all know, won the gold medal that year anyway.
In one memorable column, Jim celebrated the impact of Barbara Ann Scott. He wrote, "Are you acquainted with a woman, Canadian-born and in her 40s, called Barbara Ann? Bet you are. And the reason is that in 1947 and '48, infants from coast to coast were being named after Barbara Ann Scott. Which tells you how popular she was after winning the global figure skating championship one winter and adding an Olympic title the next. Popular? That doesn't begin to explain. There was hardly a person in this country who didn't either worship her or have a crush on her. Next thing you knew, parents everywhere were buying skates for their daughters and the boom was on. Now Canada is numbered among the world's foremost nations in skating. Year after year, many of the best competitors anywhere are ours. And the whole thing began with Barbara Ann."
Cam Cole and Jim Proudfoot. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
Jim wrote about the elimination of school figures, The Battle Of The Brian's and the scandal surrounding Tonya Harding and the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer. He penned articles for the "Toronto Star" about countless Canadian, North American and World Championships and was a contributor to both "Skating" and "The Canadian Skater" magazines. The final major figure skating event he covered was the 1997 World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
Jim was a colourful character who earned the nickname 'Chester', after a character from the television show "Gunsmoke". He had a habit of hitchhiking from one sporting event to another. His predecessor as sports editor of the "Toronto Star", Milt Dunnell, recalled in 1998, "He must have travelled a zillion miles in pursuit of sports yarns, combined with a bit of luxury living at the expense of ye olde Toronto Star, but he never drove a kilometer of that distance himself; never got stuck in a car deal, either, because he never had one." Though perceived by some as a gruff character, he was no Grinch. He was the driving force behind the "Toronto Star" Santa Fund and Proudfoot Corner. The Corner funded thousands of gift boxes for underprivileged Toronto children, each containing a hat, shirt, pair of socks, pair of mittens, book, toy and candy.
Peter and David Heffering presenting Jim Proudfoot with a cheque for the Santa Claus Fund. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
For his contribution to the Canadian skating world, Jim was honoured with a CFSA Award Of Merit in 1974. In 1998, he was presented with the Sports Media Canada Achievement Award by IOC Vice-President Dick Pound. In his acceptance speech, he quipped, "I often think an award like this becomes inevitable once a person goes through four decades without screwing up, but I deeply appreciate the award and I do feel very, very honoured."
Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
Jim retired from the "Toronto Star" in 1999. He passed away at the age of sixty-seven on April Fool's Day, 2001, from complications of a stroke he suffered a year prior. He was inducted posthumously into the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame in 2008. At the time of his death, colleague Dave Perkins recalled, "He was an invaluable historian of the Toronto sporting scene, a human computer for names and dates. Yet he understood good columns are not strings of statistics and such. His real strength was in reproducing colour, in retelling the anecdotes, and he had a professional's touch for dryly creeping up on a punch line. And for every anecdote he told, he inspired another."
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