1937 track member John McCormick passes away at 92

The last remaining member of the New Glasgow High School track team from 1937 passed away last week. John McCormick was 92.
While he had spent much of his adult life away from Pictou County serving in the military, McCormick is still remembered locally for his contributions to the 1937 team that did what seemed impossible and won the Canadian junior track and field championship.
The team won eight first places, six seconds and one third to earn a total of 69 points and prove they were the best track team in Canada that year.
For his part, McCormick won second in the 100-yard and 220-yard dashes and was a member of the relay team that set a record in the one-mile relay with a time of 3 minutes 50 and 1/5 seconds.
His sister Ann McGee, 90, still lives in New Glasgow and remembers her brother was always a strong athlete whether he played tennis, squash or track.
"He just was always very athletic," she said.
As his only sibling, she said she couldn't compare with him.
"I did my part, but I didn't do anything excellent," she said.
McCormick did though, she says. The track teams' victory was unusual and drew a lot of attention.
"That was tremendous for a team like that to go out to Calgary and to win all over Canada," she said. "They were all comparatively young and they were all good athletes."
McCormick had been born and raised in New Glasgow and in high school was coached by Harold Smith, a man who predicted a year ahead that his boys could and would win the Canadian Championship.
He started training them indoors in March that year and they spent long hours preparing for the Acadia relays, which would be their stepping stone to the nationals in Calgary.
They did what they were trained to do and swept away their provincial competition. In Calgary they would prove they could do it again and actually had more points there than they did at Acadia.
For its victory, the team was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Pictou County Sports Heritage Hall of Fame in 1991.
After graduation, McCormick studied at St. Francis Xavier University, McGee said. Then he joined the army and from there became a member of the Royal Canadian Navy where he was a lieutenant commander.
He also went to Dalhousie where he helped found and became president of the first football?league the college was part of. Anse MacDonald who lives in New Glasgow, worked as a yardsman when the sport started there and met McCormick several times.
The first football game was held on Oct. 4, 1947, MacDonald said.
"That was the start of it," he said.
When McCormick retired, he moved to California and since 1986 he had lived in The Villages, Florida, where until recently, he was actively involved as a member of the W.F.S. tennis group.
Since his passing, McGee said she's been reminded by friends about all her brother did. There's a lot she didn't really remember, she said.
"Of course I knew living with him, but I wasn't that interested then," she said. "He was always involved in sports."
He'll be remembered for that.