The late Howard Darwin, pictured at the Ottawa Civic Centre, was honoured with the Mayor’s Cup at the 57th Annual Ottawa Sports Awards.
He was a man of few words, but his passion and labour spoke for him.
An Ottawa sports legend, the late Howrd Darwin was recently honoured for his long list of contributions to athletics, both professional and amateur, which have shaped the city’s current sports architecture.
At the 57th Annual Ottawa Sports Awards, held Jan. 20 at Algonquin College, Darwin was awarded the Mayor’s Cup for outstanding involvement in Ottawa sport. This is the first time a recipient has been honoured posthumously.
Darwin, who lived much of his life in Centretown, passed away last October from complications following coronary surgery at the age of 78.
“It is a real honour for our family because he’s being remembered,” says Jeff Darwin, Howard’s 47-year-old son. “Particularly in later years when he was less active in Ottawa sport, there wasn’t much said or told about him,”
Regarded as the founding father of both the Ottawa 67s and the Ottawa Lynx, Darwin’s involvement extended beyond the city’s junior hockey team and then-professional baseball team.
Instrumental in the construction of the Civic Centre, the layout of the ballpark on Coventry Road, and his personal favourite, the building of Ottawa Stadium, his greatest passion lied with a smaller endeavour.
Before the popularity of Ultimate Fighting Championship spread across the country, Darwin wholeheartedly championed a boxing and wrestling program in Ottawa.
In the late 1940s, he fought in more than 30 amateur matches at the Beaver Boxing Club, which is a hub for amateur boxing with more than 250 members.
In his early 20s, Darwin stepped out of the ring to referee fights, promote matches and manage fighters.
Later, he met and became good friends with Joe Louis, a famed heavyweight boxing champion.
According to Jeff, boxing was Darwin’s first love.
In 1966, he almost delivered a real knock-out event to Ottawa residents: a Muhammad Ali-Ernie Terrell fight across the river in Hull. The plan fell through at the last minute and the fight moved to Toronto.
“The scene in Ottawa is more vibrant because of him and we in the sports community are very thankful for that,” says Doug Scorrar, chair of the Ottawa Sports Awards.
“He was a very generous man, and we need more generous men and women to support the Ottawa community.”
Scorrar is referring to Darwin’s charity in the sports community. He frequently donated time, money and tickets to the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club, a youth program that allowed Darwin’s legacy to take root.
Before receiving support from the club, Darwin grew up on Nicholas Street, a then-impoverished area overlooking the city’s Rideau Canal.
Due to several circumstances – his mother died of cancer, his father absent and his older brothers away at war – he put on an entrepreneurial face, determined to make a name for himself. Jeff says that Darwin credited his affinity to sport to keeping him out of trouble as a young man.
By 14, Darwin was selling 1,000 downtown newspapers a day and earning more than $50 a week.
Ten years later, he opened a jewelry store on Wellington Street. The store, which closed in 1991, would become a hub of decision-making where Darwin and his fellow business partners would change the face of Ottawa sports forever.
“At the time, you had all of the hockey teams, hockey players and they always ended up at the back of the store visiting,” says Connie Darwin, Howard’s wife for 55 years.
“We had a very exciting life. You never knew what was going to happen next.”
In 1999, Darwin was ranked Ottawa’s No. 7 sports figure of the 20th century by the Ottawa Citizen, just behind legendary NHLer Steve Yzerman.
Although Howard considered this one of his greatest accomplishments, Connie says she is most proud of his foremost job – being a tremendous husband and loving father to four children.