1928:

Thousands of cheering fans crowd the streets, the First National Juvenile Band plays “Hail the Conquering Hero”, and parade floats make the journey from the downtown C.P.R. station all the way to Brockton Point, as Percy Williams, the “World’s Fastest Human”, returns to “his own home town” of Vancouver.

“The crowd assembled from the C.P.R. station up Granville to Georgia was about the largest ever packed into that stretch of thoroughfare,” reports the Vancouver Daily Province. “It was a genuine, wholehearted reception. The demonstration affected spectators in the Fairfield Building to such an extent that they tore up the contents of waste paper baskets and sent the fluttering scraps out over the crowds as confetti.”

“This is the best of all,” the 20-year-old Williams beams, greeted by reporters, admirers, and old friends at the station. “I am glad to get back home[...] I have seen a lot of Europe but if you put it all beside Vancouver, I would choose Vancouver. ”

Williams, winner of two gold medals (for the 100 and 200m dash) at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, will go on to set a world record for speed in 1930, be made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and, in 1975, be declared the country’s all-time greatest Olympic Athelete by the Associated Press.

However, a thigh injury incurred while setting his world record will effectively end Williams’ running career at the age of 22. He will spend the rest of his life in Vancouver, living with his mother, and selling insurance, until committing suicide in 1982.

 

IMAGE: Percy Williams “World’s Fastest Human”, posing in front of an automobile donated to him, during celebrations at Brockton Point, circa Sept 14th, 1928. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.