By Brenda McCafferty, LASA Archivist
A Look Back at Calgary’s 1988 Winter Olympics and Calgary Athletes
Aside from the seemingly mundane duties of civil litigation and criminal law, lawyers commonly shoulder a wide range of social, political, and economic responsibilities deemed essential to a developing community. Positions on boards of trade and booster organizations are, for some practitioners, as much a part of the profession as are depositions and statements of claim. Many Calgary lawyers have shown leadership through their involvement in sport development.[i]
Athletic pursuits bear all the same hallmarks of a good practitioner. Organized sports encourage teamwork, diligence, perseverance, and self-discipline. Sportsmanship, respecting opponents, honouring fair practise, proper conduct, abiding by the rules of the game, and managing victory or defeat with grace, are the defining characteristics of both athletes and lawyers.
Calgary Booster Club History
Sharing the rich history and achievements of the Calgary Booster Club, an organization that has proudly supported amateur sport for 75 years[ii]
In 1951, eleven Calgary businessmen gathered at the Club Café to form a sports organization dedicated to the development and encouragement of athletic excellence. By 1952, the Calgary Booster Club became a reality, and since they have provided in excess of two million in funding to thousands of athletes, teams, and organizations, supporting training, competition, and recognition programs.
Art Smith, (nicknamed “Mr. Calgary”) was the son of the famous Calgary lawyer and politician A.L. Smith, K.C. Art Smith was a founder of the Booster Club and remained President until 1961, when he stepped down and was named an Honourary Life Director. In 2000, he was inducted into the Booster Club Honor Roll for his lasting contributions to sport development in Calgary.
One of the Booster Club’s greatest milestones was securing the bid for the 1988 Winter Olympics, led by Booster Club Directors Frank King, Bob Niven, Bill Neild, and Bill Warren. IOC President Juan Samaranch later called it the best Winter Olympics ever, thanks to the dedicated volunteers who made it happen.[iii]
1988 Winter Olympic Games
Calgary’s successful 1988 Winter Olympics gave several prominent Alberta lawyers key organizational roles. Frances Seville was chair of the venue committee, and Bill Warren was an executive committee member of Calgary’s Olympic Organizing Committee. Warren also acted as president of the Canadian Olympic Development Association, and in 1994 his long involvement in the Olympic movement was recognized when he was named as Canada’s chef de mission for the Lillehammer Winter Olympics. The Bill Warren Training Centre for Nordic Skiers at Canmore recognizes his significant contribution to winter sports in Canada.[iv]
Bill Warren K.C.
Bill Warren, K.C. was born in Lacombe, Alberta on March 24, 1939. His parents moved to Calgary when he was seven years old and graduated from Crescent Heights High School.
Warren had a deep involvement in the administrative side of athletics and recreation. He became the President of the Calgary Booster Club, then Chair of Calgary Parks and Recreation and the Calgary Olympic Development Association. Directorships followed with the 1988 Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee, the Saddledome Foundation, and on the Executive Committee of the Pan American Society for the 1999 Winnipeg Pan Am Games. He became President of the Canadian Olympic Association in 1994.
The naming of the Bill Warren Training Centre in Canmore, Alberta in 1994 is indicative of the esteem the athletic community holds for Bill Warren. It follows a long list of honours in both his professional life as a lawyer and in his avocational life as a sports builder. He is a King’s Counsel, has an Alberta Achievement Award, a 125th Anniversary Commemorative Medal of Canada’s Confederation, and is an Honorary Life Director of Bobsleigh Canada, Calgary Olympic Development Association, and the Calgary Booster Club.[v]
Doug Mitchell at LASA’s 2002 Calgary Dinner
Doug Mitchell, K.C.
(1939-1922)
Doug Mitchell is a native Calgarian who played minor hockey in the Buffalo Athletic Association and the Calgary Community Association. He graduated from Crescent Heights High School, where he played football. Doug attended Colorado College on a hockey scholarship, graduated with a B.A. in Business Administration, and played football. He then went to Law School at the University of British Columbia, where he received an LLB. Mitchell also played football both for UBC and in the CFL for the B.C. Lions, while attending law school.
Retiring from sports, Doug Mitchell joined the Calgary firm of Howard, Mackie. In 1980, he was named to the board of governors of the NHL. He then switched sports management roles in 1984 to become commissioner of the Canadian Football League – a post he held until 1989. A member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, Mitchell also spent several years as a commentator for radio broadcasts of Calgary Stampeder football games. He was an investor in the Stampeders, and was closely associated with Canadian Interuniversity Sport, especially the promotion of CIS football programs. He retired as a regional managing partner of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.[i]
Doug joined the Calgary Booster Club in 1966. A summary of his lifetime achievements are as follows:
- Co-owner of the Calgary Stampeder Football Club, and a member of the Owners Executive Committee.
- Inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.
- Recipient of the 2004 Distinguished Service Award in the category of Service to the Community awarded by the Law Society of Alberta and the Canadian Bar Association, Alberta Branch.
- Appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2004. Three years later, he was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence.
- In 2005, three Centennial Medals were presented to Doug for sport and economic development in Alberta.
Joseph Kryczka (1935-1991), a long-time amateur hockey player, coach, referee, and executive who later went on to be a QB Justice, was also involved in Calgary’s Olympic bid. Kryczka’s most significant moment in hockey history was his central role as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in negotiating the terms of the 1972 hockey series between Canada and the USSR. In many respects, the crucial moment in Canadian sports history when Paul Henderson scored his famous goal was dependent upon the efforts of an Alberta lawyer born in Coleman and practicing law in Calgary.
Peter Lougheed #30 – seated in the first row at far right
University of Alberta law school roommates Peter Lougheed and Ken Moore both played football for the Golden Bears before playing several seasons in the CFL for the Eskimos and Stampeders. Moore later went on to become a director of the Stampeders and sat on the boards of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede, and the Calgary Golf and Country Club. The Right Honourable Peter Lougheed had a distinguished career as Premier of Alberta from 1971 – 1985. The Honourable W. Kenneth Moore went on to serve as Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, 1984 -2000.
Another Calgary lawyer who played professional football was Greg Peterson, who played with the Stampeders from 1983-92. He was part of the team that won a Grey Cup in 1992. Peterson was selected All-Canadian and Western Division All Star during his professional career. Bill Britton, former chair of Bennett Jones LLP, played for seven years in the CFL for the B.C. Lions and Calgary Stampeders.
and a member of the Canadian Professional Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Jim Gladstone (1942–2015)
Calf roper Jim Gladstone was a three-time Canadian champion (1969, 1971, 1973) and was honoured for his rodeo achievements in 2000 when he was inducted into the Canadian Professional Rodeo Hall of Fame. He began competing in high school rodeos in 1954 and turned professional in 1962. Starting out in calf roping he was also a cow milking and steer wrestling competitor and is credited with a championship in both events from the first nations circuit. In 1977, Jim Gladstone won the World Calf Roping Championship and set a record in this event by completing ten roping’s in a time of 119.7 seconds. Gladstone was the first Canadian to win the world title and only the eighth Canadian to ever win a global championship.
Gladstone also came from famous stock. His grandfather James Gladstone was appointed by then Prime Minister John Diefenbaker as the first aboriginal senator in Canada and assisted the PM in enfranchising Canada’s Indigenous people with citizenship, voting and other rights.
The Olympics have given opportunities for a number of Calgary lawyer-athletes to make their mark:
Philip Kueber won a silver medal in rowing at the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia (XVI Olympiad). It was Canada’s first rowing medal and came as a huge surprise in the country with little prior success in this hugely demanding sport. The 1956 Olympic medal represented the start of a great era in Canadian rowing. Today Canadians are recognized worldwide for their training and ability.
Fran Huck practiced law in Calgary for many years. Huck was one of the greatest junior hockey players ever to play for the Regina Pats before joining Canada’s national team for the 1966 world championships. He won a bronze medal at that championship and then again in 1967, and in 1968 at the Grenoble Olympics. He also played professional hockey for a number of teams including the Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets, and the Minnesota Fighting Saints before retiring in 1978. His best-known case was hockey related; he represented Sheldon Kennedy in his lawsuit against Graham James, a coach who had sexually abused Kennedy when he played junior hockey.
following Las Vegas boxing match, 1985[Vii]
Willie de Wit surprised many Canadians by winning the silver medal in heavyweight boxing at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games. De Wit medaled at the Commonwealth Games in 1982 and won the World Amateur Championships in 1983 and 1984. He also won the Canadian heavyweight championship as a professional boxer in 1986 before retiring to take up the practice of law in Calgary. Today, de Wit is a distinguished Justice of the Alberta Court of King’s Bench.
Ingrid Liepa competed for Canada in speed skating at the 1994 Lillehammer and in the1998 Nagano Winer Games. Liepa was a two-time Olympian and three-time Canadian all-round champion.
LASA’s Calgary Historical Dinner, October 23, 2002
The theme of LASA’s 2002 historical dinner was “Lawyers in Sport”. LASA was fortunate to borrow and feature many athlete uniforms, medals, photographs, and other relics loaned by the many famous athletes in attendance.
[i] From Jonathan S. Swainger, ‘Ideology, Social Capital, and Entrepreneurship: Lawyers and Business, 1900-1920’
[ii] From: https://calgaryboosterclub.com/2023/01/31/historical-moment-calgary-booster-club-appreciation-night/ [accessed December 2025}
[iii] https://calgaryboosterclub.com/2023/01/31/historical-moment-calgary-booster-club-appreciation-night/
[iv] LASA October 23, 2002, Calgary Historical Dinner exhibit “Lawyers in Sport”
[v] https://calgaryboosterclub.com/recognition/sportsperson-of-the-year/bill-warren-1999-sportsperson-of-the-year/
[Vi] LASA October 23, 2002, Calgary Historical Dinner exhibit “Lawyers in Sport”
[Vii] Donation from Milt Harradence, LASA fonds 115-00-00
