Bill McConnell was born and raised in the north end of Hamilton, Ontario and joined the nearby Leander Rowing Club in his youth. He was working as a tool and die maker with the Steel Company of Canada (later known as Stelco) when in 1948, he was a member of the club’s delegation that competed at London in the Olympic coxed eights, relying on funds from various fundraisers to make the trip in absence of government sponsorship. Returning home after the Olympics to Hamilton, he joined the Hamilton Fire Department, in which he remained for about a decade before returning to Stelco as a shift foreman, where he remained until his sudden death in 1985.
Canada