Johnny Fitzpatrick

Johnny Fitzpatrick had a remarkable life which saw him compete at the Olympics for Canada, serve with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, work as an engineer for Shell, and become a noted inventor. Fitzpatrick studied engineering at the University of Toronto where he was also part of the intercollegiate team. He was an excellent sprinter. representing the Hamilton Olympic Club in the late 1920s and earning himself a place at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. At the Games he finished fifth in the 200 metres, reached the semi-finals in the 100 metres, and ran in the final of the 4 × 100 metres relay. Two years later Fitzpatrick won three medals at the 1930 British Empire Games in Hamilton, Canada, with gold in the 4 × 110 yards relay (with Jim Brown, Ralph Adams, and the non-Olympian Leigh Miller), silver in the 220 yards, and bronze in the 100 yards. The same year also saw him become the Canadian champion in the 200 metres.

From 1929 to 1932 Fitzpatrick was a key member of the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, with them wining the Yates Cup in 1932. With the intercollegiate track championship team he won ten medals, including seven golds. He later had a brief stint with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police before moving on to join Shell as a researcher in diesel engines. By the 1960s he was employed by the Ministry of Highways in Ontario where he became the deputy chief of their equipment section. In the late 1960s he invented the Fitzpatrick Dome, a large structure used to store road sand and salt for use in winter conditions. It became so successful that more than 200 of the domes were constructed in Ontario between 1968 and 1978.

Personal Bests: 100 – 10.6 (1930); 200 – 21.7e (1928).