A private individual but an outstanding athlete, Harry Kermode was a member of the 1948 Canadian Olympic Basketball team that finished ninth at those Games. At a young age, his interests were found in soccer but, while working towards a Forestry Engineering degree from the University of British Columbia, he spent several years on the school’s basketball team, a tenure that was interrupted by his training in the Canadian Air Force during World War II. In the 1945-1946 season, the team went 28-6 in the regular season, a record that heralds the team as one of the best sport teams in the University’s history even 60 years later, and took the Pacific Northwest Collegiate Conference Championships, with a 9-1 record. Their subsequent exhibition tour, which included a victory over the Harlem Globetrotters, helped raise money to construct the UBC War Memorial Gym. It was his participation as a top scorer on the 1947-1948 team, however, that earned him (as well his team) a spot in the Olympic Games. On the court, he was characterized as a high-scorer and a crowd favorite. After the Olympic Games he began a life-long career in forestry, and also took up golf and tennis, the latter as both a player and a coach. As part of the 1945-46 UBC Thunderbirds, he was inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 1984 and as part of the 1947-48 team, he was inducted into the University of British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.
Canada