Jack Portland

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexMale
Full nameJohn Frederick "Jack"•Portland
Used nameJack•Portland
Born30 July 1912 in Collingwood, Ontario (CAN)
Died15 August 1996 in Brockville, Ontario (CAN)
Measurements187 cm / 91 kg
AffiliationsCollingwood
NOC Canada

Biography

During the early 1930s Jack Portland was a rapidly rising star in Canadian amateur athletics. His breakout year was 1930, when he became the Canadian national schoolboy champion in the high jump and represented Canada in the event at the 1930 British Empire Games. Two years later, at the Canadian Olympic trials, he set a national high jump record with a height of 6 feet, 4 3/8 inches, and easily made the cut to represent his country at the 1932 Summer Olympics. He finished in a joint-ninth position in the high jump competition (compatriot Duncan McNaughton won the gold medal) and also competed in the triple jump event, where he did not rank.

Portland also played ice hockey and, as would happen with Syl Apps four years later, was drafted into the National Hockey League shortly after his Olympic experience. A defenseman with the Senior Ontario Hockey Association’s Collingwood Combines, he signed on with the Montreal Canadiens in 1933 on a two-year contract. Although he was originally considered a top prospect, his rookie season did not impress the fans enough and he was traded to the NHL’s Boston Bruins for the remainder of the 1934-1935 season. Until 1936 he spent most of his time with the team’s affiliated Boston Cubs, but by the 1936-1937 season he became a regular and exclusive member of the Bruin’s lineup. His biggest success came in 1939, when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup playoffs and Portland had his name engraved on the cup as a member of the squad. In the middle of the following season he was traded to the league’s Chicago Blackhawks who, after only 21 games, returned him to the Montreal Canadiens in 1940.

He stayed with the squad until 1943, at which point he joined the Canadian Army and served for the remainder of World War II, a stint that included his participation in the Invasion of Normandy. He returned to hockey in 1946 and spent the next three seasons in the American Hockey League with the Buffalo Bisons, Philadelphia Rockets, and Washington Lions before hanging up his skates for good in 1948. For many years after he coached junior and intermediate-level hockey in the Georgian Bay region of Ontario, Canada.

Personal Bests: HJ – 1.943 (1933); TJ – 13.61 (1931).

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1932 Summer Olympics Athletics CAN Jack Portland
High Jump, Men (Olympic) =9
Triple Jump, Men (Olympic) NM