LONDON, Ont. - You say you haven’t seen anyone bleed purple before? Well then, you don’t know Jack.
Painful puns aside, if you are affiliated with The University of Western Ontario in any way and aren’t familiar with the name Jack Fairs then you’ve probably been living under a rock.
The man is a living legend, having coached a variety of Western sports teams for 60 consecutive years. And, like a good wine, he seems to be getting better with age, as this February the Fairs-coached men’s squash team was able to capture its 25th consecutive OUA squash championship.
Even more recently, on March 25, Fairs was honoured by Western at its annual athletic banquet with an award to be presented annually in his name. Fittingly, Fairs was then named the first recipient of the "Jack Fairs Coach of the Year" award, and was presented the award by Larry Haylor, the winningest coach in CIS football history.
But if you ask Fairs, it seems as if all the success he’s endured while coaching basketball, football, baseball, tennis and squash has been barely due to his own abilities.
Humble as the day he was born, Fairs credits essentially all of his success to the players he has at his disposal over his coaching years.
“You’ve got to have talent,” he says. “Coaches obviously do have to develop talent and get players to play up to their potential, but if you don’t have talent, you’re not going to be successful.”
While this statement rings true, it understates the impact Fairs has undoubtedly had on the many athletes he has coached, and is also quite typical of his generous and gracious demeanour.
Fairs is a coach who demands respect from his players and peers not so much through intimidation and unabashed intensity, but through hard work and a passion for sport that would be difficult to find a match for anywhere on this planet.
His road to coaching had some twists and turns along the way, but Fairs insists he knew he always wanted to be a coach.
“I graduated from Western with a degree in Honours Chemistry because there was no physical education school in Canada,” he says. “When I found out they were going to start up a Physical Education program at Western in (19)47-48, I went to Columbia University for a Master’s Degree in Physical Education, and came back to Western to be the first professor in the program.”
While at Columbia, Fairs learned a lot about coaching by sitting in on practices for the men’s basketball team at the neighbouring school, City College of New York. They were, at the time, one of the top teams in college basketball, going on to win an NCAA title in 1950.
Fairs then fondly remembers the day he was offered his first coaching job by Western’s John Metras.
“When I was offered a job by Metras it was the best thing that ever happened to me, that I was going to have a chance to do what I wanted to do. I couldn’t believe it,” Fairs says.
He was able to take the expertise he had gained at Columbia and apply it to teaching and coaching at Western, growing the program, and in turn shaping the foundation of Canadian coaching for years to come.
Fairs mentions that some of his most fulfilling moments came from the initiation of the physical education program at Western, where he was able to “make a terrific impact on secondary school coaching and physical education” in Canada.
Although stats don’t really do justice in presenting an image of Fairs as the dynamic individual he is, they do help serve as a background to his illustrious career.
His 25 consecutive titles are part of the 35 total OUA team squash titles he has won over the years, making squash among Western’s most celebrated sports in the university’s history. He has also guided many teams to success in U.S. intercollegiate competition, and two of his OUA champion teams even captured gold in the U.S. college circuit, in 1977 and in 1980.
Along with this, he has coached a number of athletes who have gone on to great success outside of university sport. This includes Canadian Squash Association Hall of Famer Phil Mohtadi, who is also a three-time Canadian Open champion, and Scott Dulmage, who won the U.S. national hardball championship in 1988.
In the earlier sports he coached, Fairs was highly successful too, guiding Western’s football and basketball teams to numerous OUA and CIS championships as an assistant coach through the late 1940s and ?50s. He also coached the men’s tennis team to its first Senior Intercollegiate championship in 1958.
Fairs has also received numerous individual awards and honours for coaching while at Western (see list below).
When Canada officially designated 1989-90 as the Year of the Coach, Fairs received various awards including the Dedicated Coaching Service Award of Squash Canada, the 2M Coaching Canada Award and the Canadian Football League (CFL) medallion and Coaching Achievement Certificate in recognition of his work.
In 1997, Fairs received what he calls “one of his most tremendous honours” when he was presented with a National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association Lifetime Achievement Award in Princeton, New Jersey.
“It was such an honour because it was the first one that was given,” he recalls. “And it’s really neat, when you think about it, that they gave it to a Canadian... it was really flattering, a complete surprise to me.”
Fairs can be credited for the years of behind-the-scenes work he does in his coaching. Especially with the squash team competing against top U.S. colleges, Fairs has had to compete against the relative lack of facilities, funding and assistance available at Canadian schools. He not only coaches, but has a hand in taking care of every minute detail with the men’s squash team, including getting his players out of tests and exams and organizing travel schedules.
The fact that he takes on so many roles with the teams he has coached makes his 60-year run that much more of an achievement. Not only because it makes the job more draining but because recently it’s taken more work in intercollegiate squash to stay at the top.
“There’s an ongoing escalation of the input that you’ve got to put forth today to remain competitive,” Fairs says. “Everybody seems to be getting faster and weight training now; it makes things tougher than they used to be.”
But despite all the challenges he has faced through the years, Fairs has stuck it out, and with mind-blowing results to boot. Al this while coaches south of the border, whose achievements in coaching just don’t compare to his, have it easier in their respective programs.
So, how has Fairs managed to coach for 60 years at the same school without growing complacent, and with such unprecedented success?
“I think the answer to it is the same old story: you’re doing something that you really like to do and you really enjoy what you’re doing,” says Fairs. “Western’s just a place where people get to feel very much at home and very pleased that they’re an integral part of it.”
Western is truly lucky to have you, Jack.
A Glance at the Coaching Honours of Jack Fairs
- 1979 Distinguished Service Award of the Canadian Squash Racquets Association;
- the 1984 Special Achievement Award of Squash Ontario;
- the 1986 Distinguished Service Award of Squash Canada for outstanding contributions to the Promotion and Development of Squash in Canada as a Coach;
- the 1991 Sportsman of the Year Award for the City of London;
- the 1993 Special Citation of Squash Canada for contributions to the hardball game; and
- the 2008 Jack Fairs Coach of the Year recipient.
*click the photo icon on the bottom right to view a gallery of Fairs
