Fred Thomas
Fred Thomas was born in Windsor on Boxing Day, 1923, as the second oldest of eight children. He attended J.C. Patterson Collegiate Institute, where he competed in several sports, including track and field and basketball. Thomas’ skills as a basketball player earned his high school the All-Ontario Basketball Title after a victory over the Ottawa Glebe Collegiate.[1]
On February 23, 1945, at Kennedy Collegiate, Thomas led his Assumption College team to a sensational 49-45 victory over the Harlem Globetrotters. During his four-year basketball career at Assumption, he scored 2,059 points between 1945-49, and to this day, he is the only Assumption College or University of Windsor player to score 2,000 points. Thomas played professional basketball with both the Harlem Globetrotters and the Toronto Tri-Bells, the Canadian Senior Men’s Basketball Champions. A 1950 Canadian Press pool to determine Canada’s best basketball player placed Thomas in second.
In 1948, Thomas began his baseball career as a right-fielder for the Wilkes-Barre Barons, a minor league affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Over a year after Jackie Robinson broke the MLB colourbarrier, Thomas became the first black player to see the field in the professional Eastern League.[2]Thomas also played for the Ontario Intercounty Baseball League, where he was awarded an IBL MVP award. With the Kitchener Panthers, he won the 1951 league batting championship with a .383 average.
Thomas played fastball for both the Windsor Jets and the Toronto Beaches. He christened Windsor’s Dayus Stadium by hitting the first home runover the fence, one that was thrown by well-known pitcher Art West.[3]
Adding to his multisport achievements, Thomas even had a brief period as a professional football player with the Toronto Argonauts in 1949.
After his athletic career, Thomas became a high school teacher in Toronto. He passed away on May 20, 1981, at the age of 57. He was one of the original inductees into the University of Windsor Alumni Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, was inducted into the Afro-American Hall of Fame in 1994 and was inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995.
Fred Thomas’ remarkable athletic achievements throughout multiple sports contributeto the rich legacy of African-Canadian sports in Southwestern Ontario.
Researched and written by Devon Fraser, University of Windsor student.