Toots Meretsky played basketball at Windsor’s Assumption College, where he was a member of the Five Fighting Freshman team that won a Michigan-Ontario title and an Ontario Senior title. Meretsky then joined the Ford V-8s that won the Canadian Senior Men’s Championship in 1936, for which they were chosen to represent Canada at the Berlin Olympics. In 1938 he moved to British Columbia and was a player-coach for Port Alberni, which made the finals of the BC Championships in 1940 and 1941. In 1941 he returned to Windsor and managed the Meretsky Furniture Store for many years. He was later inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, and the Windsor/Essex County Sports Hall of Fame. Meretsky later related that he did not receive his Olympic silver medal for 63 years. By his report, only eight medals were available for the Canadians, and it was not until 1996, on the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Games, that his family contacted the IOC, who had a silver medal cast from the original mold.
Canada