Bill Oliver Bio
Bill Oliver
was born in Saint John, New Brunswick April 27, 1940. From his early
youth he has competed in most seasonal sports.
In 1957 he
had two different dreams concerning his future. 1) Should he join Mickey
Mantle, Yogi Berra and company and play professional baseball with the New York
Yankees? Or,
2) Play
left wing on a line with Jean Belliveau and Boom-Boom Geoffrion with the
Montreal Canadiens?
Tough
choices for a 17 year old sports minded lad who didn't pay attention to anything
academic.
A year later now a high school graduate - reality took over. In those
days, most graduates with good marks from his Saint Malachy's Memorial High
School from "well to do families" went off to St. Francis Xavier University located
in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Others with good marks but with limited family financial support enrolled at St. Thomas College
located in Chatham, New
Brunswick - now St. Thomas
University, Fredericton.
Most of the remainder joined the navy, army or air force.
Bill joined
the RCAF not for patriotic reasons. His motivation came from his West Side neighborhood, older guys who had "signed - up"
a few years earlier. They returned to Saint John on annual
leave usually between the hockey & ball seasons not with "war stories" but
rather "sports stories". Most of these
20 / 21 year olds had hockey or baseball jackets with high quality chenille
crests on the front and back: Gimli Indians; Greenwood Bombers; Rockcliffe
Flyers just to name a few. Their "yarns were well spun" and creative about the
many Inter-Unit; Station; and Command sports championships that were every day
events in the air force. The RCAF even had a trade called Recreation Specialist
who had the job of organizing all these sports competitions.
Although it
was not going to be Yankee Stadium or the Montreal Forum Bill did end up on
what many would consider a 37 year sports scholarship. His military career was Pre Bosnia;
and pre Afghanistan.
Life in uniform was good from 1958 to 1995.
Postings to
places like: St Jean, PQ; Aylmer, ON; Winnipeg; 4(F) Wing, Germany; Rockcliffe,
ON; Chibougamau, PQ; Uplands, ON; Penhold, AB; Kingston, ON; Golan Heights;
Royal Military College - 3 times;
Trenton, ON; and the Sinai in the Middle East provided many competitive
opportunities both professionally and in the sports arena. A special high-light
was the opportunity to experience working at the 1976 Montreal Olympics for a
three month period.
During his military
career he played, coached and officiated at the national championship level on
numerous occasions. He also coached and managed two different Canadian Forces
fastball teams at the international level - CISM. He was widely known as a
competitor who trained hard and played hard.
Never considered a super star on any of his many teams, rather, he was
more of a grinder that never gave up until the final whistle or the final out
in a ball game.
During his
RMC years he held three different full-time positions: Senior Physical
Education Recreation Instructor (Sr. PERI); Physical Education Officer (PEO);
and Director of Athletics. He also filled the position of Ontario University
Athletics (Men's Hockey) Convenor on two different occasions.
He was a
1991 recipient of the distinguished J.P.
Loosemore Award - Awarded to
an individual who exemplifies the best in university sport in terms of ethics,
integrity and honesty. The recipient is to be evaluated on his administrative
contribution to university sport; coaching expertise is not part of the criteria. This Ontario University Athletics award was
inaugurated in 1975 and during this 34 year history, Bill Oliver is the only
RMC staff member - to date - to be so recognized for this award.
Since 1996 Bill has served both the RMC Club and the RMC Foundation
in various positions. He was involved in sports attractions for eight years and
for the past five along with his wife of 50 years, Rolande, has been the editor
of the highly popular e-Veritas the electronic newsletter of the RMC Club of
Canada.
Looking
back to the 1957 and his teenage days, he often thinks how lucky he actually was to
wake up. The experience to play with Mickey; Yogi; Boom Boom & Big Jean
would have been something but not even close to the outstanding experience he
had in uniform serving his country for 37 years.
The real
bonus has been his post retirement Canadian Forces years.
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