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Bobbie
Rosenfeld
This web exhibit has been made possible through the generosity of Harry Stern, Zelda R. Stern and the Harry Stern Family Foundation.
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During the workday Canadian Olympic medalist
Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld was a stenographer in a
Toronto chocolate factory. It was only on evenings
and weekends that she had time to resume her role
as the "world's best girl athlete." On any given
day she could be seen winning softball games before
crowds of thousands, breaking national and
international track records or leading an ice
hockey or basketball team to a league championship.
Was there any sport Rosenfeld couldn't conquer? As
one author remarked, "The most efficient way to
summarize Bobbie Rosenfeld's career... is to say
that she was not good at swimming."
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Born in 1904, Rosenfeld was known for
her wise
cracks as well as for her sportsmanship.
Although famous as an all-around athlete, she
gained the international spotlight with her
achievements in track, bursting onto the scene at
the 1923 Canadian National Exhibition.
By 1928 Rosenfeld was traveling to
the
Amsterdam Olympics
for what she termed her "greatest victory." There,
the small Canadian women's track team, celebrated
by the press as "the matchless six," swept the
events. With a gold medal for the 400 meter relay,
a silver for the 100 meter, and a fifth place in
the 800 meter, Rosenfeld scored more points for her
country than any other athlete at the Games, male
or female.
One year later, her career ground to a halt. Struck
with severe arthritis, Rosenfeld was bedridden for
months and afterwards confined
to crutches.
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In 1931 she recovered sufficiently to star on
championship softball and ice hockey teams again,
but a second attack in 1933 forced her to retire
permanently from athletics.
Rosenfeld then moved to coaching track and softball
and into the field of sports writing. Her column
"Sports Reel" began its twenty year run in the
Toronto Globe and Mail in 1937. First as an athlete
and then as a writer, Rosenfeld helped topple
traditional barriers against women’s
participation in sports.
Rosenfeld was honored nationally in 1950 when a
press poll of sportswriters voted her Canada’s
Female Athlete of the Half-Century. She was among
the first to be inducted into Canada’s Sports
Hall of Fame, and her legend has carried on long
past her death at the age of 65 in 1969. With the
recent appearance of her portrait on a Canadian
postage stamp, the tributes to her continue
today.
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How to Cite This Page
For a bibliography:
Jewish Women's Archive. "JWA - Bobbie Rosenfeld - Biography." <http://jwa.org/exhibits/wov/rosenfeld/index.html>.
For a footnote:
Jewish Women's Archive, "JWA - Bobbie Rosenfeld - Biography," <http://jwa.org/exhibits/wov/rosenfeld/index.html>.
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