Remembering Lethbridge sports icon Jim Whitelaw

Lethbridge recently lost a legendary figure in the city’s high school sports scene.

Jim Whitelaw, former basketball and football coach for the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute (LCI) Rams, passed away at the age of 92 on July 28. On Thursday, he was being remembered fondly by his fellow Rams.

“You mention that name and kids know it,” Joey Shackleford, who played for and coached with Whitelaw, said. “Every person that’s ever coached here knows it.”

To remember his legacy, all students and teachers at the school have to do is look around them. A list of sports championships written on the gym’s wall seems never-ending.

“To pump out the amount of championships that coach Whitelaw did in two sports – it’s unparalleled,” University of Lethbridge  women’s basketball coach Dave Adams, who played under Whitelaw in high school, said. “In the knowledge base that I have for people that I’ve come across in my lifetime. I haven’t seen anyone else do it.”

Whitelaw is remembered by former colleagues and players as always prepared, extremely dedicated and able to get the best out of his athletes.

“He pushed kids hard,” Shackleford said. “He did it because he knew a lot of the times you had it in you…you may not believe in yourself, but he believed in you and eventually he got you onto his side.”

Whitelaw came to LCI in 1951 and subsequently named the boy’s athletic program the Rams. Success was immediate – he led the school’s basketball and football programs to a number of southern Alberta and provincial titles. His success was recognized at the provincial level in 2013, when he was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.

Even when Whitelaw retired, the lessons didn’t stop. Adams said he can recall his old high school coach still keeping an eye on him when he was coaching the University of Lethbridge men’s basketball team.

“Coach Whitelaw would come to the games, he’d sit right at mid-court,” Adams said. “I knew that come Monday, there was going to be a phone call and a conversation about all the things that the lads needed to do better.”

Stories like this are ones you here from many of Whitelaw’s friends. Shackleford said he often got phone calls from Whitelaw when he was coaching the LCI boys basketball team.

“The phone rings after a 20-point win over Cardston and it’s coach Whitelaw,” Shackleford said. “I told him, ‘We won 79-59, boys played really well.’ The last question he would always ask me was, ‘What could you have done better?’ Over time I realized exactly what he meant. He knew teams could improve all the time.”

Shackleford said the advice wasn’t overbearing, it was done out of love –  Whitelaw helped others because he cared.

“He was a bit of a hero of mine,” Shackleford said with tears on his face. “He’s a man that I’ll miss very much.”

So when you look at the LCI Rams logo; remember the man behind it. Jim Whitelaw.