John Percy Page (May 14, 1887 – March 2, 1973) was a Canadian

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

coach, provincial

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

, and the eighth Lieutenant Governor of Alberta.

Early life and education

Born in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

, the son of Absalom Bell Page and Elizabeth Thomas, he moved with his family in 1890 to Bronte, Ontario. He attended Oakville Junior High School, Hamilton Collegiate Institute, Ontario

Normal School A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

, and Queen's University. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree from Queen's University, and a Bachelor of Commercial Science degree from the American Institute of Business. In 1906, he accepted a teaching position at Rothesay Collegiate in

Rothesay, New Brunswick Rothesay () is a town located in Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada. It is adjacent to the City of Saint John along the Kennebecasis River. Geography Located along the lower Kennebecasis River valley, Rothesay borders the city of Saint John ...

. In 1907, he switched to the St. Thomas Collegiate Institute where he taught until 1912. In 1910 J. Percy Page married Maude Roche, daughter of Gilbert Roche, of St. Thomas, Ontario. They had one daughter: Patricia Hollingsworth. In 1912 Percy took a position in

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anch ...

to introduce commercial training into the Edmonton high school system. Before retiring from teaching in 1952, he would be a Principal at two Edmonton high schools.

Coaches Edmonton Grads

While at the McDougall Commercial High School in 1914-15 he was the coach of the senior girls'

team. He continued to coach the same girls after graduation on a team that became known as '' The Edmonton Grads''. The team under his tutorship would become one of the most successful teams of all time in sport, winning 502 of 522 games, for a winning percentage of .961, and winning all 27 Olympic matches
they played in the Summer Olympics, Olympics in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort to assassinate Emperor Hiro ...

and

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

. However, women's basketball was not an official Olympic sport until 1976. In 1955, he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as a basketball builder.

Political career

In the 1940 Alberta election, he was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from sin ...

in the

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

electoral district as a member of the

Independent Citizen's Association The Alberta Unity Movement, also known as the Independent Movement and later the Independent Citizen's Association, the People's League, was a political movement and lobby group in Alberta, Canada formed in 1937 in an attempt to unite the oppositi ...

, an anti-Social-Credit alliance of Conservatives, Liberals and others, of which he was a leading member. He was re-elected in

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

. From 1945 to 1948, he was the Leader of the Opposition. He was defeated in 1948, but was elected in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

as a Progressive Conservative. In 1952, he was appointed House Leader for the Progressive Conservatives. He was re-elected in 1955. He lost re-election in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

. From 1957 to 1959, he was also a trustee of the Edmonton Public School Board. In 1959, he was appointed

Lieutenant Governor of Alberta The lieutenant governor of Alberta () is the viceregal representative in Alberta of the . The lieutenant governor is appointed in the same manner as the other provincial viceroys in Canada and is similarly tasked with carrying out most of the m ...

and served until 1966.

Honours

In 1961, he was made a Knight of Grace of the

Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of c ...

. In 1961, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...

. The J. Percy Page School in Edmonton is named in his honour.

References

External links

John Percy Page
at ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

''
FrozenHoops.com
History of basketball in Canada {{DEFAULTSORT:Page, John Percy 1887 births 1973 deaths Independent Alberta MLAs Leaders of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs American emigrants to Canada Canadian basketball coaches Knights of Grace of the Order of St John Lieutenant Governors of Alberta Heads of schools in Canada Queen's University at Kingston alumni People from Oakville, Ontario Politicians from Rochester, New York Basketball people from Alberta