Bobbie Rosenfeld

Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld (December 28, 1904 — November 14, 1969) was a Canadian athlete, who won a gold medal for the 400 metre relay and a silver medal for the 100 metre at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. She was called the "best Canadian female athlete of the half-century" and a star at basketball, hockey, softball, and tennis. She was named Canada's Female Athlete of the First Half-Century (1900–1950). She also was called Bobbie for her "bobbed" haircut. The Bobbie Rosenfeld Award is named in her honour. She was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

Early life

Rosenfeld, who was Jewish, was born in Ekaterinoslav in the Russian Empire (now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine). In 1904, Rosenfeld immigrated to Canada with her parents and older brother when she was still an infant; they settled in Barrie, Ontario. Her father Max Rosenfeld operated a junk business and her mother Sarah, who gave birth to three more girls, ran the home. Fanny attended Central School and Barrie Collegiate Institute, where she excelled in sports. In 1922, the Rosenfeld family moved to Toronto where Fanny worked at a chocolate factory in 1923. For leisure, she joined Toronto’s Young Women’s Hebrew Association (YWHA) and was a center for their basketball team. That year, they won both the Toronto and Ontario championships. Her legend would grow in 1923 at a picnic in Beaverton. She entered a 100-yard (91 m) dash and defeated the Canadian champion, Rosa Grosse. Later that year, she competed in a track meet at the Canadian National Exhibition.