McGill University Athletics

Harry Ercel Griffiths was born in Montreal on July 16, 1910 and graduated from McGill with a commerce degree in 1933. He starred with the varsity swim and diving club, winning consecutive intercollegiate diving titles in 1931-32 and 1932-33 and capturing the Canadian Amateur Swimming Association’s three-metre diving championship.
 

Griffiths also played on the hockey and football teams and helped lead McGill to victories over the Canadian and American Olympic hockey squads, just prior to the 1932 Lake Placid Games.

He later served as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division in World War II and rose to the rank of major. In 1954, Principal Cyril James offered him a professorship in physical education and two years later, Griffiths took over from Vic Obeck as director of athletics. He served 20 years in that position before retiring and being replaced by Bob Dubeau.

In 1977, Griffiths received the J.P. Loosemoore Award, presented to an administrator for ethics, integrity and honesty in addition to contribution to university sport. He died in Montreal on May 21, 1993.