Joe Griffiths and Orvald Gratias
- A-1094
- Item
- 1930
Joe Griffiths, coach of the track and field team, and Orvald Gratias, captain of the team, stand outside a tent.
Bio/Historical Note: Orvald Arthur Gratias, a native of Kinistino, Saskatchewan, enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan (BSc ‘28; MSc ‘30) in 1925. During his five years on campus he competed in basketball, football and track & field. He excelled in discus and hammer throw and was captain of the track & field team in 1930. In 1928, the Sheaf named him Saskatchewan's most versatile athlete. Joe Griffiths later described Gratias as one of the greatest all-around athletes to wear the green and white. He received a Major Athletic Award in 1930. Gratias was president of the University Athletic Directorate and went on to be a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, studying particle physics. Gratias parlayed an MBA into a second career as a research analyst with the Montreal blue-chip firm MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier, specializing in market movements. Gratias died on 23 July 1996 in Ottawa at age 87.