Canadian athletics community mourns the loss of coach Hugh Cameron

On Oct. 20, the Canadian running community lost a legendary distance running coach with the passing of Hugh Cameron. He was 80.

He is survived by his wife of 53 years Nancy, three sons Mark, Rob and Paul and five grandchildren.

Born in Lethbridge, Alta., in 1943, Cameron became a highly recognized and decorated coach, having acted as head coach of the Brooks Marathon Project, Athletics Toronto Track Club and the Etobicoke Huskies in the 80s and 90s before founding the Newmarket Huskies Track Club in 2004, which still stands today. 

Throughout his nearly 50-year coaching career, Cameron achieved remarkable milestones, such as being named Canadian marathon coach for the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and the 2009 World Championships in Berlin and for teams involved in various international competitions in Japan, Italy, Venezuela and Germany. He coached all levels of running, from recreational runners to Olympic athletes, until his final days.

All that mattered to Cameron was their commitment to the training required to be the best athlete they could be. Many referred to him as a mentor and companion and described him as selfless individual whose legacy is a higher standard for coaching in our sport.

Some of Cameron’s notable former athletes are two-time Canadian marathon champion Mike Dyon and his brother, Paul, former national 5,000m champion and athletics coach Dave Reid, former Canadian marathon record holder Silvia Ruegger (who died in 2019), 2020 1,500m Olympian Natalia Allen, four-time NCAA track and XC champion Sheila Reid and many more.

David Edge earned the silver medal for Canada at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, running a personal best of 2:11:08. He struggles to find adequate words to describe the relationship he had with Cameron: “I came from England, and when you were in a race, you were in a race not to hold hands, but to win,” says Edge, who also finished sixth at the 1983 Boston Marathon. “That didn’t go over too well in Toronto. I wasn’t the most liked athlete, but Hugh dealt with it. He guided me. In simpler terms, I owe so much to Hugh Cameron.”

Edge also represented Canada at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, along with Ruegger, who finished eighth in the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon. Ruegger’s performance still stands as the best performance by a Canadian woman in the Olympic marathon, and it was a national record; she went on to break her own national marathon record, running 2:28:36 at the 1985 Houston Marathon (which she won), which stood for 28 years.

Although Ruegger and Edge were internationally associated with Cameron, his first successful marathoner was Dyon, who, in his debut at the 1977 National Capital Marathon in Ottawa, emerged victorious with a time of 2:18:05. Dyon eventually won Ottawa three times, lowered his personal best to 2:14:28 and would finish ninth in the 1982 Commonwealth Games for Canada.

“I was really the guinea pig, because we did a 28-mile run three weeks before Ottawa on hills along Weston road,” Dyon remembers. “We didn’t know any better. He said ‘Let’s just practice.’ I think we ran 2:34 or so for the marathon, and he said ‘You are ready.’”

Among the athletes closest to Cameron was (Dave) Reid, who remembers taking public transit to an Etobicoke Huskies workout one September night in 1975. Being a shy 12-year-old, he watched the group from a distance, then got on the bus and went home. When his father asked if he would return for the next session, he reluctantly agreed. From there, the pair would forge an incredible relationship, strengthened further when the Cameron family moved into the same neighbourhood. 

Reid would go on to set a Canadian interscholastic 1,500m record of 3:45.78 when he was in high school. Under Cameron’s tutelage, he continued to improve, representing Canada at three world cross-country championships as well as the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki. In 1987, Reid set a Canadian senior 1,500m record of 3:37.84.

“He was coach of the Canadian team for the 1982 world cross country championships in Rome when I was a junior,” Reid recounts. “He had gone to every single athlete’s family and asked them to write letters to the athletes, so they could open them up every day when they were in Rome. It was so they would feel comfortable and relaxed. Who does that?”

Reid would spend lots of time with Cameron’s family, because of their close proximity. And when Reid hung up his racing shoes, he got his start in coaching, alongside Cameron.

A service to commemorate Cameron’s life will be held on Nov. 18 at 4 p.m. at Northwest Barrie United Church, in Barrie, Ont. In lieu of flowers,  the family requests donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Society or an organization close to your heart in Cameron’s honour. You can donate here.

Reminiscences

From Caileigh Glenn: I was one of Hugh Cameron’s first Newmarket Huskies in 2004, and remained one of his athletes through 2017. Hugh coached me to become the Canadian Youth 800m Champion in 2008, and one of the Canadian U20 and U18 4x800m relay record holders pictured in the first picture of your article (I’m the athlete on the far right, bib 269.)

Coach Hugh would often say we were in the business of “serious fun.” We could work hard to achieve big goals while enjoying the process. He emphasized three key factors to success: physical, mental and emotional control and readiness. Combined, these lead to “that special moment” where a runner’s performance becomes career-making and record-breaking.

His approach to coaching gave agency and authority to the athlete, no matter their age or experience. I’m sure each of his athletes remembers their first one-on-one meeting with Coach Hugh; even at 11 years old, Coach Hugh had me set my own goals and make the decision to commit to training for them. His business-like approach was possibly drawn from his career working in human relations, or maybe it was part of his personality; whatever the cause, Coach Hugh empowered his athletes to have a lifelong love of running, and created the building blocks of a Huskie running community that now extends far beyond Newmarket, Ont.

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If you would like to share a few words on Cameron to be added to this piece, please reach out to us via email (info@runningmagazine.ca).

With thanks for additional reporting by Paul Gains