Doug Fox unexpectedly ended up in the job that would define his 35-year career in athletics. The Don Mills native came to Etobicoke out of teacher’s college when Humber College recruited him as athletic director in 1979. “I was looking at becoming a teacher as my first priority, and it just happened that the athletic director at Humber was looking for a coach,” Fox recalled from the sideline of a recent soccer game at Humber’s north campus. “He contacted U of T and found out I had played five years (of varsity basketball). The coach at U of T gave him my number and said, you should hire this guy. So I had nothing to do with it.”
Fox coached the Hawks’ men’s basketball team in 1978 and was hired on full-time the following year to run the newly created Humber Athletic Centre. By the time Fox retired in August 2013, Humber fielded 20 varsity teams and boasted state-of-the-art facilities and training programs that continue to attract top calibre athletes to Etobicoke.
Though he taught seven years in Humber’s leadership program, the bulk of Fox’s career was spent in administration, where his strong vision and admirable work ethic – 16-hour days were the norm – helped turned Humber into a top destination for student-athletes. Fox relished the challenge of working with athletes and developing the college’s nascent athletic program. “I definitely found the right calling for myself,” he said.
Under Fox’s leadership, the Humber Hawks broke nearly every team and individual record. During the 2011/12 season, the Hawks earned 18 team and individual provincial gold medals, and last year Humber took home 13 team and individual provincial golds and three national Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) titles. Over the past three seasons, 13 Humber players have been named Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) Player of the Year, and players from the golf, badminton and volleyball varsity teams represented Canada at the World University Games.
Fox came by his love of sport early. Playing basketball and road hockey with his older brothers, he was always matched against older and bigger opponents. “It made it a challenge every game,” he said. “It certainly made me work harder and learn a lot quicker.” He played volleyball, soccer and basketball in high school, continuing on the court at the University of Toronto, where he became the Varsity Blues’ basketball athlete of the decade for the 1970s.
When he first got to Humber, Fox inherited a small program focused on recreational and intermural sports. He set out to turn Humber into an intercollegiate force to be reckoned with – one sport at a time. “It was a hockey school,” with some skiing and badminton programs, Fox recalled. He introduced the college’s first basketball program, which experienced some growing pains. “We were not very good for the first few years,” he said. “It took me about four or five years to build it up to the point where we were at a provincial level championship calibre.”
To boost the school’s profile, Fox opened up Humber’s gymnasiums and facilities for high school and club championships, opening players’ and coaches’ eyes to what was happening at the college. “As we built our basketball program, we became known as a basketball school, then we built our volleyball program, so sport by sport, we built it up,” Fox said. Aligning with top coaches and associations like Ontario Volleyball and Ontario Badminton allowed Humber to show top club players what is available for them at the college, he explained.
Having the Canadian national basketball teams practice at the college for years brought professional players like Steve Nash to campus, and Humber’s reputation as an elite sports school grew. “It’s been a long process over a period of time, making sure you do things well,” said Fox. “You host a lot of elite events, and pretty soon you’re known as a sports school. Now, our coaches don’t have to recruit that hard. The kids just want to come.”
Fox donned his hard hat and oversaw two major additions to the north campus athletic facilities and outdoor fields, and left the college with $10 million to invest in new fields and facilities for Humber’s Lakeshore campus. “You have to support good programs withgood facilities,” said Fox, who said he enjoyed seeing his vision come to life during the renovations. “It’s neat going through the building process,” he said. “I would say we haveworld-class varsity program facilities” with individual team rooms, therapy rooms, a high-performance training centre and an academic centre to help student-athletes stay on top of their studies.
At times, Fox was a friend, teacher, and, when needed, disciplinarian for the thousands ofathletes who passed through the program under his guidance. Athletes he coached and mentored across the decades stay in touch with him and return to thank him for being a good influence on their careers and lives. “You want to make sure that your players develop character and make sure they become good people,” Fox said. “We work very hard to make sure that athletes treat other people with respect, that they get the whole idea of relationships over winning. It takes a long period of time to see the end result – sometimes I don’t even see it until after they graduate and come back to say ‘thanks for being tough on me, and pushing me to be a better person.’ Those are the rewarding parts. You make a significant difference when you help people grow.”
Fox is past president of both the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association and the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association. He worked to standardize nationwide eligibility and academic rules, and successfully implemented the five-year eligibility rule. “We spent a lot of time in my era making sure each league had the same rules,” he said. “It took a long time. You have to be unbiased and make sure you’re doing what’s best for thestudent-athletes.”
Running an athletic centre takes an inordinate amount of time, and Fox gave credit to his “tremendous” wife, Stephanie, for picking up the slack at home while he devoted his energy to the college. “She recognized how important this was to me and gave me a lot ofspace to do it,” he said. Fox would rush from Humber to coach his son’s high school basketball team and attend his daughter’s swim meets, before heading back to work. “I always found time to make sure I prioritized my family, but it was very difficult. This jobis very demanding,” he said.
Having passed the baton to the next wave of leaders – and having been firmly ensconced among other sporting luminaries in the Humber Varsity Hall of Fame – Fox can look with satisfaction at what he helped build. “The facilities are great, but even more importantly, I think we built up what is recognized as an elite program. Our reputation is very strong for what we do – not just the winning and losing, but how we operate, how we do things,” he said.
“We always run good events and put tremendous effort into things. We have a tremendously dedicated staff. Our reputation as an elite school is something I’m very proud of,” Fox continued. “The relationships I have developed with the staff and coaches will stay with me forever, just as the athletes and the memories they have provided me with by way of their success and commitment to the Hawk family.”
Even in retirement, Fox won’t be far from the school and sports he loves. He became an advisor for Humber’s golf and curling teams, having previously coached the former. Fox looks forward to continued growth for the elite golf program, which has sent three players to the Canadian Professional Golfers’ Association. “I love all our coaches, and I’m going to come back and watch our games, and continue to support our teams,” Fox said. “But that’s not work – that’s pleasure.”