John Hugh Gillis

John Hugh Gillis (January 2, 1884 – July 4, 1913) was the first person to walk across Canada, and became Canadian all-round champion of track and field, now called the decathlon.

A physical director of the Vancouver police, Gillis was famous as the "Western Giant". At Winnipeg 1909 he became Canadian all-round champion. He set a shotput record that stood for 34 years. He was just 42 points short in 7,000 of winning the North American all-round. A member of the 1912 Olympic team, he hoped to compete with Jim Thorpe but he had to read about it from a tuberculosis sanitorium. He died at North Sydney 4 July 1913 at age 29. In May 2006 this "transcontinental pedestrian," as he called himself, was inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame.

John Hugh Gillis was the son of cabinet maker Angus Hugh Gillis and his wife, Margaret Ann MacFarlane, who had moved from the Margaree Valley to North Sydney. After she died in 1904 Angus married again and moved to Glace Bay. John Hugh attended St. Francis Xavier College but dropped out after a year or two, probably for financial reasons because his father had a large family. Jack was well known through the Maritimes as an athlete and champion long distance runner. His Gillis family had come from the mainland opposite the Scottish Isle of Skye and their first language was Gaelic, which was the third most spoken European language in Canada at that time.

On a bet and a dare, on 31 January 1906 at the age of 22 he set out from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, with two others to walk to San Francisco and back within a year. They hiked on the railroad track, crossed central Maine in cold and blizzard and reached Montreal, Quebec. There they disagreed. Gillis, suffering from sore feet, went on alone towards Vancouver, British Columbia. Charles Jackman, retired from the Toronto lacrosse team, decided at Montreal to follow him. Jackman caught up with him near Ignace, Ontario. The two tall athletes, both 6 feet 4½ inches, walked 1800 miles (2700 km) together with many adventures and strode into Vancouver station to a waiting crowd at midnight 24 September 1906.

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