Leave it to a long-time sport administrator to suggest that he had very little natural athletic ability - this, despite holding the Sudbury high school record in the mile for a full ten years.

Sure, Jim Dickson will always be remembered, first and foremost, for serving some twenty years as the Athletics Co-Ordinator for what is now the Rainbow School Board.

But his background was clearly littered with involvement in sports. The eldest of five children who grew up in Minnow Lake, Dickson suggests a vastly different backdrop existed, at the time, for athletically-minded youngsters.

"In those days, there wasn't organized sport, but we played something all year round," Dickson said. Add to this an environment without the electronic gadgetry that youth enjoy today, and there were compelling reasons to wander outdoors.

"At that time, houses weren't big and families were," Dickson said with a smile. "There wasn't a lot of room in the house, so you were always outside." Attending Sudbury High, the self-acknoweldged "late maturer" would pick up football and track & field in his senior years of secondary schooling.

With graduation upon him, Dickson had no clear picture of what lie ahead. "I can remember thinking, "I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm not going to be a teacher and I'm not coming back to Sudbury," he said.

A few years later, his batting average in reading the future was sitting at .000 (0/2), as Dickson and his wife Joyce, whom he met while attending Queen's University in Kingston, returned to his home base after a year in Hamilton.

Finding work initially at Lockerby Composite in 1962 before teaching at Lasalle, Dickson would take over the role with which he would become synonymous in 1974, replacing outgoing co-ordinator Alex MacPherson.

"Originally, there was a male and a female co-ordinator," Dickson explained. "Immediately after I took over, we had a physical education task force that was put in place. That was a big project and it changed a lot of things in Sudbury."

"We developped a cohesion between the male and female departments, the boys and girls physical education and athletics, that I don't think was present anywhere else," Dickson added.

To his credit, the Sudbury native had a vision of the path that should be paved for high school sports in the area. "I had lots of ideas and it took me a while to execute, but they got done," Dickson said.

"I remember that first year, writing down a list of about ten things and taking it to the first meeting of the department heads. I kept that sheet and ten years later, I think, I was stroking off the last item."

While the student population numbers were larger and there were fewer other options available to student athletes in the 1970's, some of the challenges that existed then remain firmly entrenched today.

"The athletic association was comprised of tons of volunteers," Dickson said. "These are volunteers that worked all day, did some coaching and then tried organizing in the hours that were left."

"Hence, the need for a co-ordinator, to support the people that are doing the job, to do the things that they can't do and to give them the tools to do the job," Dickson said.

He would remain true to his personality through retirement, immersing himself into the role of commodore at the Sudbury Canoe Club (SCC) almost immediately upon leaving the work force in 1994.

A paddler as a student in the 1950's, Dickson provided plenty of momentum in leading the SCC to establishing the now-popular summer tradition of the Sudbury Dragonboat Festival.

"I was attending a meeting on government funding when I came across a Chinese Heritage group that was looking to bring dragon boats here," Dickson said. Serving as technical co-ordinator for the races, he helped grow the festival from an organizational standpoint, stepping aside a few years back.

Now 75 years young, Dickson has slowed his pace, enjoying more family time. This is in stark contrast to the young man who ventured on to the Sacred Heart track back in 1955.

"In terms of individual accomplishments, when I set the record for the mile, I was trailing (future mayor) Jim Gordon by about 15 metres, but I had a good kick at the end," Dickson said.

"That record lasted for 10 years and was broken by a student of mine, Terry McKinty, and a classmate." You see, Jim Dickson was far more than just a sports administrator, though it was in that role that he excelled.