David Griffin

David Francis Griffin (May 13, 1905 – February 18, 1944) was a Canadian athlete and journalist. He represented Canada in the 1,500-metre event at the 1928 Summer Olympics, had a personal best time of 4:02, and was the national champion in 1927 and 1929. He won the indoor race twice in three years at the 91st Highlanders Athletic Association meet, setting a record time of 2:19, and shared a national record in the indoor medley relay with the Hamilton Olympic Club. Beginning his running career coached by Bobby Kerr at the YMCA in Hamilton, Griffin also represented Canada in the 1930 British Empire Games, and the Tailteann Games, the British Army Games, and the Scottish Games.

Starting in journalism as a press agent for his track and field club, Griffin later worked on the editorial staffs for the Hamilton Spectator, the Windsor Star, and the Toronto Star, and wrote for the Sudbury Star. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1942, was promoted to the rank of flying officer, and handled RCAF public relations. Deployed to the Aleutian Islands, he provided the Canadian press with its limited information on RCAF operations in Alaska. Subsequently transferring to RCAF Eastern Air Command, he reported on events in Atlantic Canada and the Arctic, and died in a plane crash near CFB Goose Bay. His posthumously published book, First Steps to Tokyo, detailed Canadian and American joint efforts against the Empire of Japan culminating in the Battle of Kiska.

Early life and family David Francis Griffin was born on May 13, 1905, in Hamilton, Ontario. His parents, Francis Joseph and Alice Griffin, were Irish Canadians.

Athletics career Hamilton YMCA While attending high school, Griffin ran international indoor track and field events at the distance, and was a teammate of Philip Granville and coached by Bobby Kerr at the Hamilton YMCA. In 1923, Griffin ran the Newmarket-to-Toronto relay race, and the four-mile Guelph relay races. In 1924, he placed third in both the and races of the Ontario indoor championships, and placed second in the race at the Ontario YMCA championships.

At the 1925 Ontario indoor championships, Griffin placed third in the 1,000 yd race, when the Hamilton YMCA track and field club won its third consecutive provincial indoor championship. Griffin also competed in , and races during the indoor season. In April 1925, he was elected president of the Hamilton YMCA track and field club for one year. He won the race at the 1925 Caledonian Games in Hamilton, and represented the Hamilton YMCA in the and races at the Ontario outdoor track and field championships.

Named captain of the Hamilton YMCA track and field club in March 1926, He ran the third leg of both the and relay races won by his team at the Broadview Indoor Carnival. The event was the first time in which the Hamilton YMCA placed ahead of the Toronto Varsity Blues.

Hamilton Olympic Club 1926 to 1928 Griffin joined the Hamilton Olympic Club (HOC) in July 1926, coached by Captain J. R. Cornelius. At the 1926 Ontario track and field championships organized by the HOC Griffin placed third in the race. At the 1926 Canadian track and field championships in Fort William, Ontario, he competed in the finals and placed second in the event. In the same season, he won the invitational race at the Hamilton Police Service athletic games, and was one of four HOC athletes who competed in the inaugural Ontario decathlon championships.

At the 1927 Ontario indoor championships, Griffin placed third in the event. At the national outdoor track and field championships and Olympic trials in 1927, Griffin won the race by , which was reported as an upset at the time, and earning a medal from the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada as the Canadian champion. He ran the race at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) athletics meet later in the season, winning another national event and receiving a bronze trophy from the Canadian National Railway.

In relay racing in the season, Griffin ran the first leg for the HOC which set a national record time of 8:15.4 in the race. He later ran the sixth of ten legs for a HOC victory in the CNE relay event.

In the 1928 indoor track season, Griffin ran in the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Athletic Club indoor meet at Madison Square Garden, and ran the final leg of the international relay where his team placed third. At the 91st Highlanders Athletic Association meet, he won the in a record time of 2:19. He also won the race, and ran in the medley relay also won by the HOC.

Trying longer distances, Griffin placed second in the event at a Toronto road race. His HOC team placed first in the race at the Ontario relay championships, and he placed third in the race at the Ontario track and field championships. Early in 1928, he also competed in the event at the United States interscholastic track and field championships at Haverford College.

1928 Summer Olympics

Griffin placed third in the race of the Olympic trials hosted in Hamilton, and was chosen to represent Canada in the 1,500-metre event at the 1928 Summer Olympics. The Mail and Empire criticized the number of athletes on the Olympic team from Hamilton, noting that selection committee chairman Melville Marks Robinson, was a journalism colleague of Griffin. The choice of Griffin was defended by him meeting the Olympic standard of 4:09 for , since he had a personal best time of 4:02. He was eliminated from Olympics during the preliminary race, and had withdrawn from the steeplechase in favour of the event.

After the Olympics, Griffin participated in the races at the Tailteann Games in Ireland, the British Army Games in England, and the Scottish Games in Glasgow. Canadian athletes also participated in events at Paris and London, and sailed home aboard SS Doric, after winning the Wyoming Cup as a team in Scotland.

1929 to 1930 At the Canadian indoor championships, runners in the race ran an extra lap due to a mistake by event officials. Griffin was leading the race until the extra lap, when he was passed and placed second. He also ran the final leg of the medley relay won by the HOC. At the club championships for indoor track and field, Griffin was leading the race and on pace for a track record, when he fell on the final lap and did not finish.

Griffin was one of two people named to the HOC executive in 1929, to represent the athletes. He won the race at the Canadian championships, then missed several events after being injured in an automobile accident. A month later when HOC had a meet versus a combined team from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, Griffin ran the race but finished poorly after keeping pace for the first half. He competed in the event at the Ontario track and field championships, but placed out of the medals. In the 1930 indoor season, Griffin won the race for the second time in three years at the 91st Highlanders Athletics Association meet.

Later career Griffin competed for Canada in the race at the 1930 British Empire Games in Hamilton as a Toronto Central YMCA athlete. Later in the same season, he placed second in the race at the Royal Canadian Legion track and field meet, but collapsed after leading in the steeplechase event at the Canadian track and field championships. After the completing the indoor track and field season with the Toronto Central YMCA, he attempted a comeback with the HOC in 1931. His final race was a third-place finish at a HOC event in 1932.

Journalism career

In 1924, Griffin was named a press agent of the Hamilton YMCA track and field club. He began in journalism with the Hamilton Spectator, where he was on the reporting staff as of 1926, and a colleague of Melville Marks Robinson and Ivan Miller. Griffin was the newspaper's reporter for track and field events in which he participated.

As the assistant city editor of the Toronto Star, Griffin's colleagues knew him as a "story teller", and referred to him as "lucky" since "no matter what happened, he seemed to come out on top". biographical pieces, politics, and the Government of Canada. When the House of Commons of Canada debated the need for a Ministry of Amateur Sport, Griffin wrote an op-ed on selection of athletes by Canadian Olympic Committee and its president, P. J. Mulqueen.

Military service and death Griffin enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) special reserve on November 12, 1942. Griffin provided the Canadian press with its limited information on RCAF operations in Alaska. He subsequently transferred to RCAF Eastern Air Command based in Halifax, reporting on events in Atlantic Canada and the Arctic. The plane carrying him crashed attempting to land at CFB Goose Bay in foggy conditions. Griffin's body was recovered by a dog sled team of the United States Air Force, and taken to CFB Goose Bay for burial in a flag-draped casket by the survivors of the crash.

In November 1946, Griffin was one of 18 Toronto journalists commemorated on a plaque at the Toronto Press Club for those who died during the Second World War. He was also one of 27 Canadians listed in a Second World War book of honour at the London Press Club, commemorating British Empire journalists. His name appears on page 322 of the Canadian Second World War Book of Remembrance. In 1942, he was vice-president of the Ulster Assistance Association in Toronto, to benefit servicemen in Belfast. He was married to Margaret Lenore Griffin . They were wed approximately 18 months upon his death. He wrote from Iceland to his wife shortly before the fatal flight, about gifts he was bringing home from Europe to her. He had at least two brothers who also served in the military.