William MORTON

William “Doc” Morton began his competitive cycling career around the turn of the 20th century and gained recognition in the sport by winning the half-mile amateur handicap race at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in August 1901. As a member of the Queen City Bicycle Club, from 1902 through 1909 he won, according to one obituary, “every major race in Canada from half mile to 25 miles”. Perhaps his most notable tournament, however, was the 1908 Summer Olympics where he won a bronze medal in the Team Pursuit, 1,980 yards alongside Walt Andrews, Fred McCarthy, and Will Anderson. He also competed in four other events at the Games, but never left the opening round of any of them. He continued competing, on and off, through the 1910s, and eventually retired to found and run a bicycle shop in Toronto in the 1920s. He also served as a coach for the Canadian national cycling delegations to the 1928 and 1936 Summer Olympics and worked as a mechanic at local six-day races.