The greatest ball player Canada has ever produced and, indeed, one of this country’s finest all-round athletes, Ferguson Arthur Jenkins was born in Chatham, Ontario, on December 13, 1943. His mother’s family had come to Canada from the United States by way of the Underground Railway. His father’s family emigrated from Barbados.
At a time when pro ball was teeming with great pitchers – Sandy Koufax, Jim Palmer, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson – 6’5” Jenkins stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the best and towered above the rest. Jenkins’ love for sports was fueled by his father, who had earned an excellent reputation as an amateur boxer and semi-pro ball player.
In school, Jenkins excelled at all sports. Word of the young pitcher’s remarkable speed and control, not to mention his already impressive curveball, spread south to US major league scouts. Immediately after he graduated high school, Jenkins was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies.
In 1964, they traded first baseman John Herrnstein and the new kid, Fergie Jenkins, to the Chicago Cubs where manager Leo Durocher helped Fergie transform from reliever to starting pitcher early in 1967. A few months later, Jenkins was chosen to represent the Cubs at the all-star game in Anaheim, California, and proceeded to strike out six first-class sluggers, including Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, and Mickey Mantle. After seven more seasons with the Cubs – including a remarkable 1971 season that earned him a Cy Young Award as outstanding National League pitcher – Jenkins was traded to the Texas Rangers. He played his final two seasons before retirement back with the Cubs, retiring in the autumn of 1983, just a few months short of his 40th birthday.
In 1988, he returned to baseball as pitching coach for the Rangers’ triple-A farm team, the Oklahoma 89ers, then returned to his old stomping ground as the Cubs’ pitching coach for the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
Since then, Jenkins has devoted countless hours to charitable pursuits on both sides of the border. In the US, he has worked for years with the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association. In Canada, he launched the Ferguson Jenkins Charity Classic Golf Tournament in 1999 and followed it up a year later with the Fergie Jenkins Charitable Foundation.
His career statistics include 49 shutouts, 284 wins, and – demonstrating that he was nearly as gifted at the plate as he was on the mound – 13 home runs.
