Canada’s representative on the 1936 Olympic Basketball Rules Committee, Julius Goldman suggested the elimination of the basketball rule that called for a “jump ball” after every field goal. The 1936 games marked basketball’s first appearance in the Olympics. The Rules Committee agreed with Goldman (the lone objecting vote was that of basketball creator Dr. James Naismith), and the game was forever changed.
American-born and primarily Canadian-educated, Goldman captained the Windsor Fords team that won Canada’s 1935–36 national championship, qualifying them to represent Canada in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. However, Goldman’s U.S. citizenship made him ineligible to play for another country, so he was made an assistant coach and appointed Canada’s representative to the Olympic Basketball Rules Committee.
The Canadian Basketball team won a silver medal.
Named the top student athlete at W. D. Lowe Secondary School (formerly Windsor-Walkerville) and a legendary college player and coach at Detroit Institute of Technology, “Goldie” was elected to the Windsor- Essex County Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
An electrical engineer with a master’s in business engineering and member of “Mensa,” Goldman designed and developed the 155-millimeter howitzer anti-tank shell during World War II that allowed the Allied Forces to turn the 1944 tide against Germany’s “invincible” Tiger tanks.
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