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Cpl. Brian Bambrick took part in the 1987 Canada Games, winning a silver medal in boxing. <\/p>\nIt was February in St. John\u2019s. The wind had been howling, piling snow towards windowsills and burying the roads.<\/p>\n
Cpl. Brian Bambrick took part in the 1987 Canada Games, winning a silver medal in boxing. <\/p>\n
Photo: Rich Blenkinsopp<\/p>\n
In Shea Heights, a 16-year-old boy waited and worried.<\/p>\n
He was supposed to get on a plane soon, and the roads weren\u2019t yet plowed.<\/p>\n
Eventually, as the wind and snow ebbed, Brian Bambrick and his teammates braved the snowbanks to reach a vehicle sent to fetch them.<\/p>\n
And they were off to the 1987 Canada Games in Sydney, N.S.<\/p>\n
N.L.\u2019s first boxing medals<\/p>\n
It was this type of fortitude, and training in all conditions, that helped Newfoundland and Labrador\u2019s boxing contingent earn its first Canada Games medals: one gold, three silver and four bronze.<\/p>\n
Cpl. Bambrick, who joined Memorial in 1998 and is now a supervisor with Campus Enforcement and Patrol (CEP) on the St. John\u2019s campus, brought home a silver.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expected to do well because of our training regime back then,\u201d he said. \u201cWe worked our butts off. It didn\u2019t matter if it was a blizzard \u2014 our coach said to get your ski mask on and your boots and you\u2019re running.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cpl. Bambrick lost out on the gold by a slim margin.<\/p>\n
He faced Ray Downey, Canada\u2019s top light middleweight boxer, in the gold medal fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe being the Newfoundlander and having no quit in me, we went the distance.\u201d \u2014 Cpl. Brian Bambrick<\/p>\n
The next year, Mr. Downey went on to win a bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first two guys that fought him quit in the first round,\u201d Cpl. Bambrick said. \u201cMe being the Newfoundlander and having no quit in me, we went the distance.\u201d<\/p>\n
He lost the fight on decision after the third and final round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only know one way to go and that\u2019s forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Boxing career<\/p>\n
And forward he went.<\/p>\n
After the Games, Cpl. Bambrick qualified for Team Canada, the first Newfoundlander to do so in boxing.<\/p>\n
He won a bronze medal in a competition in Finland and was 1-1 at the under-19 world championships in Cuba in 1987.<\/p>\n
He re-earned a spot on Team Canada again in 1996, returning from a broken femur, but didn\u2019t get to fight due to a lack of competitors in his weight class.<\/p>\n
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CEP officer Brian Bambrick says boxing taught him to be a good sportsman inside and outside of the ring. <\/p>\n
Photo: Rich Blenkinsopp<\/p>\n
In 2021, he was inducted into the Boxing N.L. Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
The Canada Games, Cpl. Bambrick says, was not only a \u201cbig thrill,\u201d but helped him mature quickly and taught him perseverance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a lot of discipline. I got a lot of tolerance, and with this job here, you got to have a lot of tolerance and patience,\u201d he said. \u201cIt taught me how to deal with people, to be good to people and listen to people.\u201d<\/p>\n
New perspective<\/p>\n
These skills, and the fitness earned from years of sport, helped him pull through the biggest fight of his life when he was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a rare and aggressive cancer, in 2009.<\/p>\n
He was declared cancer-free after five years of difficult treatments and the support of his wife, Shelly, and their children Brad, Brandon and Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were always taught to be a good sportsperson inside the ring, and you got to have the same character outside the ring.\u201d \u2014 Cpl. Brian Bambrick<\/p>\n
The life-threatening experience gave him a new perspective on life.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy outlook now is to be happy and surround yourself with positive people. But also, you got to be nice to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a philosophy that has its origins in the sport of his youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were always taught to be a good sportsperson inside the ring, and you got to have the same character outside the ring. Boxing taught me to be a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n