Athletic Lives of Distinction - M - Z
M - R
Mitchell, Bruce ’64 - Golf
Looking back at his athletic career at Ridley, for Bruce, it’s the relationships, not the results, which stand out. He fondly recalls co-captaining the second football team with Don Nichols and remembers taking up squash in Grade 11—not because he excelled, but because Coach Jack Aylott made such an impression on him.
Though Bruce was an instructor-level skier by the time he reached university, he had yet to settle on his true sporting passion: golf. And the results are impressive. Bruce’s greatest memory is winning the Queen Victoria Jubilee Vase in 2001 at the storied St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland. The gruelling play began with 256 competitors, playing eight times over six days. He can still remember every shot from that final round, and the emotions that overpowered him at the end when, mentally and physically drained, he claimed the victory.
Of all the lessons sport has afforded him over the years, Bruce counts resilience as the most important. With a positive attitude and a willingness to keep trying, he believes anything is possible. More than just a successful golfer, Bruce is a devoted steward of the game, serving in leadership roles and executive positions with the Toronto Golf Club, Windemere Golf and Country Club, and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, where, in 2017-18, he served as the first-ever Canadian Captain of the Club.
“We need to be able to learn how to accept defeat, stand up, try again (and again) and eventually you will succeed and you will win.”
P.O. Box 3013, 2 Ridley Road St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 7C3 Canada 905 684 1889
With more than 700 students from 60 countries, the largest boarding programme in Ontario and the third largest in Canada, Ridley College is a truly international, co-educational, day and boarding school of the world that prepares students for the world. It has provided enriching learning and life-shaping experiences focused on the arts, academics, and athletics since 1889. Ridley’s Lower School offers JK-Grade 8, its Upper School consists of Grade 9-PG, and Ridley graduates attend some of the top universities and colleges around the world. Ridley is the only co-ed independent boarding school in Canada and one of only three in North America authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) continuum programme.
