With a name like Sterling, and blazing speed that earned him the moniker "Quicksilver", it was only natural that this former Argonaut running back would be standing on a podium collecting a medal of some sort.
For Sterling Hinds, a member of Canada's 4x100 metre relay team at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the medal was a bronze, and the event was the experience of a lifetime.
"I wouldn't change anything because the Olympics were very important to me," said Hinds, who had to forgo a tryout with the Dallas Cowboys in order to compete in the Games. "I had played football in the Coliseum before (with the University of Washington Huskies), but when I went out there (for the race), I realized the whole world was watching."
Hinds ran anchor on a team that included Ben Johnson (remember him?), Tony Sharpe and Desai Williams, and was paired against Carl Lewis in the backstretch. That's pretty heady company for a kid from Mississauga, but Hinds learned to deal with the spotlight after anchoring the Huskies backfield for four years, a period that included a couple of Rose Bowl appearances, including a win over Iowa in 1982.
"Once I got down there and played with them, I found out I could compete," said Hinds, who played against friend and former Argo lineman Chris Schultz in high school and again in college. "In college, (Schultz) was a defensive tackle (at the University of Arizona). The first time he tackled me, he called out my name, and I said to myself, 'who is this guy?' So I checked out the program and saw he was from Burlington."
Hinds and Schultz were almost teammates with the Cowboys and again with the Argos, but circumstances and bad luck prevented both from happening. While the Olympics got in the way of the Cowboys for Hinds, a serious knee injury limited his Argo playing time to only seven games over parts of 1984 and '85. Schultz joined the Argos in 1986, the year Hinds took time off to recover from his injury.
"I blocked a punt and scored a touchdown against Winnipeg the same day I got injured," said Hinds, whose CFL highlight and lowlight occurred in the same game. "They even gave me the game ball."
After a CFL comeback with Montreal fizzled in 1987 due to the team folding, Hinds turned his full-time attention to the real estate business in Toronto, where he has worked for ReMax for the past 11 years. Recently, Hinds has also been hard at work attempting to attain his Canadian Securities Commission (CSC) full investment license, including working on contract at 20 20 Funds Inc., in Oakville.
"I want to help athletes invest their money wisely," said Hinds, who has a wife Jackie and two-month-old daughter Chanelle. "A lot of them have trouble adjusting from the pro world to the normal world, so to speak."
This page, and all contents, are Copyright © 1996 by Toronto Argonauts Football Club, Toronto, Canada.