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He also played hockey, first with a Charlottetown hockey team that won the Maritime Juvenile championship in 1966, then with the Saint Dunstan’s Saints. He participated in other track and field events as well, including the running broad jump, before choosing to specialize in short distance running. As a result of his many glorious accomplishments, Bill was inducted into the Prince Edward Island Sports Hall of Fame in 1971.īill’s involvement in sport was not limited to sprinting. at the Canadian Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, where he finished second in the 50 metre dash. Over the course of three Japanese meets, Bill took two gold, one silver and two bronze medals, and had one fourth place and one eighth place finish.ġ970 saw Bill become the first and only Island athlete to be invited to compete in the prestigious Telegram Invitational Meet in Toronto. He finished off his season with an appointment to the first Canadian Pan-Pacific Games team, which represented Canada in Japan. In this same year, Bill was also Eastern Canadian 100 metre champion, and came second in the 200 metre Canadian Championship. This win not only brought glory to P.E.I., but also served to silence those who laughed at the team from Canada’s smallest province, doubting their abilities due to their lack of proper training facilities. In 1969, Bill’s sports star continued to rise with a gold medal victory in the 100 yard dash at the first Canada Summer Games, held in Halifax-Dartmouth. Nevertheless, Bill received a hearty welcome when he returned home, and was named Sportsman of the Year for Prince Edward Island, a title he accepted with humility and grace. Only a week after his Moncton victory, Bill travelled to the Olympic trials in Toronto, hoping to fulfill his dream of becoming the first ever Island sprinter to compete at the Games. In the summer of 1968, he received widespread media attention when he first equalled the Maritime record for the 100 yards, with a time of 9.8 seconds at the Antigonish Highland Games, then bested this 28-year record, with a time of 9.5 seconds at the Atlantic Open Track and Field Championships in Moncton. This achievement was just a taste of what was yet to come.

In 1967, Bill broke his first record when he ran the 100 yard dash in 9.9 seconds at Charlottetown’s Labour Day meet, eclipsing the previous Island record of 10 seconds flat.

He rewrote almost every record book in the Maritimes, attended both national and international championships, and brought glory to his home province as a representative at the first ever Canada Summer Games. Bill MacKinnon of Charlottetown is undoubtedly one of the fastest runners ever to come out of Atlantic Canada.