Howard “Howie” Jackson

Howie Jackson is one of the most outstanding natural athletes who ever lived in the Bridgetown area and in the province of Nova Scotia. During his years as a student at Bridgetown Regional High School Howie was an integral member of many outstanding teams and Nova Scotia Headmasters High School Champions. Those sports included Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball and Track and Field. Though he achieved success in all those disciplines it was in Track and Field that he excelled.

At the 1962 Royal Canadian Legion Juvenile Track and Field Championships in Waterloo, Ontario, Howie won the Canadian Juvenile Championship and set a Canadian Record in the Hop, Step and Jump (Triple Jump) with a jump of 46 feet, 2 ½ inches. At the 1963 British Empire Games Trials in Halifax, Howie won the Hop, Step and Jump and Broad Jump (Long Jump) and finished second in the 100 Yard Dash to qualify for the All Canada British Empire Games trials in Toronto.

Later in 1963, at the Nova Scotia Age Class Championships, Howie Jackson broke the Nova Scotia Native and Open Record in the Hop, Step and Jump with a distance of 47 feet, 2 ½ inches.. This broke the Nova Scotia record that had been held since 1908 by Olympian
Dr. Garfield MacDonald of New Glasgow.

In 1964, returning to competition after a lengthy illness, Howie set a Canadian Interscholastic Record for the second time at the Yarmouth, Digby, Annapolis Counties Interscholastic Zone Meet in the Hop, Step and Jump (Triple Jump) with a jump of 46 feet and 9 inches. He also set a Zone record in the Broad Jump (Long Jump) with a distance of 23 Feet, 3 Inches. As of the date of this induction, both records still stand.

In 1964, at the Nova Scotia Headmasters High School Championships, Howie Jackson set the Hop, Step and Jump (Triple Jump) record with a jump of 14.25 Metres. That record is now the second oldest in Nova Scotia High School Track and Field history and as of 2010, it has never been broken or seriously challenged.

Howie Jackson was a member of the 1969 Nova Scotia Canada Games team.

Howie remains active in the Nova Scotia Sports scene to this day, a history of continuous involvement as an athlete, coach and official that now spans over 50 years.