Norman Kwong

Location: Alberta | Profession: Sports

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Norman Kwong

The son of Chinese immigrants, Normie Kwong was born in 1929, six years after the Chinese Exclusion Act had been imposed by the Canadian government. His father owned a grocery store in Calgary and the family lived in a house behind it. After turning professional, Kwong became the first Chinese Canadian to play in the CFL and the youngest player to ever win a Grey Cup. Known as the “China Clipper”, Kwong won a total of four cups with both Calgary and Edmonton. When he retired in 1960, he held thirty CFL records and was the all-time touchdown leader. He has since been a manager with the Stampeders and a part-owner of the Calgary Flames. In 2005, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Alberta.

Norman Kwong Now

Profile

For the first two years of my career, I was still going to school during the off-season. At twenty, I finished high school and considered my options. The idea of going to university was a high priority for both my folks and me. In fact, I had an offer from a couple of American universities. The coach at Washington State came to Canada upon the recommendation of another player and watched me practice a few times. He asked me to come down and join his team on a scholarship. It was very tempting for a while but then, because I’d already played at the professional level in Canada, they told me playing college ball in the States wouldn’t go over so well.”

I had another opportunity to play in the US. When I was twenty-three, a player on the San Francisco 49ers who was an old team-mate of mine told one of the assistant coaches about me. They contacted me and asked me to come down and try out for their team, but at that time – it was a strange anomaly – I was making more money playing in Canada than I would have in the States. And the Canadian dollar was worth more than the American dollar. It was better business to stay home!”

WAfter high school, I decided to get into the business world. Because of my sporting abilities, I was able to have a successful sales career. I sold cars and I sold real estate in Calgary, all while playing football. It wasn’t hard to get those jobs. I would be approached because companies wanted someone as their public face.

Everyone had to get a job from November until the season started again the following July. A lot were teachers because they had the education to carry it through. A lot were salespeople like me because they were well-known by the general public. I could get a good reception selling cars or real estate because people knew me from my sporting career.

The average CFL player would not be able to support himself or a family without a job in the off-season. But at the time, I would have been one of the players who could. If you can imagine, in 1951 I earned around $6,000. You have to remember that with $6,000 I could also buy a two or three bedroom house. In relative value, the money wasn’t that bad. The most I ever made was $15,000 towards the end of my career. It ended up being a lot of money.