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'Edward "Ned" Hanlan' (12 July, 1855 – 4 January 1908) was a professional rower, hotelier, and alderman from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Hanlan's father, John, was first a fisher and later a hotelkeeper on the Toronto Islands. The Hanlan family had originally lived at the east end of Toronto Island, but a severe storm in 1865 pushed their little house into the harbour. It washed ashore near the north end of Gibraltar Point, at the island's west end. A few years later, Ned's father built a small hotel there, and the area started becoming known as Hanlan's Point, long before Ned became famous. Young Hanlan used to row several kilometers across the harbour to go to and from school every day. He developed speed to bring freshly-caught fish to sell at market before other fishers arrived. [Robert Sward, ''The Toronto Islands'', (Toronto: Dreadnaught, 1983), pp. 31-38, ISBN 0919567223; Sally Gibson, ''More Than an Island: A History of the Toronto Island'' (Toronto: Irwin, 1984), pp. 82-84, ISBN 0772014469.] By the time Hanlan was a teenager, he was competing in rowing events, and he ultimately lost only six of his 300 races during his rowing career. He was the world champion for five consecutive years from 1880-1884 in the sport of single-scull rowing.
Weighing less than 155 pounds, Hanlan was called "the boy in blue". Actor Nicholas Cage portrayed Hanlan in the 1986 film ''The Boy in Blue''.
Following his career as an athlete, Hanlan became a hotelier like his father, and eventually became involved in municipal politics as an alderman of Toronto. He was the first head coach of the University of Toronto Rowing Club in 1897. In 1900, he decided to leave and coach the crew of Columbia University, New York for some years [1]. Ned died of pneumonia at age 52. Ten thousand Torontonians thronged to pay their final respects at the church where his body lay in state.
In 1926, a larger-than-life bronze statue of a mustachioed, muscular, shirtless Hanlan, shown clad only in surprisingly revealing trunks, was unveiled on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition. This monument was relocated to a site near the ferry dock at Hanlan's Point in 2004.[2] In 1980, a postage stamp was issued in his honour commemorating the centenary of his first world championship.[3] In addition, the Ned Hanlan Steamboat is named after him.

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External links

External links

★ Hanlan's career on DVD Video

★ Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

★ Brief biography

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★ Ontario Plaques - Ned Hanlan 1855-1908

★ Hanlan postage stamp

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