‘He was before his time’ Garrow’s son on mission to get Indigenous hoopster inducted into Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 4:32 PM CDT Thursday, May. 14, 2026

Terry Garrow already received his flowers. Now he’s on a mission to make sure his late father gets his.

By his estimation, his father has been overlooked for far too long when it comes to recognizing the most influential players, fearless leaders and forward-thinking builders who have helped shape Canadian basketball.

He understands that his pleas come from a point of bias, but that doesn’t change the facts in his mind: Alex Garrow deserves to be in the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame.

Not for the success he experienced during a short career in the early 1960s, but for his resilience as a trailblazer during a time in which Indigenous athletes were largely an afterthought. And how fitting it would be for Alex to be the first Indigenous player immortalized.

Terry — a Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, former All-Canadian guard with the Manitoba Bisons and the first Canadian chosen by the Winnipeg Thunder in the 1992 World Basketball League draft — has worked for the last 25 years to build his father’s case for enshrinement.

“My dad’s just had a very unique legacy,” Terry, now a resident of Hamilton, Ont., told the Free Press. “I don’t think there was any Indigenous person, American or Canadian, doing the things that my father was doing.”

Alex was born in 1937 in Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, a community that runs along the St. Lawrence River and sits in a pocket bordered by Quebec, Ontario and the state of New York. The land is officially situated in la belle province, though many call themselves New Yorkers.

Alex spent several of his formative years in Canada before moving with his father to Buffalo, N.Y., where he developed into a tenacious athlete who lettered in basketball, baseball, track and football.

In 1956, he earned a hoops scholarship to the University of Alabama, and the 6-2 guard paid immediate dividends for the Crimson Tide in a standout freshman season. The history gets a little hazy at this point, but what Garrow has collected is that a new coach took over the following year and asked the promising talent to redshirt his sophomore season, for reasons he has yet to uncover.

“Something occurred between his freshman and sophomore year that I’m not sure we’ll ever know why,” Terry said. “I’ve spoken to his two brothers who are still alive, and there was a lot of stuff that was going on in those days that affected my father, including alcohol… but I’ll say there were some things going on systemically that (were why) he wasn’t chosen, and I can’t say it was racism. I don’t know that for a fact, but I also know those times.”

Alex’s pro career wasn’t done, though it also wasn’t far from being over.

“I don’t think there was any Indigenous person, American or Canadian, doing the things that my father was doing.”

He returned to Canada, where he was an alternate for the men’s national team that narrowly missed the 1960 Olympics. Though a back injury derailed his career a year later, Alex was also named an alternate on the 1964 national team that did, in fact, qualify for the Olympics.

Before his career was waylaid by injury, Alex also signed a contract — but didn’t play — with the Washington Tapers of the American Basketball League, which preceded the American Basketball Association and faced teams in the NBA at the time.

“When you think about those times, you’ve got this Indigenous person playing at the University of Alabama during the peak of segregation, and here’s my father playing down there, and then coming home and playing on these two national teams,” Garrow said. “Nobody’s done that.”

Alex died at 60 years old from a heart attack he suffered while driving on the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, Ont., but his legacy lives on through Garrow, who went on to have a noteworthy career on the court.

Ken Murray, a two-time national champion head coach with Brock University and former head coach at the University of Regina, grew up in Buffalo just as Alex was making a name for himself in Alabama.

Alex was a two-time all-Catholic player from the now-shuttered Bishop Fallon High School, and his play — and skin colour — had made waves that were still being felt years later.

“Although we never played against each other, I mean, he was a legend in the city,” Murray recalled. “He was the talk of the playgrounds. Even though I was a little younger than he was, they were talking about this Indigenous kid, like, ‘He’s the real deal.’”

Making Alex even more notable was the fact that Buffalo wasn’t regarded as a hotbed for talent at that time. Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Lanier was the most notable player to come from Buffalo, but he was younger than Alex by several years.

“He was a legend in the city.”

Murray, who also coached against Terry when he was at the University of Manitoba, called it a “no-brainer” for Garrow to be inducted.

“Terry was a very smart, cerebral player when he played on the court. But his dad was just — it was almost like he was before his time. If he were playing in this era right now, I mean, people would be talking about him. But back then, there was so much racial discrimination,” he said.

“For him to come through at that time, being Indigenous, says a lot for him. I hate to think about some of the problems he would have faced when he played other schools.

“That makes it even more remarkable for what he accomplished,” Murray added.

Richie Spears faced Alex twice on the court in his career — both came days apart at the inaugural Canada Winter Games in Quebec City in 1967, with Spears representing Nova Scotia and Alex representing Ontario.

Both sides took a game that week, and although that was the only time they ever shared a court, it’s safe to say Alex left an impression on Spears.

“The game has changed since then. There was no three-point line, there was no shot clock, and the kind of shots that were going up at that time were quite different,” Spears, a member of the 1967 national team, said. “All of the shots that were not made were short rebounds. And that means the better athletes, the guys that are quicker and bigger and able to rebound and score on putbacks… will get you two points.

“That was Alex Garrow, and that was all about his athletic ability and his size,” he said. “And he got fouled a lot because people were trying to stop him. He was a very effective player.”

Spears echoed Murray’s thoughts, saying there’s “no question” that Garrow is a Hall of Famer.

“I think he’s very worthy of the nomination, and I say there is no reason why he can’t be in there,” he said.

Terry will be in Winnipeg this weekend to further promote his father at the fourth-annual Battle for Turtle Island all-Indigenous basketball tournament at the Duckworth Centre (May 15-17).

His search for testimonials continues with the hope that he will have enough evidence to provide his friend Leo Rautins — the Toronto Raptors’ colour analyst and a member of the Hall of Fame’s veterans committee — on why his father should be enshrined in 2027, though that has proved difficult as some of the best voices are no longer alive.

“I know there’s only so much sand in my hourglass, as they say,” Terry said.

“I’m just trying to create this momentum so that when Leo Rautins decides to put my dad in the Hall of Fame, there’s this backing of people saying, ‘Yeah, he should be that, and he should be the first.’”

Terry sat with Rautins at the Rogers Centre during Game 7 of the World Series last fall, outlining what needed to be done to solidify his father’s case.

In those moments, Rautins shared that he, too, believes Alex Garrow deserves to be in the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame.

“Right now, there’s momentum,” Terry said. “I am going to get these testimonials.”

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