Bill Clarke began his sports career while at Scott Collegiate in Regina. As well as playing football, he skipped the curling team to the South Saskatchewan title in 1949 and went on to win the Sifton Trophy the next year in the first Canadian High School Curling Championships. For two years during this time he also played tackle for the Regina Dales Junior Football Club.
Turning pro at the age of 18 in 1951, Clarke signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and managed to tackle his way through 14 seasons until his voluntary retirement in 1964. During this time he participated in one Grey Cup and was twice named as the Most Valuable Canadian on the Saskatchewan Roughriders and awarded the Stack Tibbits Trophy. Clarke was named to the Western Football Conference All-Star team in 1961 and 1963. Led by captain, Bill Clarke, the 1963 Roughriders went five games without the opposition scoring a touchdown. Clarke’s long and impressive career was honored by a life membership with the club in 1993 and was inducted into the Saskatchewan Roughrider’s Plaza of Honor in 1988.
As an administrator, in the position of Executive Director of Sport and Recreation for the province of Saskatchewan since 1966, Bill has been directly involved with many major programs and events. Included here are: original member of the Canadian Games Council, establishment of the Saskatchewan Sport and recreation Unlimited, establishment of Sask Sport, reorganizing the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, Hockey Canada Board of Directors, Council of Provincial Directors of Sport and Recreation, Saskatchewan Games, Western Canada Lottery Foundation, Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, Sask Sport Trust Fund, Western Canada Games, and the Pioneer Gymnastic Classic. Bill’s continued involvement with curling initiated the first Canadian Junior Curling Championship in Saskatchewan, an event that has grown into the World Junior Curling Championship.
Installed in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame on September 1, 1979.
