Jan. 20, 2022
He may have retired from Seneca in 2018, but Bill Humber is going into extra innings as Canada’s premier baseball historian.
Mr. Humber has been appointed a member of the Order of Canada for his contributions highlighting Canadian baseball history. The Order of Canada is one of the highest civilian honours in the country, recognizing “outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.”
Mr. Humber’s appointment to the order was among the 135 announced in December 2021 by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon.
“I’ve come to realize that baseball may have been the context for this honour, but it’s like a lifetime achievement award,” Mr. Humber said. “It’s a recognition for my academic work and sharing that knowledge with others. And I give a lot of credit to Seneca for the work I did.”
Mr. Humber joined Seneca in 1977 and served as program co-ordinator, chair and director during his 42-year career. He created the popular Baseball Spring Training course in 1979 to offer fans opportunities to discuss the upcoming season in a classroom setting and learn about baseball from broader historical, cultural and business contexts.
He published his first book, Cheering for the Home Team, in 1983. Eleven more books followed, including Let’s Play Ball: Inside the Perfect Game (1989), The Baseball Book and Trophy (1993) and Diamonds of the North: A Concise History of Baseball in Canada (1995).
In 2018, Mr. Humber became the first academic researcher to be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
While he is widely known as a baseball expert, Mr. Humber is also an environmental educator who developed and fostered academic programs in environmental restoration, building environmental systems and energy management.
He is the founding director of the Office of Eco-Seneca, creator of Seneca’s Green Citizen initiative and a member and past co-chair of the Sustainable Seneca Committee.
Mr. Humber’s commitment to the environment earned him a national award for educational leadership in sustainability from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 2012. In 2019, he won bronze in the Colleges and Institutes Canada’s Leadership Excellence Award for Managerial Staff.
“All of the different things I have done, I cherish them all,” he said. “And I hope to do more in the future.”
Mr. Humber’s latest book, coming out this spring, is about soccer as a mainstream sport in North America. It is a collaboration with his eldest son, Brad, a Seneca broadcasting graduate and Sportsnet producer, and includes a chapter about the Seneca Sting women’s soccer team.
Previously, Mr. Humber collaborated with his younger son, Darryl, on Let it Snow: Keeping Canada's Winter Sports Alive (2009).
“The joke in the family is when am I going to do a book with my daughter, Karen, who works in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering Technology at Seneca,” he said.
Joking aside, Mr. Humber says he hopes people will remember both the baseball and environmental sides of his career.
“But I know after I’m gone, people are going to talk about me as the baseball guy in my obituary,” he said. “I’m fated to be the baseball guy.”
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