Laurier Grads Soar is a multi-part series that returns for it's third installment during the 2018-19 season. The segment features former Wilfrid Laurier University athletes and student-leaders in the Athletics and Recreation Department, and the success they have enjoyed since leaving Laurier. Written by award-winning journalist David Grossman, different features will be released throughout the year that will emphasize the role Athletics and Recreation played in helping them achieve success.Sandy Nixon: Partner, Loopstra Nixon law firmSandy Nixon has had to make some difficult and serious decisions.
But if you know Nixon, with opportunities, adventures and challenges being part of his life, he's been making those calls, and quite effectively, since his days in grade school.
There's a saying that lacking patience, as a youngster, is a natural way of evolving.
Now, a prominent Toronto corporate and commercial lawyer, Nixon built a firm, as a founding partner, from two people to 45 legal practitioners. Practicing law for 45 years, in his spare time, Nixon can have a few chuckles reminiscing about his life as a youngster growing up in London, Ont.
As a student at St. George's Public School, he was active in many sports. A bit of resistance kicked in, after his mother insisted that he take piano lessons - likely because a neighbour taught music. Nixon wasn't the least bit interested and his results, on the piano exam, would support his case.
There were other ultimatums for him - like hopping the back-yard fence to play basketball on a school playground. He did it frequently, and even in the winter, sometimes practicing with gloves which came after he had shoveled the courts.
For Nixon, the savvy moves continued and, at age 12, he was more of a hockey player and became an all-star goalie in the London Peewee loop. Two years later, it was enough of Canada's National Winter sport and he shelved the competitive hockey gear for good.
The attraction to the game of hoops, still there, took over for good.
That first experience with organized basketball came in a church league where the admiration for the game just grew. At London Central High, after he was told that he clinched a spot on the junior squad in Grade 11, his impact to the team was sudden scoring 25 points in his first game. Several games later, a 52-point stunning performance set a City of London scoring record.
“I remember, my life had changed,” said Nixon, who had to explain to his mother what had happened and why he was late for dinner that night. She would later read about her son's success in the city paper.
Thoroughly engrossed in the sport, there were thrilling moments on the hardwood for Nixon, who was motivated. He had nailed down his strategy and would later win the City of London scoring title in his final year of high school.
“School was secondary to me back then, it was all about basketball,” recalled Nixon, still trying to get over the pain of not winning an Ontario Championship title in 1966 when talk in the Province was that his team had been the best.
“Then came the university recruitment. I wanted to leave London, some places, like the Maritimes, were just too far. But when I saw Waterloo Lutheran (which had a name change to Laurier in 1973) - just perfect. That was the school for me, they wanted me, I liked it, I met my wife there and everything worked out for the best.”
With doubt and anxiety about his future career, Nixon would go on to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Geography and English. Throughout his university days, basketball was number one.
March 9, 1968, a day that will be enshrined in his mind forever, Nixon and the Golden Hawks would cap the year with a Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) National championship beating a Saint Mary's squad, loaded with American transfers, 67-61 in the gold medal game played in front of an adverse crowd in Antigonish, N.S.
“In all honesty, the greatest game that I had ever played in was coming from behind to beat the University of British Columbia 82-81 in the semifinal that year,” said Nixon, who was 20 years old when he graduated from university, and went onto law school at Osgoode Hall.
“That was something special, starting the season 4-6 and winning the next 17 games and the big one,” said Nixon, then a 19-year old, six-foot guard. “This year, we got almost everyone back to celebrate our 50th anniversary and everyone had stories to share.”
The victory ride continued for Nixon the following year when his exceptional play was rewarded with honors as a First Team All-Canadian and a tournament all-star at the National playoffs. With a second consecutive Ontario Intercollegiate Athletic Association title, the Golden Hawks fell short in the final.
Nixon wasn't through with basketball. After healing from twice tearing his Achilles tendons playing in a Toronto league at the age of 33, he competed for Canada, at the age of 47, in the World Masters Games in Brisbane in 1995. The team went on to win a silver medal.
“There were lessons learned on the basketball court, about competitiveness, teamwork, incredible tools for me that would help in my legal career,” said Nixon, who was inducted to the Laurier Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986. “I was very fortunate (at Waterloo Lutheran) back then and now, to be able to re-live that wonderful time with my teammates 50 years later – something very special.”
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