Darren Zack

Darren Zack

Sports (1997)

If Babe Ruth were alive today, he’d call Darren Zack “sir”. Over the years, this Ojibwa softball pitcher has fired so many fastballs, sports writers are running out of phrases to describe him. He’s been called “Z-Man”, “Fireballer” and the “the best pitcher in the world”. In short, he’s more than a pitcher: he’s a legend. Weighing about 270 pounds, Mr. Zack surveys the softball field from a towering six-foot-four-inches. With him on the mound, Team Canada has won two Pan-American Games gold medals since 1991. In 1995 his Toronto Gators became kings of the softball world when they cleaned up at the International Softball Congress World Championship that same year in Sioux City. When you look at Mr. Zack’s personal statistics for the tournament – 150 strikeouts, 69 and two-thirds consecutive scoreless innings and 10 wins – it’s a wonder the other teams even bothered to show up. It goes without saying that Mr. Zack was given the Most Outstanding Pitcher Award, a prize he’s won three times at the ISC championships. This was a follow up to leading the Gators to a 1993 ISC championship, the first time in 47 years a Canadian team had won this prestigious tournament. All this is in addition to Mr. Zack’s leading Team Canada, the BC Arrows and the Toronto Gators to numerous Canadian, world and Aboriginal championships. At 36, Mr. Zack is a walking, talking – and pitching – softball legend. Off the field, he’s a soft-spoken, gentle man, whose been called a true sportsman in the best sense of the word. A lifelong resident of the Garden River First Nation in Ontario, Mr. Zack is extremely proud of his Aboriginal roots. While traveling the world through baseball, Mr. Zack seeks out fellow Aboriginal people, sharing with them the hopes and dreams of a proud past and exciting future. An outstanding athlete, role model and citizen, Darren Zack received a 1997 National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the sports category for his pitching magic.