Major Honours and Records

Lore & Background

Jenkins was born and raised in Chatham, Ontario, the only child of Delores Jackson and Ferguson Jenkins Sr. His father, a chef and chauffeur, was the son of immigrants from Barbados, while his mother was a descendant of captive Africans enslaved in America, who escaped through the Underground Railroad before settling in Southwestern Ontario. Both of his parents were good athletes; his father was an amateur boxer and semi-professional baseball player for the Chatham Coloured All-Stars. A talented athlete, Jenkins competed in track and field, ice hockey, and basketball in his school years, lettering five times. When he began playing bantam baseball in his teens, he started out as a first baseman. He honed his pitching skills by throwing pieces of coal from a local coal yard, aiming at either an open ice chute or the gaps of passing boxcars. He was also encouraged to continue working on his pitching by Gene Dziadura, a former shortstop in the Chicago Cubs minor league system, and a Philadelphia Phillies scout. Many training sessions involving the two followed, until Jenkins graduated from high school.

In Their Own Story

The wind off Lake Michigan bit through the bleachers, but no one moved. In the seventh inning of Game 7, the scoreboard glowed with numbers that had haunted this city for more than a century: zero championships since 1908. A veteran fan, his face painted in blue and red stripes, gripped the railing so tightly his knuckles turned white. Beside him, a young boy asked if it was true about the goat, about the curse. The old man didn't answer immediately; he just watched the pitcher wind up, feeling the weight of every 'Wait Till Next Year' that had ever been whispered in this park. Then, the ball left the hand, the bat cracked, and the roar that erupted from Wrigley Field didn't just shake the ivy—it shattered a century of silence.

Reader's Guide

Jenkins led the league in wins twice (1971, 1974), fewest walks per 9 innings five times, complete games nine times, and home runs allowed seven times. He led the league in strikeouts once (1969, with 273). His streak of six straight seasons with 20 or more wins (1967–1972) is the longest streak in the major leagues since Warren Spahn performed the feat between 1956 and 1961. Jenkins, fellow Cub Greg Maddux, Curt Schilling, and Pedro Martínez are the only major league pitchers to ever record more than 3,000 strikeouts with fewer than 1,000 walks. Only Robin Roberts and Jamie Moyer allowed more home runs over a career than Jenkins. Jenkins achieved his 3,000th strikeout on May 25, 1982, against Garry Templeton. As a hitter, Jenkins posted a .165 batting average (148-for-896) with 54 runs, 13 home runs, 85 RBI and 41 bases on balls. Defensively, he recorded a .954 fielding percentage. Jenkins is one of the Black Aces, black pitchers with at least 20 wins in a single MLB season.

Did You Know?

• Jenkins played basketball in the off-season for the Harlem Globetrotters from 1967 to 1969.
• He pitched two seasons in Canada for the minor league London Majors following his major league career.
• Jenkins became the first Canadian to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991; he remained the only one until Larry Walker's election in 2020.
• In 1974, Jenkins became the first baseball player to win the Lou Marsh Trophy, an award given annually to Canada's top athlete.
• Jenkins ran for the Ontario Liberal Party in the 1985 Ontario general election, in the riding of Windsor—Riverside, but placed third with 15% of the vote.