Inducted 2024
Jack Shannon Munn was Newfoundland and Labrador’s greatest cricketer, shining during a time when cricket reigned as the province’s premier sport.
Born in Harbour Grace in 1880, Jack lost his father at a young age and was raised in St. John’s after his mother remarried. He attended Bishop Feild School and later the Forest School in England. In 1900, he tried out for the Oxford University cricket team, playing alongside future English legends. Though he narrowly missed selection for the famed Oxford–Cambridge match that year, he earned his Blue the following season, playing at Lord’s Cricket Ground and taking wickets from some of the finest cricketers of the era.
Each summer, Jack returned home to play for the Feildians in the St. John’s cricket league. In a match against Boston’s Zingari Club, he took eight wickets in a single inning, a record for Newfoundland. His first-class career peaked in 1901 with twenty-four wickets across six matches in England.
After his time abroad, Jack returned to St. John’s to join the Bowring family business and remained active in local sport, even donating land for Shannon Park in Harbour Grace.
Tragically, Jack and his young daughter lost their lives in the Florizel shipwreck of 1918. He is memorialized through a stained-glass window at St. Thomas Church and by the Peter Pan statue in Bowring Park – enduring tributes to a gifted athlete and generous community leader.
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