Bill Cosby Case Has Chatham-Kent Sports Connection

Bill Cosby’s case, which now sees him facing criminal charges for the first time, has a Chatham-Kent connection, albeit a loose one, through his accuser Andrea Constand.

In 2010, Bill Cosby was heralded for his back-to-back sold out shows, as the first big name performer to set foot on stage at the then newly re-opened Chatham Capitol Theatre.

The connection to our area, and local sports community however, came many years before that.

Andrea Constand, Cosby’s accuser, who now has the comedian facing criminal charges for his alleged sexual assault of Constand in 2004, was a prolific basketball player through her youth.

Constand suited up for Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute in Scarborough through the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, leading her team to an OFSAA gold medal in 1988 and 1989, and another OFSAA berth in 1990, before accepting a basketball scholarship to the University of Arizona, and eventually representing Canada’s National Team.

In 1990 however, Constand and her Albert Campbell team were competing in the Western University Purple and White basketball team, where they met up with the John McGregor Secondary School Panthers. In the game, Constand scored 23-points, leading Albert Campbell to a 59-44 win over Chatham’s JMSS team, which featured a local basketball star, Michelle DeHaan, who also played at the NCAA level.

Constand would later move on to work for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, where she would meet Cosby.

Furthermore, Andrea Constand’s high school, Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute, was named after, you guessed it, Albert Campbell, who was born in 1910, in Ridgetown, Ontario, before eventually becoming the Mayor of Scarborough.

– Special thanks to local sports historian Larry Lahey for his contributions to this story.