After a very successful amateur tennis career where he played in national championships and participated in Canada’s 1953 Davis Cup team, Jim started his professional tennis and squash career in 1960 at the Toronto Cricket Club. He proceeded to put the Cricket Club on the map for junior tennis and squash with the development of the highly respected Tennis Excellence Development (TED) program and with the success in international competition of his junior squash team, better known as ‘Bentley Bombers.’ In 1971, Jim left the Cricket Club to co-found the Cambridge Club, one of Toronto’s most prestigious downtown men’s fitness clubs. His legacy will always be remembered through the annual Cambridge Jim Bentley Cup, honouring top-level squash doubles competition. In his retirement years since 1991, Jim enjoyed playing golf, tennis and squash but sadly had to give them up in recent years. Jim still loved to mentor his family and friends whenever he was asked, and often could be found lunching and socializing at the Cricket Club. Jim loved visiting his sons at their cottages, watching them fish, reading and relaxing. Jim’s dedication to excellence, achieving one’s personal best and his competitive spirit helped him defy the odds, following his diagnosis of Wegners Granulomatosis in 2006. He fought courageously to the end.
Information retrieved from the Globe and Mail