A tall and muscular athlete, he won All-American honours while at the University of Texas and was the 1975 World University champion in the shot put. A silver medal at the 1975 Pan American Games was followed by his first Olympic appearance at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. He won a Commonwealth Games bronze on home turf in 1978 and also set a Canadian record of 20.83 m in the shot put that year.