Prior to his career in professional ice hockey McGowan won the 1920 international outdoor ice skating championship in Lake Placid, New York.
After retirement, McGowan and his wife operated the indoor skating rink at the Raleigh Hotel in South Fallsburg, New York. McGowan occasionally made appearances at annual NHL old timers hockey games in Canada, where he remained well known in hockey circles.
He lettered in baseball and football while he was a student at the St. Thomas Military Academy, in Minnesota, and was chosen as football halfback for the 1920 Minnesota All State Eleven. His plans were to continue his football career with his best friend at Notre Dame under Knute Rockne until approached by a sports promoter who had seen him on ice breaking speed skating records. That same year he won the national and international speed skating in 1920 as an amateur. He broke all existing world speed skating records. He had astonished the skating world by scoring the triple triumph and was the first skater to win the three national and international speed titles in a single year: National Amateur Outdoor at Saranac Lake; the International Amateur Outdoor at Lake Placid; and the International Amateur Indoor at St. Paul. He took the offer from the promoter and became a professional speed skater and was considered the king of professional skaters for the next seven years.

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