Huntsville’s own Jack Bionda will be inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame this year. That brings the total number of Halls of Fame he’s a member of to seven, including the Huntsville Sports Hall of Fame to which Jack was inducted in 1991, its inaugural year.
Jack’s family, many of whom still live in the Huntsville area, are very proud of their father. “All of us are very proud of Dad’s career,” said Jack’s daughter Jocelyn Knox. “Being one of his children to witness the legend he has become, especially as he continues to receive accolades, is quite the experience. We know Dad would feel quite humbled and very honoured with being recognized by the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame for playing the game he loved to play every single day.”
Bionda was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1982. At that time they described him as a ‘lacrosse legend’ who had rightly earned the title of the ‘greatest box lacrosse player in the history of the game.’ It therefore comes as no surprise that Jack is now entering the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame describes Bionda’s magnificent lacrosse career in this way. “Every year he played a full season he won the league scoring title. Every time he changed teams, that team went on to the national championships. Bionda was not just an asset to, but a driving force behind, any team he played with. In 1954, his first season with the Victoria Shamrocks, Bionda won the league scoring championship and led his team to the B.C championships. He repeated these feats numerous times over the course of his 23-year career with teams from Victoria, New Westminster, Nanaimo and Portland, Oregon. From 1954 to 1968, Bionda played in seven Mann Cup finals and won five championships. He won the B.C. Senior A league scoring title seven times, his most impressive year in 1959 when he nearly doubled the points earned by his nearest rival. In 245 regular-season games, Bionda scored 515 goals and added 391 assists.”
It should be noted that Jack Bionda was also a professional hockey player, playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1955 and ’56 seasons and the Boston Bruins from 1956 to 1959.
In recognizing his phenomenal sporting career, Bionda was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse HOF in 1974, the Canadian Sports HOF in 1982, the Oregon Sports HOF (team 60/61 WHL Champs) in 1990, the Huntsville Sports HOF in 1991 (its inaugural year), the British Columbia Sports HOF in 1998, and the Greater Victoria Sports HOF (team 1955 Mann Cup Champs) in 2000.
Joining Bionda this year in the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame are Father David Bauer, Brian Kilrea and Scott Stevens for hockey, Al Charron for rugby, Tom Henke for baseball, and Elfi Schlegel for gymnastics. The ceremony will take place in Toronto at The Westin Harbour Castle on October 23, 2018.
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Congrats Jocelyn and Family. Appears the Ontario Hall a bit slow off the mark!