Organizers thrilled with turnout at Huntsville Sports Hall of Fame ceremony

Image: Members of the 1997 lacrosse team. (Photos courtesy of Heather Douglas)

More than two hundred people attended a special ceremony held at the Active Living Center in Huntsville on Saturday, October 14 to celebrate inductees to the Huntsville Sports Hall of Fame.

‘We were thrilled because last year we barely had 100. Again COVID really killed us, our numbers just dwindled but Saturday night, the room was packed. We were over the moon with the attendance it was great,” said Huntsville Sports Hall of Fame President Wendy McConnell.

The Sports Hall of Fame is the brainchild of the late Mike Greaves, with the first inductees being announced in 1990. McConnell explained when Greaves left town for a while there was a gap of about eight years before inductions resumed.

She remembers the original inductees – Don Lough, whom the arena at the Canada Summit Centre was named after, Laverne Reynolds, Marilyn Leigh, Mye Sedore, Jim Bishop, Gail Cummings, Jack Bionda, Art Asbury, Branch 232 of the Royal Canadian Legion and the 1949 Huntsville Hawks lacrosse team. “Those were the original inductees and then each year since then we’ve inducted anywhere from four to eight inductees including teams,” she explained.

This year, the 1997 Senior Masters Lacrosse Hawks who won the all-Canadian championship and a series of other accolades that year. McConnell said about 16 of the team members attended the induction ceremony. “It was really nice. It was a bit like a reunion for them. Their wives and families were there and they were partying like it was 1999,” she quipped.

McConnell said she is a firm believer in supporting the legacy of sport in the community. “Huntsville is just absolutely steeped in rich history and we’ve got some very, very special athletes in the Hall of Fame, athletes and builders, people who have contributed over the years time and time again and I think it’s important that we recognize our sports heroes,” she said.

“Kids today don’t have a lot of heroes or people that they can idolize in their own community and I think bringing it front and centre is important. You know Dara Howell of course is a member of our Hall of Fame of course and, like I say, Jack Bionda, those are the types of heroes in our community that kids should know about and I think it’s only right to pay homage to them.”

The names of inductees are engraved and placed on the Wall of Fame in the arena. It currently has 87 names of people and seven teams with the latest seven inductees to be added.

McConnell explained that the committee that researches nominations has a list of over 110 names. “I think that indicates that the Hall of Fame will be in existence for a long, long time. Each year our selection committee has to review and vet this list… and try to come up with five or six individuals or teams that we can induct the following year. It’s not an easy task, believe me, it takes us a long time to review the names and review their history, and what they’ve accomplished, and by consensus, we vote and come up with five or six people whom we induct each year.”

The ability to nominate someone is always open, said McConnell. There is an easy form on the Sports Hall of Fame website to be completed. “You give us a little bit of background and then we do our own research on the individuals that you’re nominating.”

There is an eclectic mix of sports on the Wall of Fame, which goes to show that Huntsville is not just a lacrosse and hockey town, said McConnell.

The following were inducted this year:

Athlete category