The Orangeville Sports
Hall of Fame
The
Purpose of the Orangeville Sports Hall of Fame
The purpose of
the Orangeville Sports Hall of Fame is to celebrate those who have honoured our
community through sport. This may be either an athlete who was born here and
went on to achieve greatness in sport or who while living here represented
Orangeville at a high level. There must also be room in any great Hall of Fame
for those who helped build sport as a coach, on an executive, as an official or
in any other capacity as deemed appropriate by the committee both within our
community or someone from our community who has contributed to the greater
sporting community at large. Regardless of the selection criteria as set out
below all of those who have brought honour to our community through sport should
be able to find their way into the Hall
Who is
eligible?
Nominees may
be considered under one of the following 2 categories:
Athletes:
To be considered for selection into the
Hall of Fame an athlete must have been outstanding in their field of endeavour
or have been highly proficient in many fields without necessarily reaching the
top level in any one. The athlete must achieve an “outstanding” level over an
extended period of time or attain a single remarkable achievement of note.
Athletes competing at any level whether it be local, district, provincial,
national, international, or professional shall be given equal consideration.
Exemplary feats of sportsmanship may be considered on an equal level with
athletic endeavours.
The committee
should attempt to maintain a broad focus however documentary evidence should be
available and considered along with the views of the athletes contemporaries
including team mates, coaches, and competitors.
The criteria
for teams will be the same as those used for athletes however a maximum of one
team may be selected in any one selection year.
Builder:
To be
considered for selection into the Hall of Fame as a builder a person must have
made an outstanding contribution to sport either within the community or someone
from the community who has made an outstanding contribution to sport at large.
This would include but not be restricted to coaches, officials, executives,
sponsors or a combination of the aforementioned. There would need to be a
contribution to sport over an extended period of time however just because
someone contributed over a long time does not necessitate inclusion in the
Hall. It is necessary that the contribution be made at a consistently high
level or achieved consistently high results.
Nomination Form Deadline for nominations for 2008 will be announced in plenty of time for submissions prior to a deadline. Date of the
4th. Annual Induction Dinner will also be announced.
Nomination Form Deadline for nominations will be
March 28, 2008.
Previous
Years
Sports
Hall of Fame Induction Dinner 2005
This inaugural dinner, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Orangeville, was held
Saturday, May 28, 2005 and was a great community event for Orangeville. The
highlight of the evening was the induction of the first four members of the
Orangeville Sports Hall of Fame, and seeing them truly moved by the recognition.
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The four inductees (l to r):
Dr. George Campbell
(Accepted by his grandson), Phyllis Briscoe,
Terry Sanderson (accepted by his daughter)
and Bryon Mackie. |
Sports
Hall of Fame Inductees 2005
The
charter inductees to the Orangeville Sports Hall of Fame have been selected by
the Community Committee as follows:
Terry
Sanderson - Lacrosse/Hockey - Athlete/Builder
Has won
a multitude of provincial and national lacrosse titles as a player and a coach
in addition to coaching 2 provincial hockey champions. Current coach of the
Toronto Rock.
Phyllis
Briscoe- Lacrosse – Builder
Long
time president of Orangeville Minor Lacrosse and has coached several women's
provincial field lacrosse champions. Also active in the Ontario Lacrosse
Association
Bryon
Mackie - Boxing - Athlete/Builder
Won two
Canadian amateur boxing titles as well as national professional titles. More
impressive though is his work in creating a very successful local boxing team
where none existed before and in his work with troubled youths.
Dr. George
Campbell - Lacrosse – Athlete
As far
as we can tell the only Orangeville resident to win an Olympic medal. He was on
the gold medal winning Canadian Lacrosse team at the 1908 Olympics in London,
England. He is also a former Orangeville mayor
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Chairman, Doug Harkness, is
shown holding the
only known Olympic gold medal won by anyone
from Orangeville at the 2005 dinner.
It was won by Dr. George
Campbell and brought
to the dinner by his grandson. |
Induction Dinner 2006
The second annual Induction Dinner took place at 6:30 pm Friday, March 31, 2006
at Don Cherry's Restaurant, Alder Street Recreation Centre.
Our Guest
Speaker for the event was Dr. Richard Pady, world class triathlete and owner of
Healthy Results Fitness in Orangeville.
The event
featured this year's Hall of Fame inductees selected in the categories of
Athlete, Athlete/Builder or Builder. The nomination and selection process
commenced in January 2006 and nominations closed February 28th. 2006.
Sports Hall of Fame Inductees 2006
The
second group of inductees to the Orangeville Sports Hall of Fame as selected by
the Community Committee for induction were as follows:
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The four inductees (l to r):
Jamie Litt
Mark McKendry (accepting for his sister, Michelle McKendry Ruthven),
Bill Gillespie (accepting for his father, Doug Gillespie),
Brian Rohmer
(accepting for his father, Jack Rohmer) |
Jack Rohmer
-
Builder
A long-time tireless worker in the sports of hockey and lacrosse as well as the
founder of the Orangeville Figure Skating Club;
Michelle (McKendrey)
Ruthven - Athlete - Skiing
8 world cup top ten finishes to go along with a 7th place finish in
the alpine combined at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary and a 6th place
finish in the same event in the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France;
Doug
Gillespie
–Athlete - Hockey & Lacrosse
Considered by many to be Orangeville’s greatest athlete, he had a sure fire NHL
career stopped by the Second World War. Upon returning from the war Mr.
Gillespie continued to win several provincial hockey and lacrosse championships
as both a player and a coach;
Jamie Litt –
Athlete - Hockey
Mr. Litt scored 613 points in a stellar junior hockey career and led Orangeville
to its first Jr. C hockey title in 1989/90.
2007- Held at Alder Street Arena
Ross Martin –
Builder - Cross Country Skiing/Gymnastics 2007
Ross started out his
athletic career as a competitive middle distance runner and high jumper in high
school and university before taking up softball, hockey and cross country
skiing. During his time as a teacher at ODSS he coached gymnastics, volleyball,
track, and cross country skiing. He shared his love of sport with others by
founding both the Orangeville Gymnastics Club and the Mono Nordic Ski Club. He
continues to remain active in cross country skiing by coaching elementary school
age athletes at Mono Nordic.
Karen Pirie – Builder Hockey 2007
Karen was active in minor hockey and was also president of
the Dufferin-Halton men’s non contact hockey league for 8 years. She was best
known however for her 15 years volunteering with the Orangeville Crushers Jr. B
and C hockey club where she went on to become the first female general manager
of a junior hockey club in Ontario. During her tenure the team won 6 mid-Ontario
Junior C Championships, were an all-Ontario finalist in 1990/91 and were
all-Ontario champions in 1989/90. Karen was also instrumental in the return of
Junior B Lacrosse to Orangeville.
Al Pilcher – Athlete Cross Country Skiing 2007
Al won numerous awards and competitions while
competing as a student athlete at ODSS. He is most well known however for the
time he spent competing on the world stage competing for Canada in the 1985,
1989, and 1991 World Championships. At the time of his induction his 7th place
finish in the 50K Classic in 1989 was still the best ever by a Canadian male. He
also went on to compete on the World’s biggest stage at the 1988 Olympics in
Calgary and in 1992 in Albertville.
Ray Hunt – Builder Hockey 2007
At the time of his induction Ray Hunt had been
involved with Orangeville Minor Hockey in one form or another for over 35 years.
During that time Ray had touched the lives of literally thousands of the town’s
youth as a coach, convener, ice scheduler as well as president of the
organization for a number of years. Orangeville’s version of “Mr. Hockey” has
received countless awards for his dedication to the community including a Paul
Harris Award from the Rotary Club of Orangeville in 2003.
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