Hall of Fame Honour Roll

2007 Hall of Fame Inductees

ATHLETE MODERN

BRAD MARSH -- One of the most popular London Knights of all time. In fact, he was named to the Knights All-Time team.

He's Brad Marsh, a product of the Southwest minor system who parlayed a dogged attitude with effective play into a 15-year career as a National Hockey League defenceman.

His number 22 was retired and a banner hangs from the rafters at the John Labatt Centre in tribute to his Ontario Junior A career when he and partner Rob Ramage anchored the Knights defence from 1974 through 1978 at the old London Gardens. under the coaching of the late Bill Long. Twice he was named an OHA all-star and was the 1978 co-winner of the Max Kaminsky Trophy with Ramage as the most outstanding defenceman in the league.

He also played for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships winning a silver medal in 1977 and a bronze in 1987.

Brad was the Atlanta Flames' first choice in the 1978 amateur draft, taken 11th overall. Then he was claimed by the Flames as a fill-in in the 1979 Expansion Draft before the Atlanta franchise was relocated to Calgary. Then came stops in Philadelphia, Toronto, Detroit and finally in Ottawa.

All told, he played 1,086 regular season games, scored 23 goals, collected 175 assists with 1,241 minutes in penalties. In 97 playoff games, he scored six goals and had 18 assists with 124 penalty minutes.

Brad set a single-season mark, which was a record at the time, by playing 83 regular-season games in an 80-game schedule. This happened in 1982-83 when he played 17 games with Calgary and then was traded to Philadelphia when he toiled for 66 more. He was the Flames captain from October 1980 through November 1981.

It was at Calgary where he enhanced a reputation as a most durable player when he played 257 consecutive games with the Flames. Brad was on the losing end of two Stanley Cup finals with Philly once in 1985 and again in 1987. In 1984-85 the Philadelphia fans voted him the most popular player and the media made him the winner of the Class Guy Award.

He played on the Senators expansion team in 1992-93 before joining the front office as director of community development, a position he held through 1997-98.

Brad and his wife Patty along with their four children made Ottawa their home where he owns and operates two popular Marshy's BBQ and Grill restaurants, one in Scotiabank Place where the Senators play and the other at Centrepointe in Nepean.

Born in London on March 13, 1958, Brad attended Westminster Secondary School where he also played lacrosse. He worked as an instructor at a hockey camp in London during the off-seasons of his playing days. He helped organize the first annual Brad Marsh CNIB celebrity charity golf tournament in London in 2000.

Brad coached both boy's and girl's minor hockey in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata and was active in the Senators Alumni Club playing on the alumni charity hockey team.

The London Sports Hall of Fame is proud to welcome home Brad Marsh as the 2007 inductee in the athlete modern category.

ATHLETE LEGEND

JACK NASH -- Documenting the Nash family couldn't be easier than A, B, C with golf the common denominator.

First, there was John A., the founder of the long-standing London jewellery business that has anchored the city's downtown since 1918.

Then along came John B., or Jack as he became known because of his athletic prowess that made headlines with regularity.

And then there is Jack's son, John C. a gifted athlete in his own right and like his grandfather and father, one who has a fondnes hs for the game of golf.

But it was Jack who became a household name as he built an impeccable record as a leading amateur golfer and top competitor in curling and badminton. From the time he was runner-up in the 1929 and 1930 Ontario golf tournaments it was clear that Jack Nash was championship material.

Paired with his father, young Jack won the 1935 Ontario Father-Son championship. And from that point on, the trophy case in the Nash household bulged with awards and medals.

Consider this: Jack reached the quarter-finals of the 1933 British Amateur; he was a competitor in the 1935 United States Amateur, three years after fellow Hall of Famer Sandy Somerville took the title; he has won the Ontario and national seniors titles; and he was a member of 12 Ontario Willingdon Cup teams.

Jack earned a hallowed spot on the walls of the London Hunt and Country Club by taking 13 club championships. In 1960 he led the Hunt team to the George S. Lyon trophy.

Continuing the family tradition started by his father, Jack combined with his sons to win five more Ontario Father/Son titles, twice with Rob and David and once with John C.

In addition to his golfing talents, Jack was a national finalist in badminton and won three Ontario men's doubles titles. He was also a leading curler with the London Curling Club competing in four Ontario Consols events which were Brier qualifiers and won the consolation title in 1947. Jack took Ontario Colts titles in 1948 and 1950 and won two Ontario Silver Tankards for 8-player team competition in 1948 and 1954. He took the Tankard consolation in 1956.

Jack was born on December 18, 1911. He died on January 4, 1993. The Ontario Golf Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001. The London Sports Hall of Fame is pleased to include him in our hall as an 2007 inductee in the athlete legend category.

BUILDER/FOUNDER MODERN

ARDEN EDDIE -- Growing up in Wallaceburg with the Detroit Tigers and the London Majors close at hand, it was easy to see why Arden Eddie was born to play baseball. The game has deep roots in Kent County and Western Ontario and all Arden ever wanted was to play the game he loved. It was in his blood.

In 1967, at age 18 and after a knee injury derailed a shot at professional ball, Arden moved to London where he played for the Chester Pegg Diamonds. The following year he played outfield, second base and first base and was a member of the Diamonds who won the Canadian junior championship, and saw action with the Intercounty Majors.

It was at that time that the baseball bond between Arden and London blossomed. He was part of the last Majors team to win the Intercounty championship in 1975 and the following year he bought the team from George Hall.

All told, Arden enjoyed 36 years as a player, manager and owner of the Majors. And after the 2003 season he sold the team to mortage consultant Scott Dart.

Along the way he established several Intercounty records and gained a reputation as an iron man competitor. Some of his records still stand, including most hits with 764, most bases on balls 668, most stolen bases 170 and most games played with 834.

Arden is generally credited for keeping the Majors historic franchise alive despite direct competition from three professional teams between 1989 and 2003 -- the Tigers of the Eastern League, the Werewolves of the Frontier League and the Monarchs of the short-lived Canadian Baseball League.

He was also instrumental in saving the clubhouse at Labatt Park from demolition in 1977 and supported its designation as a heritage site. Named for the late Roy McKay, Arden's one-time manager and mentor, the clubhouse is undergoing renovation and will reappear as a museum-type facility housing baseball artifacts and memorabilia.

Both the clubhouse and the park, which is the world's oldest baseball grounds in continuous operation at its original site, are designated City of London-owned heritage properties under the Ontario Heritage Act.

BUILDER/FOUNDER LEGEND

R.M. (DUTCH) DECKER -- Nineteen years ago the W Club newsletter at the University of Western Ontario portrayed R.M. (Dutch) Decker as the man of many hats.

What an apt descprition! In a sports career that spanned more than 50 years, Dutch did it all -- player, coach, instructor, official and administrator.

He's one of those true hometown heroes. Born in Rochester, New York on October 30, 1922 he came to London as a child and attended Central Collegiate where he played basketball and tennis. From that point he built a jam-packed career resume that would earn him the reputation as one of London's favourite sports figures.

It's difficult to match his accomplishment of officiating in three sports -- basketball, tennis and volleyball -- at the international level. He called his job as crew chief of the scoring and timing table in basketball at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal as the highlight of his career.

Probably Dutch is best known right across Canada for his basketball officiating. His colourful style and his decisions were sometimes controversial but he never left any doubt as to what he was calling. He officiated for 52 seasons including 20 senior Canadian finals before illness forced him to retire in 1988. He died a year later, the victim of cancer.

Everybody around town knew Dutch. At one time, he did play-by-play of Western football games for CFPL radio. He wrote a column on basketball and covered high school sports in the early 1940s for the London Free Press and later did a sports program for CFPL-TV. After graduation from Central and service in the RCAF, he joined the London YM-YWCA where he served as an instructor for 13 years.

What followed was a 44-year attachment at Western where he had been a basketball player in his student days. During those years he coached basketball, badminton, tennis, golf, curling and volleyball in addition to heading up intra-mural sports and activities.

He founded the London Basketball Referees Association and the annual award to their outstanding official is named in his honour. He also was a founded member of the Ontario Board of Approved Basketball Officials and was the first director of the Canadian Basketball Officials Association, representing Canada on the executive of the International Board of Approved Basketball Officials for 14 years.

Dutch is a member of the United States Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts and was inducted into the UWO's W Club Hall of Fame in 1997.

"My vocation," he once said, "Is my avocation. That's from whence my reward has come. It's been such a pleasure. There's nothing I'd rather have done."

TEAM

1945 LONDON SHAMROCKS -- It's called the knack and the late Bill Farquharson had it in spades. He had the knack of putting together championship teams. As London's recreation director in the 1940s and '50s he was front and centre in cobbling together such high profile commodities as the London Majors 1948 North American baseball champions, the Supremes women's softball squad, the city's fine tennis, swimming and minor baseball programs and the Playground Olympics that drew thousands of kids from all corners of the community.

He was responsible for creating and operating the London Shamrocks senior women's basketball team that won the Eastern Canadian title in 1945.

The Shamrocks were born in 1944, taking the name of an Ontario champion women's team that represented London several decades earlier. The team was picked from players in the City League and entered into the Ontario Intermediate B playoff tournament held in Toronto where the London girls defeated Brantford Waterous, Toronto Alerts and Merritton Housers to take the title.

The following year the Shamrocks competed in the Senior A League against teams from Hamilton, Guelph, Brantford and Toronto and won the Ontario championship en route to a date with the Montreal Olympics for the Eastern Canada title. A possible trip to Vancouver for a national crown was also in the works.

The series with Montreal consisted of a two-games, total-points round. Both contests were played at Beal Tech with the Shamrocks winning 31-22 and 33-16 to take the round, 64-38. Poppy Nevin Barnett led the way in the second game with 14 points while Marion Clarke Knowles had nine and Irene Wedderburn Brownlie five. All three were excellent athletes and were members of the famed Supremes softball squad.

By now, the Shamrocks had rolled to a 20-game victory streak. The trip to Vancouver failed to materialize so the wily Farquharson arranged a challenge match played at the old London Arena against the "World Champion" Rochester, N.Y. Filarets. The U.S. squad won 38-22 but despite the defeat City recognized the Shamrocks' wonder season by presenting them with gold rings.

In addition to Nevin, Clarke and Wedderburn, the London lineup included Barb Kemp Reade, Rhoda Cavanaugh Rea, Fay Wright Rennie, Violet Wanzac Clifford, Phyllis Johnson Byway, Dorothy Harding Arrand and Joan Smith.

Four of the 10 members of the championship squad are deceased. They are Clarke Knowles, Nevin Barnett, Kemp Reade and Cavanaugh Rea. Farquharson, who was also a basketball referee, was honoured for his contributions to the game by the London Board of Basketball Officials with the Dutch Decker Award in 1982.

"He was our poppa," was the way Irene Brownlie affectionately recalled.

The London Sports Hall of Fame is honoured to include the 1945 London Shamrocks as the team inductee for 2007.

2006 Hall of Fame Inductees

ATHLETE MODERN

Catherine Bond-Mills - This heptathlete won a whopping 11 Canadian championships from 1989 through 1999 establishing a national record three times. Her long-standing points total of 6,193 was only broken recently by another Londoner, Jessica Zalenka.

Born in Woodstock on Sept. 20 th , 1967 , Bond-Mills has competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Summer Games, three Commonwealth Games (1990, 1994 and 1996 winning a bronze medal), and four World Championships (1993, 1995, 1998 and 1999).

She was the Canadian Interuniversity female athlete of the year in 1990 and was named to the University of Toronto Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002.

Bond-Mills has been on the coaching staff of the Canadian Junior track and field teams since 2005 and has coached in the world championships. In addition, when was a coach of the Ontario team at the 2005 Canada Summer Games in Regina .

She and her husband Dave and their two children reside in London.

ATHLETE LEGEND

Dr. Robert (Bob) McFarlane - One of London 's most celebrated athletes who rose to stardom in the late 1940's and 1950's. His most outstanding accomplishment was being the first winner of the coveted Lou Marsh award in 1950 as Canada 's male athlete of the year.

McFarlane was Canada 's flag bearer at the 1948 Olympic Games in London , England and was a member of the 4x100 yards relay team that placed fifth. The team also included his brother Don. Both were standout sprinters and middle distance runners and both were powerhouse backfielders with the University of Western Ontario 's football teams, the scourge of Canadian intercollegiate football at the time.

The brothers played for the Mustangs when they won Canadian titles in 1945-1947 and 1949-1950 and gained status as Eastern Canadian all-stars.

Born on May 28, 1927 in London , Bob and Don attended Ridley College before Western. Bob became a world famous plastic surgeon specializing in the work of the hands. Among his many athletic awards was the prestigious John W. Davies trophy from the AAU of Canada in 1947. He is also a member of the UWO W-Club Sports Hall of Fame. In his later years he was active as a harness race owner and breeder. He died at 78 in early 2006.

BUILDER/FOUNDER MODERN

Al Morrow - Celebrated coach of the national women's rowing program and key player in the development of Canada 's Eastern high performance centre in London where the women train. All told, he has rowed or coached in seven Olympic Games in addition to Pan-Am, Commonwealth and World Student Games.

Born in Hamilton on December 28 th , 1949 , he is now in his 36 th year as a competitor and coach. Since 1987 he has led numerous crews to medals including three Olympic golds by Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle in the 1992 Games in Barcelona . His protégés have won 24 world and Olympic medals since 1991.

Morrow was named the 1999 FISA coach of the year by the International Rowing Federation, topping a long list of citations and awards. In 1994 he received the Meritorious Service Award from the Canadian government.

He is also active as an organizer and consultant of high school, provincial and international regattas. As a competitor he rowed with Canada 's team in 1976 and joined the national program as an assistant coach at the University of British Columbia . He was also university coach at Victoria and UWO when the women's team won 11 titles in 14 years.

Al was recently elected to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame making him a member of seven different halls.

BUILDER/FOUNDER LEGEND

Cliff McWhirter - This London sporting treasure turned 93 on April 19 and truly, this member of the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame has seen and done it all as a boxer, champion, trainer, manager, club operator and promoter in a career that spanned seven decades.

He fought mostly as a bantamweight but first took the Western Ontario featherweight title at age 14. Then followed 27 amateur bouts including winning the 1932 Golden Gloves in Cincinnati .

As a professional he won 136 matches, lost 17 and had four draws. He competed mostly in the United States but he also appeared as French-Canadian ‘Babe Lavarre'. He also had the distinction of being the first boxer to win a match in Maple Leaf Gardens when in opened in 1927.

McWhirter, who retired from London Life in 1977, handled several outstanding boxers among them Irish Bob Flanagan and Gil Geekie. He also promoted cards at the old London Arena.

He is a lifetime member of the London Oldtimers Sports Association and resides at Extendicare London. He is our first inductee from the sport of boxing.

TEAM

2004/05 London Knights - No other team in London 's history gripped the populace as the 2004-05 London Knights. Orchestrated by the Hunters – Mark as president and GM and Dale as vice-president and head coach – the Knights rode a storybook trip to a Memorial Cup championship setting records upon record en route.

The Knights, after winning the Ontario Hockey League title, ran the table in the Memorial Cup tournament beating the Quebec League champion Rimouski Oceanic led by phenom Sidney Crosby, 4-0 in the final. To get to the big game, they defeated Rimouski 4-3, Western champion Kelowna Rockets 4-2 and the Ottawa 67s, the other OHL rep, 5-2.

The Cup was played for the first time in London and drew 9,000 fans for each of the eight games at the John Labatt Centre dubbed the ‘House of Green'.

The Knights' Ontario victory was the first by a London team in the club's 40-year history. The Knights punctuated their dream season by setting a CHL record of 31 consecutive games without a loss and their Ontario triumph was the first by a London team after 40 years.

Captain Danny Syvret was the CHL defenceman of the year, OHL scoring champion Corey Perry was the Memorial Cup MVP. Dale Hunter was named OHL coach of the year as the Knights stamped themselves as one of the greatest junior teams ever.

2005 INDUCTEES

ATHLETE LEGEND

Frank Colman (baseball)

"Now batting, from London, Ontario, Canada, the first baseman, Frank Colman, Colman.”

Imagine the thril. Playing for the New York Yankees, in Yankee Stadium, the House that Ruth Built.

Your teammates are guys with names like Joltin' Joe Di Maggio, Phil (Scooter) Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, Allie (Chief) Reynolds, Johnny Lindell, Charlie (King Kong) Keller, Tommy Heinrich, Ralph Houk, Joe Page . . . baseball legends all with Di Maggio and Berra going on to take their places in Baseball's Hall of Fame.

Colman, the left-hander who honed his skills on the sandlots of London, played for the Yankees in 1946 and 1947 as a first baseman-outfielder following four seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

What had to be disappointing was being a non-roster player for the Yankees when they defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games for the 1947 World Series championship. But he simply couldn't crack the talented New York outfield that had the graceful Di Maggio, Keller, Heinrich, Lindell and Berra.

Nevertheless, Frank Lloyd Colman, born in London on March the 2nd in 1918, was part of the World Series scene. The only other Londoner to experience the Series was Mooney Gibson. 1947 was a benchmark for Major League baseball if there ever was one. Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo (the Lip) Durocher was suspended for the year even before the season opened for "conduct detrimental to baseball". The doors were finally opened to the black athlete as an infielder by the name of Jackie Robinson was plucked from the Montreal Royals to lead the Dodgers into one of the most memorable World Series of all time.

Berra hit the first pinch-hit home run in Series history in Game 3, lefty Bill Bevans had a no-hit bid ruined by the Dodgers' pinch-hitter Cookie Lavagetto who doubled with two out in the bottom of the ninth in Game 4, AI Gionfriddo robbed Di Maggio of home run with a highlight reel catch in Game 6, and Joe Page came out of the bullpen to preserve a 5-2 Yankee victory in game seven.

Frank Colman returned to hometown London in 1954 after serving as player- coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League from 1951 through '53. The following year he took over the Intercounty Majors. "The sale of the Majors baseball club to Colman is one of the best things to happen to baseball in many years," wrote Free Press sports editor Jack Park in his "Sportsparks" column at the time.

As player-owner Colman's Majors won the Intercounty title in 1956. The team also won the Great Lakes championship in 1958.

Colman sold the ball club in 1959 thus coming full circle with the Majors with whom he won a batting title, most valuable player award and a championship in 1936. His minor pro career included stops with the Newark, N.J. Bars and the Seattle Pilots in addition to the Leafs.

Frank, who attended Beal secondary school, helped found the Eager Beaver Baseball Association and that organization renamed its all-star day the "Frank Colman Day" in 1984. Frank Colman died of cancer in 1983 at the age of 65. Sixteen years later he was named to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Today the London Sports Hall of Fame is proud to include Frank Colman, a natural hometown hero if there ever was one, among our inductees.

BUILDER/FOUNDER MODERN, Fran Wigston Eberhard

(volleyball, women's athletics)

Francis Anne Eberhard has been playing, teaching, coaching and officiating athletics at all levels for more than five decades.

Born in North Bay on May 28, 1938 she has been a driving force in both university and community sports for those five decades and her list of accomplishments is long and impressive.

For starters, Fran has been a member of the National Advisory on Fitness and Amateur Sport, received an award for outstanding contributions to physical education in Ontario, and was a recipient of a London Woman of the Year Award for sports.

In addition, the award for the outstanding high school female athlete of the year in the Thames Valley Conference is named in her honour and presented each January as part of the London Sports Celebrity Dinner.

A professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, she is truly an icon

in women's volleyball. She coached UWO women's teams to seven provincial and three national championships and was a player herself on three national title teams in 1966-67 and 68.

She coached London Kineldiego senior men's volleyball squad in from 1973 through 1975 and led the national women's volleyball team in the 1973 World Student Games in Moscow. Fran also coached the London Junos team from 1971 to 1975, winning the Ontario senior women's title in 1973-1974 and reaching the national finals in 1974.

Nor was volleyball her only sport. She was a member of the national women's team in 1967 and 1968 and was player-coach of the London Grads senior women's team from 1969 through 1974.

Other basketball milestones include silver in 1967 and gold in 1971 at the Canada Winter Games.

Fran was a member of the UWO track and field team from 1964 through 1974 as first, a competitor, and then as a coach. She also coached the London Lions Olympic track club from 1964 to 1968.

This multi-sport athlete-coach also holds the distinction of being the first women to referee boy's high school basketball in London.

The London Sports Hall of Fame Is Pleased to welcome Fran Eberhard as an inductee for 2005.

BUILDER/FOUNDER LEGEND, Bob Hayward/Jim Thompson (speedboat racing), Markus (Max) Gauss (soccer)

Bob Hayward / Jim Thompson

This combination ruled the water in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They put London on the map as they made their reputation worldwide.

With Hayward driving and Thompson as the designer/builder, they won the coveted Harmsworth Trophy in 1959, speedboat racing's major event, and defended their title in 1960 and 1961.

Thompson, London-born on Dec. 18,1926, whose family owned and operated the Supertest petroleum corporation during much of the last century, designed and built the Supertest series of unlimited hydroplanes that set world and British Empire speed records at 184.24 miles per hour.

He attended Ridley College, Royal Roads Military College, University of Toronto and received an MBA at the University of Western Ontario. He is also a former president of Supertest and is active in the development of the Sunningdale Golf and Country Club and neighbouring family property.

Thompson, who did most of the early driving before Hayward became the pilot, retired from racing after Hayward was killed while driving Miss Supertest II in the Detroit River Silver Cup races in 1961.

Hayward, whose family operated a chicken farm near Embro, Ontario, was born on October 28, 1928. He began his racing career as a mechanic with the Miss Supertest crew in 1957 but succumbed to the lure of competition, winning his first race --the St. Clair River International --in 1959.

The same year he upset the highly-touted Maverick driven by Bill Stead to end a 30-year United States hold on the Harmsworth. The Hayward/Thompson duo connected again in 1960 and 1961 to take the Harmsworth with Hayward guiding Miss Supertest II to a record 116.464 m.p.h.

Hayward was quiet, diffident, polite and friendly with a stocky build and the stubby hands of a mechanic. He knew motors and for every hour he spent behind the wheel of one of the Supertest speedboats he spent a hundred more tinkering with the design and the tuning.

“He can feel an engine," Vic Leghorn, the mechanic who served as crew chief of the Supertest team, once said of him. "He knows exactly what to do."

Hayward took to motors early racing outboards as a boy. When he was old enough to get a driver's license he built a dragster. It was once clocked at 123 m.p.h. Even after Hayward had won three Harmsworths, he liked to recall that he had set the unofficial track record for one lap at the old Nilestown Speedway.

They name the east London branch of the YMCA on Hamilton Road in tribute for Hayward while Thompson Arena at Western is among the community buildings that foster the Thompson name.

Miss Supertest III, a great, three-ton rocket with a forty-thousand dollar engine, had a short life. She was designed in 1958 and retired three years later, and raced but four times. But no one ever beat her and nobody ever knew just how fast she could go. From 1959 to 1961 she was the fastest hydroplane in the world.

Both Hayward and Thompson are enshrined in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. Our Hall is honoured to include them among our 2005 inductees.

Marcus "Max" Gauss

Max Gauss didn't gain the reputation as the Godfather of London soccer by accident. He earned the title the hard way as a driving force behind the development of the sport and in particular, of the London City professional team.

Max has been the only president that City has ever known assuming the position when the club was first formed on Valentine's Day in 1973.

Born in Filipovo in the former country of Yugoslavia on December 23, 1929, he learned his soccer in his hometown of Stuttgart, Germany where he was a prominent amateur defender. He came to Canada in 1958 landing in Montreal with a brief stop in Winnipeg before settling in London where he established a successful masonry construction business.

His love affair with London soccer began in 1958-59 as manager-coach of the German Canadians team in old London and District league which is now known as the Western Ontario association. Max moved on to become cofounder and GM of the London City entry in the National Soccer League in 1969 and continued the position through 1972.

As a point of distinction, he is only one of two persons who have been a governor of the NSL, the Canadian National Soccer League and the Canadian Professional League of which London City is a current member .

Max is also responsible over the years for bringing some of the leading European teams to London for exhibition touring games. Included was an appearance by the famous Diego Maradona when he was at the height of his career in 1996.

Son Harry is the current London City operator and GM but it was Max who is the catalyst behind the team's success. That the team is the oldest surviving professional club in North America is a tribute to Max's foresight and financial support.

Max was inducted into the Western Ontario Soccer League hall of fame in 2005. The London Sports Hall of Fame is proud to open its doors to him in 2005.

2004 INDUCTEES
ATHLETE/TEAM MODERN

GLEN WEIR -- Defence was the name of the game for this graduate of the Senior ORFU London Lords. He was drafted by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1972 where he began an outstanding Canadian Football League career as a defensive lineman. He was dealt to Montreal the same season.

From 1972-84 he was a mainstay of he Alouettes/Concorde being runner-up in the 1977 Schenley defensive award voting. However, he won the James McCaffey Eastern Conference defensive award that year.

Weir was named to the CFL's Eastern Conference all-star team five times and to the CFL all-stars twice.

He attended Lord Dorchester high school and was a conference wrestling champion. Nicknamed Fuzzy.


RAY GETLIFFE -- Became a national figure again during the 2003 and 2004 Hockey Day in London celebrations as the man who named Maurice Richard "the Rocket." One of London's athletic treasures at 90 years of age, he was a teammate of Richard's when the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1942-43. Ray also won a Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins in 1938-39.

He played nine NHL seasons (439 regular-season and playoff games, 145 goals, 147 assists). NHL referee from 1946-1948. Played high school football and hockey at South Collegiate. Joined Stratford junior A in 1933 then Charlottetown senior A before turning pro.

Outstanding golfer. Played in Canadian Open 1936 and 1939. Member Ontario Willingdon Cup champions 1938. President Quebec Golf Association, Royal Canadian Golf Association and a director of the Canadian Open in 1969-70. Continues to play out of the London Hunt Club despite failing eyesight.


1970 LONDON TV CABLE FASTBALL TEAM -- London's first and only national senior men's softball champion. Won 1970 title in Winnipeg putting London on the softball map. Team often drew crowds of 2,000 at Labatt Park. Bill Watkin was field manager of the title team that was honoured with a parade in downtown London on their return from Winnipeg.

Second baseman Ralph Paterson captain. Norm Aldridge trainer. Dick Hames (3-0), Pete Landers (2-0) and Dave Cox (1-0) were the pitchers. Watkin was named to the tournament all-star team along with Hames, outfielders Rick McCaw (3 homers), Charlie Winger (7 hits) and Jim Brown (7 hits).

The championship roster also included Ted Morrison, Dale Gooding, Bob Loveless (deceased), Ron Sadler, Tom Timbrell, Jack Sneddon, Hal Wengrinowicz, Herb Peterson, Dave Bell, Vaughan Carpenter and Paul Trnka. TV Cable also won the Ontario senior title and the Inter-city League championship in 1970. They later became known as the London Dukes.


SUE HILTON -- Born Susanne Lee Hilton in London on Sept. 14, 1943 she has excelled as a champion golfer, university professor and golfing teacher Her victories at age 18 in the junior and women's Canadian Close championships combined with the Ontario junior and senior titles in one year (1962) is unprecedented.

Playing out of the London Hunt Club she ruled the links during the 1960s reaching the second round of the United States women's amateur tournament in 1962, reaching the 1964 U.S. collegiate semi-finals and taking low amateur honours by 11 strokes in the Pacific Western Open in Eugene, OR in 1966. Locally, she won titles at the Hunt, St. Thomas and Highland. And in 1963 she won the London and District championship by a whopping 18 strokes.

Hilton spurned LPGA overtures to turn pro and entered Western to earn an honours B.A. in physical education. She followed this with university stops at Oregon (masters), Windsor as P.E. professor, and Minnesota (PH.D.) before landing at the University of Regina 1971-1985 as a kinesiology professor. She came home in 1985.

In 1962 she was runner-up as the Canadian female athlete of the year and in 1964 she was Western's top female athlete as a competitor in golf, volleyball and basketball.

She now operates a golf school at the North London Golf Centre and continues to battle the effects of a brain tumor diagnosed some three years ago.

2003 INDUCTEES

ATHLETE MODERN, Rob Ramage (hockey), Tom (Tim) Burgess (baseball)

ATHLETE LEGEND, Ed Ervasti (golf), Peter A. Michienzi (wrestling)

2002 INDUCTEES

ATHLETE MODERN, John Campbell Jr. (harness racing), Lesley Thompson-Willie (rowing)

ATHLETE LEGEND, C. Ross (Sandy) Somerville (golf), George (Mooney) Gibson (baseball)

BUILDER/FOUNDER MODERN, Dr. Peter Fowler (sports medicine), Bob Gage (media)

BUILDER/FOUNDER LEGEND, Jack Fairs (baseball, athletics), John Metras (university sports), Dr. Paul Hauch (swimming)