Habs, Alouettes greats among new additions to Quebec sports hall
The newest additions to the Pantheon des sports du Québec range from a builder who helped formulate the rules for hockey to a Hockey Hall of Famer to an Alouettes receiver who was part of three Grey Cup victories.
The names of the 14 additions to the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame were announced Tuesday at a news conference at the Olympic Stadium.
Canadiens great Bob Gainey, former Canadiens coach Pat Burns and Alouettes receivers Ben Cahoon and Hal Patterson were the most recognizable names in the Class of 2017.
Gainey was a part of five Stanley Cup-winning teams as a player with the Canadiens and later served as the team’s coach and general manager. Gainey was known as a defensive stalwart and he was the inspiration for the Selke Trophy, which is awarded to the best defensive forward. He won the trophy the first four years it was awarded from 1978-81 and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Burns was a three-time winner of the Jack Adams Trophy as NHL coach of the year while serving behind the bench of the Canadiens, Bruins and Maple Leafs. Burns, who succumbed to cancer in 2010, didn’t win the award for his work with the New Jersey Devils, but did coach them to the Stanley Cup in 2003.
Patterson, who died in 2011, was on the receiving end of passes from Sam Etcheverry during the late 1950s. He holds the CFL record of 338 receiving yards in a single game and won the Schenley Award in 1956 as the outstanding player in the CFL.
Cahoon was a three-time Grey Cup champion during his 13 seasons with the Alouettes and he set a CFL record with 1,017 receptions in 224 games. Cahoon and Patterson are both in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Robin Corsiglia was a breaststroke specialist for the Canadian Olympic swim team at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and was part of the Canadian medley relay team that won a bronze medal. The Pointe-Claire swimmer might have collected more hardware, but the Canadians were up against a powerful East German team fuelled by a state-supported doping program.
Dean Bergeron was one of Canada’s most successful Paralympians, winning 13 medals, including three gold, at Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing.
Alma native François-Louis Tremblay won five Olympic medals, including two gold, in shorttrack speedskating at the Salt Lake City, Turin and Vancouver Games.
Donald Dion, who guided the diving careers of Sylvie Bernier and Annie Pelletier, was honoured in the builders’ category along with Jacques Doucet, the voice of the Expos on French radio and television.
Patterson and Burns were among seven posthumous inductees. The others are former world champion boxer Arturo (Thunder) Gatti, soccer administrator Brigitte Frot, former NHL official Claude Béchard, Comité des jeunes de Rosemont founder Jean Trottier and James Creighton, the man credited with developing the rules for hockey during the 1870s.
This year’s honourees will be formally inducted at a gala at the Club de Golf Metropolitain Anjou on Sept. 30. In addition to the 14 nominees, there will be special recognition of the Molson family and its contributions to sports in Quebec and to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, which played a leading role in the development of Canadian sport.
The MAAA is only sporting association in Canada to win the Stanley Cup and the Grey Cup.
The honorary president for the gala is Barry Lorenzetti, the president of insurance company BFL Canada as well as chairman of the Hockey Canada Foundation.