Spotlight shines on Hall of Fame boss
Prestigious award recognizes Kelly’s lasting contribution to sports heritage
As executive director of the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, Sheila Kelly is accustomed to athletes and sports builders being humbled and surprised by honours they receive.
Kelly experienced the feeling herself recently when she received the Bill Schroeder Award from the International Sports Heritage Association.
“We hear this from our inductees all the time and I started to appreciate the position we put them in,” says Kelly, who accepted the award Oct. 19 in Knoxville, Tenn.
The Schroeder Award is periodically given to individuals who have made a lasting contribution to sports heritage.
Kelly said she’s pleased that it was presented by her international peers.
“I’m very proud to see the work that the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame has done as a whole is being recognized and I’m humbled that the recognition is being shown through the presentation of the award,” she says.
Kelly arrived at the Hall in 1989 with a background in archeology and forensic anthropology.
“I certainly never expected that the angle of history I would be pursuing would be sport history,” she said.
“However, you take the road that life presents to you and I certainly have enjoyed learning about Saskatchewan sports history.”
When Kelly started at the Hall, she was heavily involved in the hands-on aspect of the operation, acquiring extensive knowledge of museum’s collection consists of approximately 14,000 pieces that date back to the late 1800s. Thet experience benefited her greatly when she applied to become executive director.
She says understanding what’s in the collection is important when dealing with sponsors and funders because they want to know what it is they’re helping to preserve.
Kelly says she always enjoys hearing someone talking about an athlete, and then letting them know that they have their uniform or some other relevant memorabilia in the collection.
“Just seeing how much that means and can mean to individuals when they’re reminiscing, it’s a privilege to be able to share that with the people of Saskatchewan,” she says.
As an organization, the Hall honours athletes, sports builders and championship teams and, in doing so, helps to dispel any notions that a province with a smaller population can’t produce high-calibre inductees.
“We tend to always look outside our provincial boundaries and think everyone is doing so much better, but the reality is, we’ve produced amazing individuals in the sporting world on all levels,” she says.
Kelly said this is most noticeable when considering Saskatchewanians who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens in the NHL’s Original Six era, because people sometimes presume those players were all from Eastern Canada.
Kelly emphasizes that 512 inductees are represented in 51 sports.
Despite her recent recognition, Kelly insists there’s one more important job to do — especially when she notes that the facility at 2205 Victoria Ave., is bursting at the seams and soon won’t be able to accept any more artifacts.
“I would truly say my job is done if we had a new facility,” she said.