Five get the call to Hamilton Hall
Calibre of this year’s class says something about the depth of city’s Sports Hall of Fame
A number of times in the past few years, the announcement of who was being inducted into the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame required an accompanying guidebook. Some kind of primer on who the nominees are. Or were.
The athletes and teams being honoured in all those cases were absolutely worthy of the recognition but their names and stories were not familiar to many. Either because they did their thing long ago and their stories had faded into the mists or because they starred in more-obscure sports, out of the view of most.
Not so with the Class of 2018. If you don’t know the folks going in this year, you simply haven’t been paying attention. In fact, it’s hard to imagine how some of these haven’t been tapped to enter the Hall in any of the eight previous years it’s been around.
Take Don Sutherin, for example. The guy everyone knows as Sudsy had an award-winning, 12-year career with Hamilton Tiger-Cats as a defensive back and kicker.
In 1963 and ’65 he won the Grey Cup in black and gold, which were just two of the eight championship games in which he played. He then went on to coach including a stint as Ticats’ head coach.
He’s already in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and on the Ticats’ Wall of Honour. How it’s taken this long to get into the Hamilton Hall is a bit of head scratcher. But he’s here now.
Same with M.M. Robinson. The former sports editor of The Spec did a lot of things in athletics but is probably best known for founding the British Empire Games which became the Commonwealth Games in 1930. As part of that, he developed the idea of an athletes’ village and created the awards podium used in every multi-sports games these days.
Seems bizarre he isn’t already in the Hall. That’s OK. He will be soon.
Then there’s Murray Oliver. One of this city’s greatest-ever hockey players, he spent 18 years in the NHL with Detroit, Boston, Toronto and Minnesota before coaching the North Stars and scouting for the Vancouver Canucks.
Among Hamiltonians, only Harry Howell and Dave Andreychuk played more big-league games than his 1,127 and only Andreychuk had more points than his 728.
Why has he not been in before now? Great question. But it’s being fixed.
Peter Dalla Riva isn’t just in the Canadian Football Hall but he’s had his number retired in Montreal. With good reason. He played in six Grey Cup games, winning three. He was a CFL all-Canadian three times, a nominee for outstanding Canadian twice and outstanding player in 1976.
You would’ve thought he’d have found his way into the local Hall by now. Thankfully, he soon will be.
And then there’s the 1965 Stoney Creek Little League team.
Having its name land on this list the same day the 2018 Canadian team begins its quest for a championship at the World Series in Williamsport is a beautiful piece of symmetry.
But that’s where any comparisons end.
Because the current squad — or any future Canadian team — is going to need a miracle to do what the Stoney Creek team did 53 years ago. Which was to make it to the championship game of the true world championship before finally falling to the American champ. No other Canadian team has come close since. Not even remotely close. They long ago deserved a place as one of the best squads ever from this city in any sport. Now they’ll get that.
It says something about the depth of the Hall roster that this quintet has had to wait to get their moment. Since being created in 2010, 54 individuals and five teams have gone in. While it’s hard to imagine these five couldn’t have found a spot before now, it’s even more difficult to decide who should have been skipped to make a place for them.
Regardless, they’re getting their due this year. Five sporting legends who absolutely deserve to be counted among the best athletes we’ve grown will be enshrined Oct. 10 at Michelangelo Events and Conference Centre.
That makes this a good year for the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame.