B.C. sports fans to party like it’s 1994
New Hall of Fame gallery oversees events in Victoria, Vancouver
The watershed sports year of 1994 in this province is being celebrated by the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, beginning today with commemorative events in Victoria and Vancouver.
The Hall of Fame’s newly installed Definitive Moments in B.C. Sports History gallery opened in July and displays artifacts such as the Miracle Mile stopwatch, the 1979 Soccer Bowl trophy won by the Vancouver Whitecaps, the first Canucks NHL faceoff puck, pieces of the wooden goal posts from the B.C. Lions first CFL victory in 1954, and revealing moments from the lives of Steve Nash, Christine Sinclair, Nancy Greene-Raine, Terry Fox and Rick Hansen.
Part of the gallery’s mandate, funded by the province through a Canada 150 grant, will be to feature annual retrospectives. The inaugural one is highlighting the year 1994 and the Victoria Commonwealth Games, the Canucks’ run to the Stanley Cup final against the eventual Game 7 champion New York Rangers, and Lui Passaglia’s last-gasp, gamewinning kick to win the Grey Cup for the B.C. Lions against the Baltimore Stallions.
The retrospective begins this morning with a commemorative event in Victoria at 8 a.m. at the Inn at Laurel Point. Officials from the 1994 Commonwealth Games organizing committee and former ’94 Canucks and Lions players will attend both the Victoria function, and later in the day, a similar function at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
“It was a truly remarkable year in B.C. sport history in 1994 and one that will always be seen as something special by sports fans from across [the province],” Victoria native Jim Lightbody, chair of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, said in a statement.
“As story tellers committed to celebrating the athletes, coaches, builders, teams and pioneers who have become part of the fabric of our culture and heritage, we’re thrilled to have the chance to revisit these three defining moments and the memories they created for us almost 25 years ago.”
Rugby legend Gareth Rees of Victoria, a B.C. Sports Hall of Fame inductee, is a Hall of Fame board member and former chair of the Hall. He will speak on behalf of the Canucks today, but remembers well all three events.
“It was a landmark year in many regards,” Rees said.
“The 1994 Commonwealth Games especially showed those of us in Victoria, and on the Island as a whole, that we can dream bigger and we can be bigger.”
The Canucks and Lions added another layer to a memorable year. Even though the Canucks didn’t win it all, as Meat Loaf once sang: Two out of three ain’t bad.
“You grow up on the Island following the big-league sports teams in Vancouver and Seattle. I’m a lifelong Canucks fan, and was overseas at the time, and remember hanging on every game long distance during the Canucks’ run to the Stanley Cup final in 1994,” Rees said.
Rees’s penalty kicks and conversions helped lead Canada to four World Cup appearances in rugby, including two as captain. So how can he not have a soft spot for fellow-kicker Passaglia in the other brand of tackle?
“You love to see homegrown local guys from our province in moments such as that [1994 Grey Cup],” Rees said.
The B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, in B.C. Place Stadium, also will unveil an Indigenous Sports Gallery this week.