Who's next to be called to the hall?
Yarmouth Hall of Fame inductions to be held in early May; plan is to have event every two years
Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremonies were an annual part of the Yarmouth sports scene for more than two decades. The plan now is to have the event every other year, with the next induction dinner slated for this May.
Gloria Goodwin, a director with the Yarmouth Town and County Sports Heritage Association – the group that organizes the Hall of Fame ceremony
– said nominations will be reviewed this month. The list of inductees for this year should be known by the end of January or so, she said.
“The whole selection committee hasn’t reviewed all of them yet,” she said, when contacted
Jan. 7.
Goodwin, a former president with the association, is a member of the committee that will review the Hall of Fame nominations for 2020.
First held in 1998, the induction ceremony had been held annually for 21 straight years, until 2018. After getting only a couple of nominations for the following year, organizers decided not to have a ceremony in 2019 and opted to hold the event every two years instead of every year.
Goodwin said Bruce Johnson, the local sports heritage association's president, has seen a trend.
“Apparently most places are doing that,” she said. “Bruce said it’s happening more and more.”
Since Yarmouth’s first Hall of Fame dinner in 1998, more than 100 people have been inducted as individuals – including athletes, coaches, officials and media – and more than 30 teams have entered the hall as well.
The most recent group of inductees, in 2018, consisted of Tessa Boudreau (hockey), Bryan Hipson (running), Shannon Smith (swimming) and the Yarmouth Concrete and Gravel mosquito baseball team of 1986 and ’87.