Sports Hall of Fame inductees named
When the Yarmouth Town and County Sports Heritage Association holds its Hall of Fame induction dinner this spring, three individuals and two teams will be added to the list of local Hall of Fame members.
Slated to be inducted are Jim Rideout (track and field), Mario Ross (builder/ athlete) and Don Parnell (media). Ross is known to many people for his longtime involvement in karate.
Also entering the Hall of Fame will be a 1973 mosquito baseball team and a 2006-2007 midget hockey team.
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held in early May. The location has yet to confirmed.
Gloria Goodwin, a director with the sports heritage association and a member of the committee that reviewed the Hall of Fame nominations, says this year’s inductees represent a diverse range of sports.
“It’s quite a wide variety,” she said. “I was pleased with the applications that were submitted.”
Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremonies had been held annually in Yarmouth
for 21 ears – from 1998 to 2018 – but after getting only a couple of nominations last year, organizers decided not to have a ceremony in 2019 and the plan is to hold the event every two years instead of every year.
Since the first induction ceremony over two decades ago, 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.
Referring to the two teams that will be inducted this year, Goodwin said it’s great to have teams, as it gets more people involved and helps generate more interest in the Hall of Fame. Members of the teams being inducted often are accompanied by spouses, with other family members attending too.
And Goodwin already is thinking about the future. More specifically, she encourages people who may have a family member involved in sports to keep track of their accomplishments, save newspaper clippings, that sort of thing. Who knows, someday they might deserve consideration for the local Hall of Fame.
From her experience with the sports heritage association, Goodwin has found some people do a great job saving clippings, awards and other material to support Hall of Fame nominations, but not everyone does.
“We’ve had some applications that were like two binders full of pictures and information and then we’ve had others that we’ve really had to search out because it’s so skimpy,” she said. “If more people would (save things), it would help us.”