Hall of Fame awaits entry of 4 athletes

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Birtle Blue Jays’ Shane Moffatt, left, and coach Sam Jamieson hold MSBL trophy after defeating Brandon in 2004. (BRUCE BUMSTEAD / BRANDON SUN ARCHIVES)

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Jo-Ann Lindsay

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Frank Rigney: a Bomber for 10 years

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Blue Bombers Vernon Pahl (74), John Bonk (43) hoist Grey Cup, Nov. 18, 1984. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

If you ask Shane Moffatt, all he did was have the time of his life playing his two favourite sports.

Those experiences have officially become part of the province's sport history as Moffatt is among six individuals and two teams that have been named the 2010 inductees in the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. The group will be honoured at the 31st induction ceremony and dinner Nov. 6.

There will be four athletes inducted, including Moffatt (baseball/hockey), Kenneth J. Galanchuk (basketball), Jo-Ann Lindsay (golf) and the posthumous induction of former Winnipeg Blue Bomber Frank Rigney. The two builders being inducted are Christine O'Connor (soccer) and George Phillips (all-around). The 1984 Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the 1966-67 Team Manitoba Centennial Canoe Team will be inducted in the team category.

"I'm just a regular athlete," said Moffatt, who lives in Portage la Prairie. "I didn't play any pro sports, but I am so very honoured to have this. It's a great, great honour."

Moffatt won the Manitoba Junior Hockey League scoring title in 1982 with 125 points and set a Portage Terriers franchise scoring record.

"My baseball career, I played for 29 years. It was nothing but good memories. I think I played on 15 or 16 provincial champion teams. This is an individual award, but nothing like this could have happened without your teammates. So kudos to all my guys I played ball and hockey with. I'm going to share every moment of this with them."

O'Connor was the first woman on the Manitoba Soccer Association board of directors and was instrumental in getting the national women's soccer program started in 1985, serving as the team's first manager. She started the local women's soccer league and the successful Sweat Shack team.

"I'm so proud of the achievements of all our female soccer players, the young ones and the older ones," O'Connor said. "They've come such a long way in a relatively short period of time. It's fantastic that we (Manitoba) are continuing to have players on the national teams."

Galanchuk was a former member of the University of Manitoba Bisons who went on to be a national team member in 1962 and 1963 when he competed in the Pan Am Games in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the world championship in Rio de Janeiro.

Lindsay is one of a handful of female players in Manitoba who have won provincial golf's triple crown, including the junior, amateur and senior titles. She also won a Canadian senior women's title in 1991.

George Phillips is best known for founding the Royal Canadian Legion Athletic Camps, located at the International Peace Gardens, in 1962. He coached for more than 50 years and helped build track and field through the 1950s and 1960s with mobile track- and-field clinics across the province.

Rigney, a lineman, played 10 years (1958-1968) for the Bombers and won four Grey Cups and numerous individual accolades in his career, including the CFL's Outstanding Offensive Lineman in 1961. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1984.

The 1966-67 Manitoba Centennial Canoe Team/paddling team participated in a once-in-a-century event that lasted 104 days and was done in replica 1800s vessels. Starting in Rocky Mountain House and ending in Montreal, the journey included 5,380 kilometres of paddling and portaging. Manitoba's team won with a total time of 531 hours, 6 minutes and 15 seconds. The team included Jim Rheahme, Norm Crerar, John Norman, Wayne Soltys, Gib McEachern and David Wells, the late Roger Carriere, the late Joe Michelle, Don Starkell and Blair Harvey.

The 1984 Bombers ended a 22-year Grey Cup drought for Winnipeg. The 11-4 team had finished second in the West Division and defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for the CFL championship.

Tickets for the induction dinner will go on sale Monday, Aug. 1. More information can be found at www.sportmanitoba.ca/events/hofinduction.php.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 29, 2010 C4