An honour they hadn’t anticipated

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This article was published 08/07/2019 (2664 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If there was a Hall of Fame for gold-medal celebrations, Jon Montgomery would be a first-ballot inductee.

Moments after winning gold in the skeleton event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Montgomery was handed a pitcher of beer from a fan in the crowd. Without hesitation, the Russell native put the pitcher to his lips and took a couple of big swigs. But he wasn’t done there — Montgomery brought the pitcher onstage while he was being interviewed on national TV, to the delight of Canadians in the crowd (and back home in Manitoba) who were celebrating his big win.

Nine years later, Montgomery might want to refill that pitcher because he has another accomplishment worth celebrating. On Monday, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame announced Montgomery will headline the 2019 induction class that features four athletes, three builders and one team.

The Victoria-based Montgomery wasn’t at the announcement, but will make the trip to Winnipeg for the induction ceremony on Nov. 2 at the Victoria Inn.

The athletes joining Montgomery in the class are Charles Baksh (cricket), Susanne Dandenault (athletics/weightlifting) and Michelle Stilwell (wheelchair sports).

Dandenault attended the University of Washington on a track-and-field scholarship before switching gears into weightlifting. It was recommended to Dandenault by her friend Theresa Brick, who was inducted into the provincial Hall of Fame in 2005 for her accomplishments in throwing and weightlifting. Clearly, it was the right decision. Dandenault went on to become a nine-time national champion between 1997-2005 and competed at five world championships, two Pan Am Games, a Commonwealth Games and was an alternate for Team Canada at the 2004 Olympic Games.

“You never think you’re going to get into the Hall of Fame because of your sport accomplishments. It’s certainly not what plays on your mind when you’re an athlete,” Dandenault said at Monday’s news conference at the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame museum. “But I ended up really enjoying it and being fairly successful. So, it’s a treat to be here. (Brick) is in the Hall of Fame as well, so I’m excited that weightlifting and track and field are well represented.”

Entering the hall as builders are Don Hornby (rowing), Maureen Orchard (basketball/wheelchair basketball) and Héctor Vergara (soccer). Vergara was born in Chile and immigrated to Canada when he was 11. By the time he was 26, Vergara was the youngest Canadian to referee international competitions at the FIFA level. He’d go on to officiate 150 international matches, including three World Cups (2002, 2006 and 2010), six CONCACAF Gold Cups, two FIFA Club World Cups and the 2004 Olympic Games.

But in the world’s most popular sport, how does someone from Manitoba make it all the way to the World Cup as a referee?

“That is the million-dollar question that’s been asked to me many, many times,” said Vergara, who is now the executive director of the Manitoba Soccer Association. “Somebody actually said to me once, ‘You being in the World Cup refereeing at that level for as many times as you’ve done would be like someone from Africa refereeing the Stanley Cup final over and over again.’ That was the comparison that people gave me.”

Vergara isn’t the only Hall of Famer in his house — his wife, Joanne Mucz, was inducted in 2006 for an illustrious swimming career that featured eight Paralympic medals.

“The funny part is, the joke around our house now is, ‘What are the kids going to do?’ No pressure whatsoever,” Vergara joked. “You have two individuals in their sport to this degree and now Hall of Famers. But at the end of the day, it’s all in good fun. When you start this whole process of being involved in sport, you never think about it as ‘How am I going to be recognized when I’m done 20 years from now or 50 years from now?’ You do it because you enjoy it. You do it because you want to have fun and that’s something I tell my kids, is to participate in the sport you want. It doesn’t matter which one it is. Just enjoy it, have fun and grow as an individual. Learn life skills through the sport, create friendships and whether you take that at the local grassroots level in your community centre, or whether you think about the FIFA World Cup and the friends you make at that level, at the end of the day, it’s the same concepts.”

The lone team getting the call is the 1987-89 Brandon University Bobcats men’s basketball dynasty. The majority of the 1980s was dominated by the University of Victoria Vikes, as they won seven national university titles in a row. Victoria beat Brandon for two of those titles, in 1980 and ’84. But the end of the decade belonged to Brandon, as the Bobcats captured three straight national championships. The Carleton Ravens, who have won 14 of the past 17 national titles, are the only other school to have won three or more consecutive championships in men’s basketball.

The Bobcats basketball dynasty was previously inducted into the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame and the Brandon University Dick and Verda McDonald Sports Wall of Fame.

“I was starting to wonder if we were ever going to get into this one, but it’s great,” said Jerry Hemmings, a North Carolina native who coached Brandon to 734 wins from 1974 to 2003. “When you got three national championship teams in a row, it’s really nice to see that these guys are being honoured from that era in a time in the ’80s when the Victoria Vikes and Brandon University Bobcats won 10 national championships in a row.”

Hemmings said when you win a championship, especially three straight, it gives a group a special bond that lasts even 30 years later.

“I think that’s one thing that coaches always coach,” Hemmings said. “When you get into that locker room prior to a national championship game, you say, ‘Guys, we go out there today and it’s a possession game. We want to try to get a stop every time defensively and the offence will take care of itself. And (if we do that), it will bond us together for the rest of our lives.’”

This year’s induction ceremony marks the 40th anniversary of the event. Tickets go on sale Sept. 1.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31