Heather Newsham joins sister in Hall

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This article was published 14/10/2014 (4253 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Heather (Newsham) Ruby is inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 8, she will join a very exclusive group.

The group numbers two and the other member is her older sister Sandy (Newsham) Maskiw, who was honoured in 2012.

The softball players will be the only two sisters inducted into the provincial shrine as individuals.

That’s quite an achievement for the Newshams, who got their start in the family yard in Charleswood and then at Roblin Park Community Centre. From there they went on to star for the Smitty’s organization at the national level and play for Canada in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia.

Heather earned several pitching and batting awards at Softball Canada fast pitch championships where she helped Smitty’s win titles at the midget and senior levels.
Former Softball Manitoba president and elite-level coach Mike Pyle called Heather “without reservation, the best hitter I have ever seen.”

Olympic and Pan-Am Games volleyballer Wanda Guenette, world champion curler Connie Laliberte, Todd MacCulloch, whose basketball skills took him from Shaftesbury High School to the NBA, and Keith McLennan, the province’s best lacrosse player from the 1970s to the late 1990s, will also be inducted as athletes. The builder inductees are racquetball coach Ron Brown, artistic gymnastics coach and judge Lorie Henderson from Brandon and Al Kinley, who has been a coach and a builder for several baseball and football organizations.

The 1988 Grey Cup champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers will be inducted in the team category.

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As time passes, the ability of top athletes usually fades into the background. Younger athletes and sports fans have often never heard of them. Death can be a reminder and that seems to be the case with hockey player Wally Hergesheimer, who died in Winnipeg on Sept. 27 at age 87.

Timing and injuries had an impact on Hergesheimer’s hockey career. As a teenager, he lost part of two fingers in an industrial accident. In 1944-45 when Hergesheimer was playing for the Winnipeg Monarchs in the junior playoffs, legendary Winnipeg Falcons coach Steamer Maxwell called him the best prospect he had seen in years. The next season he and Don (Bones) Raleigh moved to the Brandon Elks and the Monarchs won the Canadian junior championship.

Hergesheimer turned pro in the 1947-48 season with the Minneapolis Millers of the USHL. After four seasons in the minors, the 5-8, 155-pound right winger finally made the six-team NHL. In his rookie season, he notched 26 goals but another right winger, Bernie Geoffrion of the Montreal Canadiens, scored 30 and won the rookie-of-year award. The next year he scored 30 for the last-place Rangers and was fourth in NHL scoring behind right wingers Gordie Howe and Rocket Richard and left winger Ted Lindsay. In his third season, he scored 27 goals. Two broken legs and a fractured shoulder then slowed his NHL career. During his 15 seasons in pro hockey, Hergesheimer scored 376 goals.

He was inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987, and Manitoba Sports HOF in 2009.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com