Wesmen volleyball teams honoured by HOF

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This article was published 22/11/2016 (3579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the early 1970s, the University of Winnipeg Wesmen dominated men’s volleyball in Canada.
Starting in the 1970-71 season, the Wesmen won four consecutive Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union championships. The team had won its first national title in 1968-69 but lost the following season when the University of Montreal beat them in the final. The Wesmen also won the CIAU championship in 1976-77.

On Nov. 5, during the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame’s 37th annual induction ceremony, the Wesmen teams from 1970-71 through 1973-74 finally took their rightful place in the provincial shrine. Joining them in the team category was the 1985 world champion junior men’s curling team from the Granite of skip Bob Ursel, third Brent Mendella, second Gerald Chick and lead Mike Ursel. Also inducted were all-round athlete Jim Heighton, track’s Alanna (Yakiwchuk) Hinrichsen, Joey Johnson from wheelchair basketball, hockey’s Mike Keane and swimmer Rhiannon Leier-Blacher.

Sports medicine’s Dr. Cal Botterill and Brandon’s John Reilly from rugby were honoured as builders. Reilly, who died in 2009, is the first person from his sport to be recognized by the HOF.

The Wesmen began their four-year CIAU championship run in the spring of 1971 with a two-set victory over the University of Western Ontario Mustangs in the final played at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont.

The spiking of captain Rusty Rischuk, the blocking of Bob Syko and the backcourt play of Bob Harrison led the way. Jerry Ilchyna was the head coach. Glen Conly took over the helm for the 1971-72 season with assistance from Dennis Nord. In 1972, the Wesmen beat the University of Montreal in the national championship hosted by Laval University in Quebec City. In 1973 , again at Laurentian, the team won its fourth title in five years with a victory over Sherbrooke University.
The 1974 Wesmen, coached by Larry Kich, may have been the best team. After beating the University of Manitoba Bisons to win the Great Plains Athletic Conference championship, the Wesmen won the national title at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, beating York University three sets to one in the final.

Later in the spring, the Wesmen added the Canadian senior men’s volleyball championship to its laurels. The lineup that season had four players, Ed Alexiuk, Don Michalski, John Paulsen and rookie Garth Pischke, who went on to play for Canada in the 1976 Olympic Games. It also included two future Rhodes Scholars in Jim Matthews and Boris Tyzuk, who was named Manitoba Ukrainian Athlete of the Year in the spring of 1974. Gary Gerylo, who also played goal for the U of W soccer team, was selected as the university’s male athlete of the year.  

Sport Manitoba heritage manager Rick Brownlee said that 20 members of the University of Wesmen men’s volleyball dynasty attended the induction ceremony.

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