Finally getting their due

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/05/2019 (2603 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Manitoba celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1970, a panel of 24 men selected five finalists for athlete of the century from a nomination slate of close to 100.

The feeling was that candidates must have excelled in more than one sport and the five finalists did just that.

Today just one or two of those athletes would be familiar to the sporting crowd.

Gerry James starred in the Blue Bombers backfield and played in the NHL with Toronto Maple Leafs. Fred Dunsmore’s career included playing with the Winnipeg Maroons senior hockey club and with the junior Rosedales and senior St. Boniface Native Sons baseball teams.

Two others went well back in time. Dan Bain was an outstanding all-around athlete around the turn of the 20th century and won the Stanley Cup with the Winnipeg Victorias. Cec Browne, the eventual winner, excelled in several sports in a career that began in 1907 and lasted until the 1930s. All four have been elected to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.

The fifth finalist has clearly been forgotten. Back in 2004, when the HOF held a 25th anniversary veteran induction to recognize pre-1950 athletes, builders and teams, 39 individuals were honoured but he was missed. Also, his name has never been forwarded to the committee that makes the annual selections.

Finally, on June 6 at the Club Regent Event Centre, Art Shaw will join the other four finalists from 1970 in the Sports HOF. Shaw died in 1974 at age 71 so his induction will be posthumous.

A star for the Tammany Tigers sports organization, Shaw first joined the Tigers at Mulvey School when he was 12 years old. A versatile athlete, Shaw  quarterbacked the team in Winnipeg’s first Grey Cup appearance in 1925. He played hockey, ran track, and was a top scorer in lacrosse reaching the national level with Wellington’s. In 1938, when Shaw came to Winnipeg for a visit from Niagara Falls, where he then lived, Winnipeg Free Press columnist E.A. Armstrong called him “one of the greatest all round athletes Winnipeg ever developed.”  

In total, 28 individuals and 15 teams will be honoured in a special 40th anniversary veterans induction.

A committee had the task of selecting the best from a list of candidates whose resumes primarily go back 50 years ago or earlier. The goal was to recognize candidates who had been overlooked or, like Shaw, forgotten.

With the exception of Mary (Pitts) Dopson from athletics and lacrosse athlete and builder Harry Nightingale, the individuals are being inducted posthumously. The HOF is asking for assistance from the public in finding family members to represent them at the induction.

The list includes Jimmy Dunn, a builder whose expert administrative skills touched many different sports organizations from the late 1920s to the 1970s. Former Free Press sports editor Hal Sigurdson once wrote, “Has anyone ever devoted more time to Manitoba amateur sport?”

Five former Blue Bombers — Andy Bieber, Les Lear, George Druxman, Ed Kotowich and Cornel Piper, will be honoured, and hockey is well-represented by Billy Breen, Mud Bruneteau, Slim Halldorson, Alex Shibicky, Jimmy Thomson and Nick Wasnie.

Bill Carpenter, a former Winnipeg Goldeyes pitcher and Souris first baseman, and shortstop Snake Siddle were named to Manitoba Baseball’s all-century team. Dorothy (Ferguson) Key and Lou Lucki are Manitoba Softball HOF members. Six-time Manitoba women’s amateur champion Ira Beairsto and Charles Harvey, a Royal Canadian Golf Association past-president, come from the Golf HOF. Archer Andre Roziere, Art Foster from tennis, 10-pin bowler Ed Sobie, lacrosse player Frank Hawkins, boxer Jimmy (Baby Face) Saunders, curler Mac Braden and Vera (Tustin) Gilbert from swimming also will be inducted.

Manitoba Canadian men’s curling championship teams skipped by Howard Wood (1930 and 1940), Bob Gourlay (1931), Jimmy Congalton (1932), Leo Johnson (1934) Ab Gowanlock (1938 and 1953) and Jimmy Welsh (1947) will enter the HOF.

Joining them will be the 1935, 1939 and 1942 Winnipeg Maroons and the 1957, 1959 and 1960 Winnipeg Goldeyes professional baseball teams.

A rediscovered group of paddlers from the Winnipeg Canoe Club will also be inducted. The six-man team of Bob and Doug Groff, Lundie Lyall, Jack McDowell, Wilf Baty and Henry Dadson made paddling history in 1937 by beating 450 Easterners and winning the Canadian Canoeing Association grand aggregate.

Tickets are available to the public for $25 and can be purchased online through the Sports Manitoba website — sportmanitoba.ca

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