Remembering those we lost in 2025

As we begin a new year, let’s take time to remember the members of the sports community whom we lost in 2025. The logical place to start is with the individuals or team members who have been inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame for their exploits on the playing field and/or their contributions as a builder of sport.

In 2019, Harold Mauthe was inducted as a builder of both basketball and football teams inducted into the HOF. He coached the Winnipeg Light Infantry teams that won the Canadian junior men’s basketball championship in 1952 and 1953. In football, he was the head coach of the Canadian intermediate champion St. Vital Bulldogs in 1960 and 1962. The WLI teams were inducted in 2005 and the Bulldogs in 2012. Mauthe played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1951 and 1952.

Faye Finch was a multi-sport inductee in 2013, who competed at the national level in softball, athletics, volleyball, team handball and touch football. Softball was her best sport, where her versatility with the bat and glove, combined with blazing speed, earned her induction into the Manitoba Softball Hall of Fame. She also spent nearly three decades working for the Manitoba Sports Federation and Sport Manitoba.

Don Sewell was inducted as an athlete for rifle shooting in 1993. He was capped 19 times by Canada as a member of the national team. Winning the St. George’s Cross at Bisley in England in 1991 with a perfect score was considered his crowning achievement. He is an inducted member of the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association Hall of Fame.

The team members come from basketball, football, soccer, curling, softball and hockey. Gord Johnson was inducted as a member of the Winnipeg Stellars basketball team that won the Canadian junior championship in 1950. The team was inducted in 1995. Johnson officiated CFL football for 16 years and had four Grey Cup assignments. He is a member of the Manitoba Football HOF.

Dave Blanchard played for the 1955 and 1956 Winnipeg Rods that won the Canadian junior football championship. The 1955 team was inducted in 1996 and the 1956 team in 2009. Jimmy Murphy was a top scorer for the ANAF Scottish soccer team inducted in 2016 that won the dominion title in 1962 at Alexander Park in Winnipeg.

Betty Hird curled lead for the Heather team skipped by Ernie Boushy that won the Manitoba mixed curling championship from 1965 to 1967 and the Canadian title in 1966. The Boushy teams were inducted in 1994. Buzz Lamond played for the Molson Canadians team that won the silver medals at the 1968 men’s world softball championship in Oklahoma City. The Canadians earned the right to play in the event by winning the Canadian Amateur Softball Championship in 1967. The team was inducted in the HOF in 1991.

From the hockey world, Howie Hughes played for the Winnipeg Braves squad which won the Memorial Cup, emblematic of the Canadian junior championship, in 1959. The Braves went into the HOF in 2003. The 1976, 1978 and 1979 Winnipeg Jets teams were inducted in 2005 – Mats Lindh played for the 1976 team that won the World Hockey Association championship and Tommy McVie coached the 1979 champions.

During 2025, more than 30 members of the hockey community left us and a complete list can be read in The Final Face-Off column prepared by this columnist on the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame website at mbhockeyhalloffame.ca. Winnipeg-born Murray Williamson hasn’t yet been honoured by the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, but his coaching career earned him induction into the United States and Manitoba hockey halls. He coached the U.S. team at the 1968 Winter Olympics and again in 1972, when the team won silver.

The hockey losses began on Jan. 2, 2025, when George Forgie died in Kelowna, B.C. A product of East Kildonan, he will be remembered by his rugged play on the Flin Flon Bombers defense for two seasons and then for the junior Jets when they battled the Bombers in 1967-68. In 1974, he played for the Canadian intermediate champion Warroad Lakers. The Pas product Murray Anderson played defense for the Bombers from 1967-68 to 1969-70 and was a Western Canada all-star in his final season. His six-year pro career included 40 games in the NHL with the Washington Capitals in 1974-75.

Wally Gabler, Paul Markle and Ken Nielsen were Blue Bombers who died. Gabler was a quarterback in 1969 and 1970, while Markle played tight end from 1971 to 1973. Nielsen died in Kamloops, B.C. on Nov. 17, The wide receiver, nicknamed Doc because he was a dentist, played from 1965 to 1970 and was named the outstanding Canadian player in the CFL in 1968.

Former Bomber assistant general manager Ted Goveia, who played a role in the team winning the Grey Cup in 2019 and 2021, died in Hamilton in September, where he was general manager of the Tiger-Cats. Darren Becker, who worked on the equipment staff team for the Bombers from 1989 to 1996 and later for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL and the Scottish Claymores, also died in November.

Ron Gustafson was an outstanding football player at the University of North Dakota before coming to Winnipeg to teach high school and coach at Churchill and then Grant Park. For many years, he served as commissioner of the Winnipeg High School Football League. Gus was an outstanding centrefielder in fast pitch softball, who played for the 1976-1980 Winnipeg Colonels, who have been inducted into the provincial softball shrine. In 1981, he was a member of Canada’s national team.

Passings from many other sports will be remembered in a second column in January.