Hall of honours
The Concordia University Sports Hall of Fame is not actually a hall. Yet its long list of worthy inductees certainly brought renown to Concordia and its founding institutions, Sir George Williams University and Loyola College, on the field, ice, floor and other sports venues.
This year’s exceptional group will be inducted into the Concordia University Sports Hall of Fame on November 16 at the Holiday Inn Montreal-Midtown (420 Sherbrooke St. W.).
The 2012 inductees are:
Athletes
- Ron Puskarich, BComm 76, MBA 78, outstanding forward, basketball, Loyola Warriors 1972-74, Concordia Stingers 1974-77; All-Canadian, 1975-76.
- Caroline Assalian, BSc 89, exceptional forward, basketball, Concordia Stingers1986-89; three-time all-star, Concordia Female Athlete of the Year, 1987.
- Helen Stewart, BA 65, with Brian Moorhouse, David Kelleher and Buck Newsome, won National Intercollegiate Sailing Championships regatta in Kingston, Ont., 1963, for Sir George Williams.
Builder
- Mike Hickey, head coach, basketball, Sir George Williams Georgians, 1973-75, Concordia Stingers, 1975-85, 1991-95; took men’s and women’s Georgians and Stingers to seven national championships; five-time Quebec Coach of the Year.
Team
- Loyola men’s basketball 1974-75, Quebec champions.
“The Sports Hall of Fame provides the university a unique opportunity to thank and recognize alumni who have gone before us,” says Katie Sheahan, Concordia’s director of Recreation and Athletics. “When student athletes leave the university, they become community builders, and this is a great way for us to connect with them and for them to connect to us.
“It’s also a tangible and personal way to bring history to life, and for the inductees to enjoy the spotlight one more time. They deserve it, because they are role models for today’s student athletes.”
The Sports Hall of Fame was inaugurated at Loyola in 1967, when the college inducted eight former varsity athletes in tribute to their contributions to its sports legacy. Two builders were also inducted. The builder category includes non-athletes such as coaches and administrators who helped develop varsity athletics.
The Loyola College Sports Hall of Fame added 24 more athletes and two more builders from 1968 to 1973 and in 1983.
The university re-launched the initiative in 1995 as the Concordia University Sports Hall of Fame to laud contributors from Concordia, Sir George Williams and Loyola.
The induction ceremony has been held every year since 1997, when the team category was added. The first team inducted was the 1990-91 men’s basketball squad, which won the Canadian championship -- the only Concordia basketball team to date to win a national title.
The Hall of Fame Committee selects recipients from a list of nominees submitted to the Department of Recreation and Athletics. In total, the hall of fame now includes 95 athletes, 23 builders and 20 teams.
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