Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame inductee displays go public

As the father of a former Olympic skier, Jim Crooks has lived through plenty of highs and lows.

Saturday was one of the peaks.

Though his son Sean, who raced for Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, was unable to attend, it was a pretty special day for a proud father who got one of the first peeks at his son’s induction display at the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.

“As a parent it certainly makes me very proud, for not only what our son accomplished, but also what the others have accomplished. Being a parent you realized the sacrifices that each and every one of these athletes made and … understand they can reflect on the sacrifices and achievements our son made,” Crooks said, who was joined at the May Street landmark by his wife Suzanne and several other family members. 

“We know there are many stories in this building and he’s one many.”

Former NHL goaltender and Stanley Cup champion John Adams was also on hand for Saturday’s open house. A 2014 hall of fame inductee, Adams still gets chills wandering around the facility and seeing all the displays.

“I was fortunate enough to have been inducted last year and I wanted to come see the new (inductees here,” said Adams, his Boston Bruins jersey showcased in a display honouring those enshrined a year ago.

“It’s a great show they put on here.”

Adams said he’s a firm believer of paying tribute to athletes of the past.

“I could spend hours here just looking at the pictures. It’s great. I think it’s great for the public and as your grandchildren and great grandchildren grow up, they can see it too. I think it’s awesome.”

Museum curator Diane Imrie said they hold the open house every year in conjunction with the unveiling of plaques and exhibits honouring the hall’s most recent inductees.

“We’ve had an incredible history of success in sports,” Imrie said, harkening back to the hall’s origins in 1978.

But it’s more than just a place to recognize those enshrined within its walls, Imrie said.

“We also have a sport museum. A lot of people think it’s a sports hall of fame and there are just plaques on a wall. But we’re so much more than that. We’re a museum of sport. We celebrate our great history. We’ve got different exhibits,” Imrie said.

“We’ve got Olympic medals here from the 1930s, we’ve got of different hockey jerseys celebrating some of the players, for example. But we’re not just hockey. We’ve got the first trophy from the first road race in 1910 and we’ve got a soccer trophy dating back to 1909.”

The Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Inductee displays from the 2015 class include tributes to Debbie Zemba, Sean Crooks, Bill Keenan, Chris Lindberg, Jim Mauro and Vern Stenlund.