The North Cowichan/Duncan Sports Wall of Fame will embrace another class of members this fall, with five more plaques set to join previous inductees.
Curlers Roselyn and Wes Craig, rugby player Pat Kay, fastball player Brian McKinlay, and Ted Webb, best known as a basketball coach, although he had an impact on several sports, will join the 1970-80 Fuller Lake Flyers junior B hockey team to make up the class of 2019.
Awards will also be presented to the organizers of the 1991 BC Winter Games, 2005 BC Senior Games, 2008 North American Indigenous Games and 2018 BC Summer Games.
“Sports has played a pivotal role in shaping our community,” said North Cowichan Coun. Tek Manhas, chair of the Sports Wall of Fame Nomination Committee. “The Sports Wall of Fame provides an opportunity for us to celebrate past and present athletes, coaches and builders and the contributions they’ve made to our community. I’d like to congratulate this year’s inductees on their amazing achievements.”
The Craigs have won several provincial curling titles at multiple levels and competed nationally and internationally, including winning the 2001 provincial mixed championship on the same team.
The Flyers frequently packed Fuller Lake Arena in the 1970s, peaking in 1973 when they faced the Juan de Fuca Gulls in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League championship series.
Kay, who is still in the prime of his career, has played nearly 200 international games for Canada’s senior men’s rugby sevens team, including appearances in the 2018 Commonwealth Games and qualifying for the 2020 Olympics.
McKinlay was a fastball legend in the Cowichan Valley in the 1950s and ’60s, putting up phenomenal pitching numbers, including 49 wins and just five losses in the Vancouver Island Fastball League between 1967 and 1969.
Webb was a respected teacher at Cowichan Secondary School for more than three decades, coaching volleyball and basketball while also helping establish the Ol’ Hustlers hockey club.
The inductees will be honoured with a ceremony at the Cowichan Golf & Country Club on Nov. 16. Tickets will go on sale on Sept. 3, and will be available by calling 250-746-3100.
