Hall of Fame, Wall of Fame

“If you can’t make the big trips, make the small trips in your own back yard. I guarantee you it’s awesome.”  (Canadian TV personality, Rick Mercer)

I wonder how many people in the Selkirk area have made the “small trip” to the Selkirk Rec Centre and spent time perusing the Selkirk Sports Museum and Wall of Fame. It’s really “worth the trip.”

The plaque on the wall tells us its purpose is “to provide an area where individuals who are associated with sports can be recognized for their contributions and accomplishments.” The museum recognizes individuals, athletes, and builders. The range of sports featured is amazing: from the more obvious ones like hockey, curling, baseball, and golf, to less publicized ones like judo, canoeing, shooting, and weightlifting.

I’m sure you would agree that in Selkirk, the most obvious sport to be recognized is hockey. Junior A hockey in Selkirk dates back at least to 1918, with the Selkirk Fishermen being one of the original members of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and the second ever Turnbull Cup Champions in 1920. Fishermen were inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and the team picture is a centerpiece of the museum/Wall of Fame.

The 1973-74 Selkirk Steelers Junior A Hockey Team are also featured, along with the national championship trophy, The Centennial Cup. The story of the 73-74 Steelers is an amazing one, as they accomplished an almost impossible feat, playing 25 playoff games, with four out of five series wins coming on the road. They had played a total of 95 games overall when they hit the ice in the final game of their series against Smith Falls Bears. In this game, there were three periods of scoreless hockey when Selkirk’s Gord Kaluzniak scored the winner - with just over two minutes left in the first overtime period - giving the Steelers a 1-0 victory, and the Centennial Cup. That was a true test of stamina and endurance – 102 games of hockey.

(It is worth noting that the same year, the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers became the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup, playing a mere 80 game season, and 13 playoff games.)

Individual players who have gone on to play at hockey’s professional level are also featured:

• Neil Wilkinson of Selkirk played 460 NHL games with five different organizations, including Winnipeg. Neil was a graduate of the Selkirk Steelers.

• Darren Helm of St. Andrews played five seasons with the Selkirk Fishermen, and went on to play in the NHL, with the Detroit Red Wings when they won the Stanley Cup in 2008, and with Colorado Avalanche, the 2022 Stanley Cup winners.

• Also on display are pictures of hockey greats such as Andrew Murray, Jimmy Skinner, Harry Oliver, “Bullet” Joe Simpson, and many others.

In the world of golf, Selkirk’s own Glenn Hnatiuk is one of Manitoba’s most successful golfers, winning his first Junior Golf Tournament in 1975 at the age of ten. In the next eight years, he went on to win many junior tournaments across Canada. He turned professional in 1990, at age 25, and received his PGA tour card in 1998, and won a number of major tournaments. (He won around $2.4 million on the PGA Tour.) What made Hnatiuk even more remarkable was the fact that he was also a member of the Selkirk Junior B Hockey Club who were Manitoba champions and Canadian finalists in 1982.

A picture of the Edith Carter rink, the 1995 Manitoba Senior Women’s Curling Champions, along with their Gold Medal reminds us of the number of top-notch curlers who have been from Selkirk.

“No Canadian family has demonstrated supremacy in a given sport to the domination for years as the water-skiing Reid Family of Selkirk”, reads the caption of the pictures of Ian, Patty, Bruce, and Kim, whose prowess in the sport from 1955-86 was remarkable. They won dozens of championships, both nationally and internationally. One member of the family water skied in the Pan Am Pool in 1967 at the opening of the Pan Am Games (I think it was Ian). The tow rope was hooked up to a pulley and pool staff (and others) ran like heck down the side of the pool. It was a short ride but impressive all the same! (I only know this because I was there – swimming in the synchronized demonstration team – and there were a few practice runs prior to the event.)  

Outstanding individuals featured in the Wall of Fame include: runner Tom Podruchny, the first Manitoban to complete the 100 Marathon when he crossed the finish line in the 2008 Manitoba Marathon; Al Hares, “Coach of Champions”, who has been involved in coaching sports in Selkirk for an amazing 50 years or more; and Cecil Luining, who spent 10 years with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, playing on four Grey Cup winning teams. There are many more.

I spent an enjoyable afternoon looking at the displays and reading the captions accompanying the various photographs. I invite you to do the same, particularly if you live in Selkirk or surrounding area; you will be impressed with the rich sports history on display.

Selkirk Sports Museum and Wall of Fame, more proof that, “Whatever the season, there’s always a reason to spend time in Red River North”.

Can you match each of the following with the sport they were involved in?

• Volleyball  

• Women’s Hockey  

• Body-Building   

• Golf           

• Track & Field     

• Fastball/Softball     

• Figure Skating   

• Shooting