Hall of fame looking to you to help save the past
The hall of fame is delving into the history of its 51 inductees to keep their memories alive for future generations
Posted By BY CHRISTINA BERNARDO
Posted 2 years ago
The Penetanguishene Sports Hall of Fame (PSHF) is kicking into a very ambitious, historic and monumental research project uncovering tonnes of information and hundreds of articles on its 51 inductees and sports in the community.
PSHF David Dupuis said the Midland Free Press, the Midland and Penetanguishene libraries as well as the Penetanguishene Centennial and Huronia museums have been helpful with access to their archives of local sports history.
Hall of fame committee members are researching the current 51 inductees, which include Jamie Robillard, Stan Leclair and Brian Pilon.
Dupuis said they want people to come and tell their stories, "Or to bring pictures, articles or information they might have."
"Of course we're after artifacts, but we're after research material. As you can see some of the stuff in here have been donated by some of the inductees. Someone may have a treasure in the basement," added Lawrence Waxy' Gregoire, also of the PSHF.
With that they plan to create a research database of the inductees at the hall of fame.
Local photographer Mark Harrison, who is helping with the research and video production, said there have been some hurdles to finding some information or photographs.
"What we're finding is that at the Huronia Museum their hard copy archives go back to 1953. There were some negatives that were damaged in the past. Prior to that there's only what we call hard copy archives and before that our sources are JW Bald, so we have access to his archives. There was another photographer apparently in Penetanguishene who his last name is Mason. That's all I know. He was another photographer in (this area) prior to 53 and we can't seem to get any information on that. It would be nice to because there may be some archives there," Harrison explained.
Another problem is finding staff photos of archived articles, as the negatives from those stories are not accessible. Researchers are having a difficult time finding them.
"We can scan from the hard copies, but scanning a newspaper isn't as good as having the negative. If anyone out there that may offer help or suggestions or may have archive photos or memorabilia pertaining to those early years (would be helpful,)" Harrison added.
Digging into the past for the future For more informat ion contact Dupuis at 549-8050 or david742@sympatico.ca.
Currently PSHF committee members are in the process of video interviewing living inductees as well as friends and family of deceased ones.
Dupuis said they have a significant $29,000 Ontario Trillium grant to go towards this.
"No sports hall of fame has ever undertaken this," he added.
The videos will be played in the sports hall of fame and even in schools.
"Education -- it's important. Students should know about local heroes. I think sports history is as important as local history," Dupuis said.
"It's vitally important for any community to know their history, be it sports or other history. We are going in great lengths to uncover not only the history of our 51 inductees, but sports history going back 100 years."
They hope to interview 7o people, which will be done in the hall of fame.
The official opening of the PSHF was on Oct. 6.
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POINTS FOR THE PAST
The Hall of Fame opened last fall. Members of the PSHF board of directors are volunteers.
In 2006 an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant in the amount of $134,600 over two years went towards the
Penetanguishene Sports Hall of Fame project to help get the new hall located in the Penetanguishene Memorial Arena operational.
The hall currently boasts 51 inductees, 26 athletes, six teams, and 19 builders, for a total of 162 individuals.
Among the notable athletes whose careers are depicted are figure skater Brian Orser, pitching ace Phillip Babe' Marchildon, Hockey Hall of Fame member George McNamara, track star Jean Thompson, a member of the Matchless Six who captured Olympic medals in 1928, and jockey Gilbert Gil' Robillard, who rode Epigram to victory in the 1952 Queen's Plate.
There are a number of displays celebrating many locally played sports, including hockey, baseball, soccer, football, athletics, golf, and horse racing and more.
