The 1991 World Cup quarter-finalist Canadian rugby team, with 23 of the 26 players from the Island and Lower Mainland, ran with the big dogs.
That remains the rarefied high-water mark for Canadian men鈥檚 rugby and it will be commemorated tonight when the 1991 World Cup squad is inducted into the sa国际传媒 Sports Hall of Fame with the Class of 2018.
鈥淚t was a generational team,鈥� said Gareth Rees of Victoria, a key cog on that team.
鈥淲e were a bunch of guys who went from sa国际传媒 to the world stage. It was a special group and was totally dedicated and committed. We wanted to prove to the world that we could play rugby.鈥�
They did just that.
The Island players on the team were Rees, captain Mark Wyatt, Chris Tynan, Gary Dukelow, Tom Woods, Roy Radu, John Graf, Eddie Evans and the late Norm Hadley.
Rees and Wyatt have also previously been inducted into the sa国际传媒 Sports Hall of Fame as individual athletes.
Also being inducted with the Class of 2018 is Rob Shick of Port Alberni, who refereed 1,451 NHL games between 1986 and 2009.
鈥淚 started out officiating senior hockey in Port Alberni, and later in the [WHL], and that鈥檚 where I learned it was about controlling emotions and keeping the game fair and safe, said Shick, when the 2018 inductions were announced.
鈥淚f you do that, players learn to trust you,鈥� added the Islander, now senior officiating manager for the NHL, who was also supervisor of officials at the 2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
He earned that trust across the NHL, but never forgot where those values were rooted.
鈥淚 come from an amazing hometown, Island and province 鈥� I am beyond shocked and honoured and truly humbled by this induction,鈥� added Shick, who officiated two NHL all-star games and the 2001 Stanley Cup final.
The 52nd annual sa国际传媒 Sports Hall induction ceremony is taking place tonight at the Parq Vancouver.
Also being enshrined in the Class of 2018 are 18-season NHLer Cliff Ronning of Burnaby; 16-season MLB pitcher Ryan Dempster from Gibsons, a two-time NL all-star and a World Series champion; lacerating linebacker Glen Jackson, a CFL West all-star in six of his 12 seasons with the sa国际传媒 Lions; ski-cross 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics gold-medallist Marielle Thompson of North Vancouver; and Winter Paralympics multi-medallist skier Josh Dueck of Kimberley.
The class also includes swim coach Tom Johnson, sports-medicine guru Alex McKechnie and former Province hockey columnist Tony Gallagher.
Alex Nelson of Victoria will receive the WAC Bennett Award for his lifetime of work advancing indigenous sport.
Nelson said sport was the only reprieve from the otherwise soul-wrecking bleakness of attending an Indian residential school. The value of that never left him, he said, and guided his life鈥檚 work in sport.
