Two-time Olympian Kelly Boucher, a trailblazer as the first Canadian to play in the WNBA in its nascent years, will help lead the combined 2024 and 2025 classes into the University of Victoria Sports Hall of Fame in the induction ceremony on campus on May 16.
Boucher starred four seasons at UVic, making sa国际传媒 West first-team all-star three times as a rebounding machine, and represented sa国际传媒 in the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The six-foot-two native of Calgary, who now lives in Perth, Australia, also played 10 years of pro in Europe and was named to the U Sports top-100 women’s basketball players of all-time list in 2020.
“Kelly was athletic and tall and had a great understanding of the game and was aggressive at both ends — a tremendous rebounder who could also go to the rim and score,” said legendary former Vikes women’s basketball coach Kathy Shields, who also coached Boucher on the national team.
“I am thrilled for her to enter the UVic sports hall,” added Shields, a charter member of the first class inducted in 2002.
Joining Boucher in the UVic Class of 2024 is former Vikes rugby great Ed Fairhurst, who became one of sa国际传媒’s greatest backs with his speed and ability to read the pitch. His 57 caps, including in three World Cups, were the most for a Canadian scrum-half at the time of his retirement. Fairhurst also starred in sevens and represented sa国际传媒 in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games and the 2005 Rugby Sevens World Cup in Hong Kong.
For Fairhurst, now a Vancouver investment adviser who was also inducted into the Victoria Sports of Hall of Fame this year, it all comes back to his roots at St. Michaels University School with the Blue Jags and UVic with the Vikes: “All the opportunities I got came from coming out of SMUS, UVic and the national Under-23 team based here. They provided me the springboard.”
During his Victoria Sports Hall of Fame speech, Fairhurst recalled a poor performance he once had during a particular game at UVic, and whether he had given it his true best, and if he had what it took to reach his goal to play in a sa国际传媒 jersey. That night, he wrote down his goals on a sheet of paper, and the commitment and effort it would require to reach them. He had it laminated and kept it in his duffle bag and would refer to it whenever he needed inspiration or to get back on track.
Going in with the Class of 2025 in the combined-class enshrinement will be UVic track and cross-country coach Brent Fougner and soccer builder Moreno Stefani.
Fougner, who joins his wife and former Vikes track star and 2020 inductee Trish Fougner in the UVic Sports Hall of Fame, was named U Sports cross-country coach of the year nine times as he guided the Vikes to a combined nine national titles in men’s and women’s, and produced 60 U Sports track medallists in his 31 years at the Vikes helm, including Olympians and Commonwealth Games and Pan Am Games internationals. Fougner’s success at UVic earned him several national-team assignments and he coached Canadian teams at the Olympics, World University Games and world cross-country championships.
“This is such an honour, especially when you look at the people already in the UVic Sports Hall. Not many universities had that kind of depth of athletes, coaches and builders, and it’s neat to be in that company,” said Fougner. “We had a great group of runners in our program and a world-class environment with the national training centre here, and went beyond with our community involvement in things like the sa国际传媒 10K and all-schools relays.”
Stefani was a former Vikes soccer player who never really left the program and has been instrumental as a builder and material supporter of a wide range of UVic varsity programs and also founded the UVic Alumni Soccer team, which dominated the Masters Division of the Vancouver Island Soccer League for two decades.
Boucher, Fairhurst, Fougner and Stefani will join the 64 previous individual and team inductees in the UVic Sports Hall of Fame, which was inaugurated in 2002. Their plaques and pictures will join those of the others on the concourse walls of CARSA Gymnasium.
“Next spring, we will get the honour of inducting four amazing people who have contributed so much to the Vikes’ programs,” said Dr. Nick Clarke, UVic senior director of athletics and recreation.
“Their impact is immeasurable and now their legacy will be in enshrined in the hall forever.”
