You can’t miss the Concordia Sports Hall of Fame. As soon as you walk in to the Sports Complex at the Loyola Campus, you see plaques upon plaques of former Concordia greats, as well as athletes and builders who made their mark at Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, which merged to form Concordia.
There is one slight problem about the way the Hall of Fame is set up. The plaques are seemingly random in placement, underneath staircases and on any piece of free space they can find. While it is nice to meet with a piece of Concordia history everywhere you are in the Complex, it makes it very hard to read the plaques, and sometimes even to read the names of the inductees.
Now what is the good in that? You want people to learn about these builders and athletes. You want to know what they did for the university.
Every January Concordia hosts the Theresa Humes women’s hockey tournament. Humes is an inductee, and her plaque faces the main entrance of the Complex, but you would need to put yourself in a very awkward position on the stairs to be able to read what she did for the university.
The most fun part of a Hall of Fame is to learn about people who made an impact. Look at the names of inductees and you’ll see former NHL goaltender Bernie Wolfe and former coach of the Montreal Canadiens Bob Berry. You’ll find former women’s hockey national team member Therese Brisson as well as championship basketball and soccer teams. Good luck trying to read what they accomplished, though.
It is a tremendous honour for all of the inductees of the Concordia Sports Hall of Fame to be recognized with a plaque. These plaques are supposed to be a great opportunity for current Concordia athletes to read about the people who came before them.
Unfortunately, the way it is set up makes it very hard to learn about this history. I have been in the Sports Complex for countless hours over my four years at the university, and I still am trying to read about every person in the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, some are placed in impossible-to-read places, leaving me oblivious to what they have done.
I have talked to people who suggested leaving the plaques where they are, but putting a binder on the tables in the main lobby where people can read about the inductees without risking a neck injury. That would be a good first step towards allowing people to properly honour the honoured and allowing those curious folk who walk into the Complex to learn. Otherwise their fame might be non-existent.
Delays, delays, delays
Well, after the Carleton Ravens eliminated the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team from the playoffs, their game against the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Sunday was nothing more than a sendoff for Concordia’s players who are graduating from the Stinger faithful.
And the faithful had a few extra hours to say goodbye.
The game, which was supposed to start at 3:00 p.m., was delayed three hours because the referees failed to show up. It took one hour for any official to show up. And he did so alone.
I had traveled to Ottawa with the women’s hockey team for a game that started at 2:00 p.m. By the time we had returned to the Ed Meagher arena, there were still seven minutes left in the second period.
What we saw was an exciting finish, despite the Stingers loss in a shootout, and a heartbreaking end to the careers of graduating Stingers. The loss was especially hard for goaltender Patrick Lepage who stood on his head for what turned out to be nine minutes of Stinger penalties in the third period before losing the shutout with less than three minutes to go. It was also hard for captain Trevor Blanchard who, despite getting three assists in his final game, was stopped in the shootout in what was his final play as a Stinger.
Thoughts with Zednik
It was a scary moment in Buffalo when Richard Zednik of the Florida Panthers skated into his teammate Olli Jokinen’s skate cutting him badly in the throat.
Zednik is now in stable condition and is expected to make a good recovery.
Zednik, a former Montreal Canadien, had his career blindsided by a Kyle McLaren elbow in the 2002 playoffs and his game never fully recovered.
Calling the shot.and the time
In what was a crazy and nerve-filled final quarter of the Concordia-UQAM women’s basketball game, Stingers women’s hockey assistant captain Tawnya Danis knew how the game would end. With 13 seconds left, Danis told me that Yasmin Jean-Philippe would get a three-pointer with two seconds left. Jean-Philippe got a lay up with two seconds remaining – and drew a foul to make it a three-point play.