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Stingers’ associate head coach Caroline Ouellette inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame

The four-time Olympic gold medalist became the 10th woman to get the call from the Hall.

On Nov. 13, the annual Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held. In the Hall are about 300 legendary players and 115 builders who helped grow the game of hockey. During the 2023 meeting of the Hall of Fame Selection Committee on June 21, Caroline Ouellette’s nomination was a no-brainer despite it being only her second year on the ballot.

The road to this point for Ouellette was never an easy one. The player shared in her acceptance speech that when she was growing up, it took her two years to convince her parents to allow her to play hockey. Once she was able to convince her mom to help her buy her first pair of skates at the age of nine, Ouellette played on different all-boys teams until she was 17.

“I heard about every possible type of name-calling,” Ouellette shared during the speech. “These challenges helped me develop a deeper appreciation of how lucky I was to play hockey when so many women around my age couldn’t have the same opportunity,” she said. 

Ouellette got her first taste of professional hockey in 1995 when she joined Team Quebec during the Canada Winter Games. She won her first gold medal in 1997, playing for Team Quebec at the National Women’s Under-18 Championship.

After putting up a whopping 60 points in 27 games in the 1998-99 season for the Montreal Wingstar of the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), Ouellette played in her first of 12 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships. She would go on to win six gold medals and six silver medals in World Championships, ranking eighth all-time with 68 points in 59 games played.

In 2000, Concordia University got introduced to the hockey phenom. In her short time playing for the Stingers, Ouellette put up 19 points in just seven games. Oullette moved on to play three seasons for University of Minnesota-Duluth, where she also became the team’s captain for two seasons. Luckily for the Stingers, Ouellette would be back with the team in the future.

Ouellette played in the Winter Olympic Games four times between 2002 and 2014. She became the only ice hockey player to this date to win gold in all four Olympics she took part in. Ouellette put up 26 points in 20 career Olympic games played, cementing her legacy as one of the best international ice hockey players the sport has ever seen.

Having played in her last World Championship in 2015, Oullette played three more years of professional hockey for Les Canadiennes de Montréal in the city where it all began. She rejoined the Stingers as an assistant coach in 2016.

Coaching stints with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, International Canadian teams, and the Concordia Stingers have made up her ongoing career. She is currently the associate coach for the Stingers alongside partner and head coach Julie Chu, and the two have led the team to back-to-back national championship final appearances, including a gold-win in 2022.

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Sports

Black Canadians who made history in sports

Celebrating the contribution made by Black athletes in Canada’s history

Black History Month is about honouring Black Canadians, both past and present, who have made enormous contributions in all sectors of society. Though it has been celebrated since 1978, the House of Commons officially recognized February as Black History Month in Canada in December 1995.

To this day, Black athletes continue to captivate the nation across every sport while breaking down cultural barriers in society. As those of the past had to overcome adversity and racial discrimination transparently, today’s Black competitors remind us of the ongoing battle against racism that continues to plague the world.

Here are the stories of eight Black Canadian athletes who made history by reaching the pinnacle in sports with the odds entirely stacked against them.

George Dixon 

George Dixon was the first Canadian-born boxing champion, winning the bantamweight title in 1890. Born in Africville, Nova Scotia, Dixon would also claim the world featherweight title in 1891, after defeating Cal McCarthy in 22 rounds.

Dixon is widely credited for developing shadowboxing, a training exercise commonly used by combat sports athletes in which one throws punches at an imaginative opponent. Today, it is a staple in martial arts, acting as an effective routine to loosen and warm up the body.

John Howard 

John Armstrong “Army” Howard was a Canadian track and field athlete. At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Howard became the first Black Olympian to represent Canada. He was born in the United States and moved to Winnipeg in 1907 with his father.

According to major Canadian media prior to the event, Howard was Canada’s best hope for gold. However, the top-ranked sprinter’s performance was hindered by a stomach ailment that saw him fail to advance to the finals in the 100m and 200m events. Howard’s impact on Canadian sports is felt through two of his grandchildren, who became Olympians themselves, Harry and Valerie Jerome.

Phil Edwards

Phil Edwards was another Canadian track and field athlete who competed in middle-distance events. He earned the nickname “Man of Bronze” for winning five Olympic bronze medals but none of other denominations. He would be Canada’s most decorated Olympic athlete until 2002.

Edwards became the first-ever winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy in 1936, an award that is bestowed annually to Canada’s top athlete. The same year, he became the first Black person to graduate from McGill University’s medical school. He would compete in the 1936 Summer Olympic Games shortly after his graduation.

Barbara Howard 

At 17 years old, Barbara Howard was one of the fastest female sprinters in the British Empire. She qualified for the 1938 British Empire Games (now named the Commonwealth Games, since 1974) after running 100 yards in 11.2 seconds, a tenth of a second faster than the British Empire Games record.

Howard is believed to be the first Black woman to represent Canada in international sports competition; however, she never got the chance to participate in the Olympic Games because of its cancellation due to World War II.

Her athletic accomplishments were recently recognized with her induction to the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.

Willie O’Ree 

On Jan. 18, 1958, Willie O’Ree made history at the Montreal Forum when suiting up for the Boston Bruins, becoming the first Black player in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Today, the Bruins’ trailblazer is the director of the NHL’s diversity program, a movement that aims to ensure hockey is taught and promoted to children from all cultural backgrounds in North America. O’Ree’s number will be retired by the Bruins next season.

Angela James 

Angela James is a former Canadian ice hockey player who played senior hockey between 1980 and 2000. James played in the first women’s world championship in 1987. She would lead Team Canada to four gold medals at the IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championships in 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1997.

During her senior career, James was a six-time most valuable player and eight-time scoring champion. She is hailed as a major pioneer who enabled the women’s game to enter mainstream Canadian culture and is seen as the first superstar in modern women’s hockey.

Donovan Bailey 

Donovan Bailey became a Canadian sports icon when he set the 100m world record at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, running a time of 9.84 seconds. Bailey also anchored the 4x100m Canadian relay team to another gold metal that year. In becoming the world’s fastest man, Bailey was named “Athlete of the Decade” by Track & Field News.

The Jamaican-born athlete was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 as an individual athlete and in 2008 as a member of the 1996 Canadian champion relay team.

Jarome Iginla 

In 2002, Jarome Iginla became the first Black male athlete to win a Winter Olympic gold medal. Iginla was an alternate captain for Team Canada, where he helped lead the nation to its first Olympic hockey championship in 50 years. He notched two goals in the team’s 5-2 victory over Team USA in the finals.

Iginla played over 1,500 games in the NHL in a career that spanned from 1996-2017. In 2020, he became the fourth Black player to be inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame after Grant Fuhr, James, and O’Ree.

 

Collage by Kit Mergaert

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