2013 Inductees
Del Beaumont
Athlete/Builder - Hockey
The Glen Williams native was said to have taught a generation Georgetown residents about the game of hockey.
A distinguished skater, scorer and physical force who got his start in organized hockey during the inaugural season of Gordon Alcott's Little NHL in 1937. Del went on to finish high school at North Toronto while playing with the Aurora Jr. B. Club.
The multi-sport star advanced to the Jr. A. ranks with the Toronto Marlboros and St. Michael's earning himself a spot on the protected list of the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs, but his career was interrupted by World War II. He served in the Canadian Navy from 1943-45 and was involved in the Allied D-Day Invasion at Normandy.
Upon his return home, Del led Georgetown Intermediate teams to three Ontario Hockey Association titles before retiring in 1959.
He then joined the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association as a coach and guided the Midget squad to an OMHA Championship in 1962, later helping start up the International Bantam Tournament and sitting on the Executive for fifteen years, including a six year stint as President.
In 1987 Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award recipient passed away in 2001 at the age of seventy-seven.
Hugh Graham
Athlete - Equestrian
Gravity played a large role in directing horseman Hugh Graham into a successful career as a world class show jumper, having been twice selected to represent Canada's Equestrian Team at the Summer Olympics.
The 64 year old from Limehouse was a junior steer rodeo performer and calf roper during his teen years, but a number of spills and a broken leg later, Graham discovered his talent in breaking horses for his mentor, Milo Heatherington, and met Canadian Olympian Equestrian Jimmy Day at Samson Farm.
Four years later, Hugh and his ride Spot Check made the National Team and claimed the Open Jumper Grand Prix at the Royal Winter Fair in 1973.
Hugh Graham's list of accomplishments in show is impressive: twenty-three Nations Cups appearances, four World Cup finals, the only clear round that clinched the gold medal for Canada at the 1987 Pan American Games, a fourth place finish at the 1984 Summer Olympics in L.A. and a trip to the 1990 World Equestrian Games among the highlights.
Now a breeder and trainer of horses and rider coach at King Ridge Farms in King City, where he is the Vice President of Operations, Hugh remains active as a Grand Prix rider, while his wife Cindy has excelled in the hunter ring and daughter Laurel is making inroads in her competitive career.
Poul Popiel
Athlete - Hockey
A product of the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association, Poul Popiel went on to enjoy a seventeen year professional career including NHL stops in Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Vancouver and Edmonton and a World Hockey Association Championship with the Houston Aeros in 1973.
A well rounded defenceman who had forty-five points in fifty games in his final year of Jr. A in St. Catharines, Poul spent a couple of seasons in the American League before joining the Boston Bruins in 1966 for a brief stay.
He would go on to play alongside Gordie Howe in Detroit and Wayne Gretzky with the Oilers, but Poul's best seasons came with Houston of the fledgling WHA from 1972-78, when he was named to the league all-star team on three occasions and was voted runner-up to Quebec's J.C. Tremblay for the top Blue-liner Award for 1974-75.
Poul, who turned seventy on February 28, was the first Danish-born player in the NHL and came to Canada with his family as a youngster.
Following his playing career, Poul, coached a pro team in Austria and later served as Bench Boss for youth teams in the St. Louis, Missouri area, where he now resides.
Wayne Pries
Builder - Hockey
Not always the most popular guy in minor hockey meetings since he usually had to make the final decision, Wayne Pries can nonetheless be content in knowing that he always kept the best interests of the players as the top priority.
For the past four decades the seventy-three year old Wayne, has been involved in the sport as a volunteer in some capacity and was the catalyst behind two major changes that shaped minor hockey in this area.
The native of Neustadt, Ontario, joined the All-Star Support Group Rep Organization in Georgetown when son Mark was playing in the 1970s. Sensing resentment between the All-Star and Minor Hockey bodies that co-existed in Georgetown at the time, Wayne helped merge the two groups in 1981 and would serve as President of the GMHA from 1985-90.
As well, he was the founding chairman of the Halton Hurricane's organization in 1990 that allowed local residents to play at the elite AAA level without having to lie about their home address or move to another municipality.
The Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award winner in 2001, Wayne, whose dad Ed managed Memorial Arenas for five years and mom Madeline ran the canteen there for more than twenty years, has also been involved with the Executive of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association and the Ontario Hockey Federation, serving as OMHS Chairman from 2010-11.
Gloria Sinclair
Athlete/Builder - Golf
Born in Brampton and moved to Georgetown at an early age, the soon to be 66 year old Sinclair enters the Halton Hills Sports Hall of Fame as both an athlete and builder for her dedication to amateur golf.
The long time Club at North Halton member, has won several regional, provincial and national titles over the past 25 years, highlighted by her Canadian Senior Women's Team Play Championship in 2000 and four Golf Association of Ontario individual and team victories.
Carrying a five handicap, she qualified for the U.S. Women's Senior Amateur Championship tournament in 1999 and 2001 and placed fifteenth for her category at the British Amateur Championship in 2003.
Gloria has captured the North Halton Women's Club Championship twenty times and won the Senior Women's title on fifteen occasions. She was on the senior Provincial Team four times and the Ontario Senior Runner-up twice.
In 2010 she received the Golf Association of Ontario's Achievement Award for her many accomplishments on and off the course.
The list of Gloria Sinclair's efforts as a builder are just as lengthy as her accomplishments with the club in hand. She has served as Club Captain, Rules Convenor and Training Advisor for the Golf Association of Ontario, Mississauga District and with Provincial Teams, earning an appointment to the Ontario Amateur Golf Hall of Fame Selection Committee last year.
2014 Inductees
Kaitlyn Andrews
Athlete - Track & Field
Retirement at age 23 sounds a bit premature for any sport, but star shot put and discus thrower Kaitlyn Andrews was able to achieve all of her major goals during her relatively short career.
Kaitlyn, now 25, was a multi-sport competitor growing up earning Acton High School's athlete-of-the-year on four occasions.
It was at track & field practice, however, one day at Stewarttown Middle School when a shiny silver ball soared through the air that Kaitlyn got hooked on throwing the shot put and later on, the discus.
Seven times Andrews would stride to the OFSAA podium to collect gold medals in either discipline during her four years at Acton High School.
She accepted a full athletic scholarship to attend Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas and by the time her stay there had finished in 2011, Andrews held the school' outdoor shot put record of 15.76 metres, won two Southland Conference titles and graduated with a degree in kinesiology.
Her debut representing Canada at an international meet came in 2006 when she placed 21st at the World Junior Track & Field Championships in Beijing, China.
Kaitlyn also wore red and white at two Pan-American Junior Championship meets, placing sixth at the 2005 shot put event in Windsor, Ontario and fifth in the 2007 games in Sao Paolo Brazil.
Her father Bruce, a middle-distance runner, was inducted into the HHSM's Hall of Fame in 2007. Kaitlyn is current a physical education teacher at Acton High School just as mother Anne did.
Brian Hayward
Athlete/Builder - Hockey
An undrafted all-star netminder out of Cornell University, Georgetown's Brian Hayward went on to enjoy a decade-long NHL career and remains in the spotlight today as a TV broadcaster for the Anaheim Ducks.
As a youth, Brian played in the AA Four Town league in Georgetown before moving on to the Don Mills Flyers as a bantam, later suiting up in Jr. A for the Markham Waxers and Guelph Platers.
By his senior year at Cornell, he was named to the All-Ivy League Team and earned All-American honours by making a school record 2,225 saves, resulting in a contract offer from the NHL's Winnipeg Jets.
Brian's breakthrough season in the pros came in 1984-85 with the Jets when he posted a 33-17-7 record.
He was dealt to Montreal just after the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1986 and subsequently earned three straight Jennings Trophy awards alongside Hall of Famer Patrick Roy, collecting 71 wins in his four-year stay with the Habs, which included a Stanley Cup appearance in 1989 and another as a Minnesota North Star in 1991.
Picked up by the San Jose Sharks in the 1991 dispersal draft, Brian was in goal for the expansion franchise's first regular season vitory before back injuries forced him to call it a career at the age of 33.
He wasn't out of the sport for long, however, as another new California-based team, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, begn play in 1993 and hired Hayward to serve as colour analysts on its broadcasts.
On-air stints with CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, ABC, ESPN and NBC's 2006 Winter Olympics coverage followed, although he's continued calling Ducks' games since the club's inception.
Dave Kentner
Builder - Hockey
The man who scored just once in his minor hockey career has achieved more goals as a builder in the Halton Hills sporting community than he ever could have imagined when he began selling draw tickets for grocery hampers at Georgetown Raider's Intermediate home games in 1972.
Now 69, Dave helped design the team's first program and moved up through the Raider executive ranks until becoming VP of hockey operations and general manager in 1980.
By that time, Georgetown boasted a power-house team that won six OHA titles by the time it captured the Hardy Cup Canadian Championship on home ice in 1982 by sweeping the Quenel, B.C. Millionaires in three straight games.
Dave, who operated a catering business and his Mill St. Dairy Bar while spending countless hours at the rink, was a master volunteer recruiter and fun-raiser, serving as President and GM for the Sr. A Raiders and later the Jr. B Gemini along with overseeing the amalgamation of the two Georgetown youth hockey groups.
He was also instrumental in founding the Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award in 1977 and received the honour on its 25th anniversary. Dave also help establish the Halton Hills Sports Museum and it's Hall of Fame, of which he is now and inductee.
Tim Murdock
Athlete - Motor Sport
Although Hockey was his first love as a youngster, Tim Murdock's interest turned to motorcycles as a teenager and it was that need for speed that drove him to a successful racing career.
The 47 year-old mechanic with the Brampton Fire Department started out with motorcycles in 1980 and was soon classified as an expert in both motocross and dirt tracks, winning the Borra Fall Series 125 cc Canadian Short Track Championship in 1982.
Tim, a Glen Williams native would earn 20 major motocross trophies in the 80s at tracks around Ontario, winning the feature race in the 358 Dirt Modified Division at the Ransomville Speedway in N.Y. and the Niagara Tri Track Rookie of the Year award.
His attention turned to automobile racing in 1990 and the transition was smooth, with Murdock crossing the finish line first in his very first heat at Ransomville, where he would also capture his first feature race in 1996 over 35 laps.
With a pit crew consisting of Armstrong Garage owner Dave Armstrong, Art Bull and Craig Jan, Tim managed to stay competitive with the #58 car against drivers whose full-time job was racing with corporate sponsorship.
For several years Tim showcased his driving talents at Ransomville winning ten feature races in the Sportsmen's Division there in 1993 and copped rookie of the year honours for the modified class in '94.
He now serves as the chief mechanic for his 14 year-old son Steven's burgeoning go-kart racing career.
Dan Ralph
Builder - All Sports
Nat'l & Local Sports Writing/Coverage
Along the way to becoming The Canadian Press's authority on football both north and south of the border, local resident Dan Ralph was the sports editor at two newspapers in Georgetown and helped foster the gridiron sport at the youth levels.
The North Bay native covered his first Grey Cup in 1981 in Montreal as a journalism student at Durham College and has written about 21 more Canadian Football League championship games since then.
At the 2012 Grey Cup in Toronto, the 53 year-old was taken completely by surprise after being inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame on the morning of the 100th anniversary contest, which was won by the hometown Argos.
Ralph was a running back at Scollard Hall Catholic High School in North Bay and his passion for sports and writing found him employment at newspapers in Timmins and Stratford before stints at the Georgetown Herald and after the latter folded, the Halton Hills Independent.
He began as a general assignment reporter at CP in 1990 and took over the football beat a year later, where he remains today, covering the CFL, NFL and university football extensively, along with horse racing.
Ralph began coaching minor football with the Halton Hills Wildcats in 1999 and was with the program for 13 years. He took over presidency of the Ontario Minor Football League in 2011.
2015 Inductees
Joe Cleary
Athlete/Builder
For someone who has put up more miles on his feet than most people on the planet over the past 30 years, long-distance runner Joe Cleary has also done a lot of legwork to foster the sport of running in Halton Hills.
The native of Dundalk, Ireland, who turns 75 on April 23, has completed more than 530 races around the world and a large number of those were far longer than the standard 26.2-mile marathon, with one 1,000-km event in Europe two years ago taking him 34 days to finish.
Cleary is one of two Canadians known to have surpassed the 500-race mark, despite having only about half of his lung capacity due to COPD.
‘Irish Joe’ continues to run in a race each month.
In the early 1980s, Cleary was an original member of the Georgetown Track Club, which later became the Georgetown Runners, in order to get a track built at the local high school.
Before then, he drove many local youths who aspired to earn scholarships to schools in the U.S. to track practices in Scarborough.
He also was one of the original race organizers of the popular annual Egg Nog Jog in December, which has raised approximately $200,000 for numerous community groups since its inception.
Eustace Collins
Builder
The man who held many titles within the Georgetown Soccer Club could probably best be described as the organization’s ambassador.
He could be found on most weeknights at his usual perch on a picnic table beside the willow tree at Cedarvale Park taking in the action, while sharing his vast knowledge of the game with the kids.
He died last April at the age of 63.
A manager in the Town of Halton Hills finance & adminstration department, Collins was active on many fronts with the GSC since 1995, including as a rep coach for girls’ and boys’ teams, indoors and outdoors, ranging in age from 8-18, along with serving as a skills instructor/mentor coach.
He held numerous roles with the GSC since joining the board of directors in 1999, as registrar and board member and guided Georgetown’s under-17 girls’ Mustangs to the South Region Soccer League championship in 2008.
In 2012, the native of St. Kitts was named as one of three Ontario Soccer Association Club Excellence Volunteer of the Year Award recipients.
Ron Dixon
Athlete/Builder
The 1984 Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award recipient enjoyed an illustrious 12-year intermediate playing career here during the 1950s and went on to coach youth teams for many years afterward.
Dixon, who passed away in 1999 at the age of 67, started in Georgetown as a junior and became a high-scoring right-winger for the Georgetown Raiders of the 1950s that won the OHA Intermediate ‘A’ title in 1956-57 and the ‘B’ championship in 1958-59, along with two runner-up finishes in that decade.
The Regina, Sask. native moved on to coaching following his playing days and posted undefeated regular seasons twice in four years with the Georgetown bantam all-stars, bowing out in the all-Ontario semifinals on both occasions while winning the popular Georgetown International Bantam Tournament in 1967.
Dixon coached several players who were drafted by Jr. A and NHL clubs, including Ron Fogal and Gary McFadyen.
He also enjoyed success with the Georgetown midgets for a few years and had brief bench stints with the Jr. B Gemini and the Intermediate Raiders.
Susan (Craig) Kuck
Athlete
A three-time First Team All-Canadian in volleyball as the setter with York University in the early 1990s, Susan Kuck (nee Craig) was a key component for the Yeowomen in their remarkable run of four consecutive Ontario titles and two bronze medals at the national championships.
The Acton native was effective at the net as an attacker and translated her skills as a star point guard in basketball to the volleyball court as a setter in high school with her hometown Redmen, with whom she won OFSAA ‘A’ gold medals in 1987-88.
A versatile athlete who also excelled in basketball, skiing and gymnastics, Kuck was also an outstanding student, earning a degree in physical education and economics from York.
She represented Canada on its junior national team in 1989, at the World Student Games in England in 2001 and on the bronze medalist team in Buffalo in 2003.
She was inducted into York University’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Following her days at York, Kuck played professionally in Germany and now resides in Montpellier, France with her husband and two teenage daughters, teaching English at the university level.
Gord Lyons
Builder
The founder of the Halton Hills Minor Lacrosse Association in 1999, Gord Lyons felt that merging the Georgetown Gators and Acton Rams youth organizations would support healthy rep and house league competition.
Halton Hills soon rose to become one of the hotbeds of lacrosse in Ontario, producing many players who moved on to the National Lacrosse League or to scholarships in the U.S., along with several ‘A’ provincial minor championships in both field and box.
Lyons, who’ll celebrate his 60th birthday in August, was the first president of the HHMLA and held that position for several years.
He also coached a few successful youth teams and served as an assistant for the Jr. B Bulldogs during their spectacular run to the 2010 Founders’ Cup Canadian title.
As a player, Lyons lined up for Canada at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton and earned a Mann Cup national senior men’s championship in 1980 with the Brampton Excelsiors under coach John McCauley.
The HHMLA’s annual house league championship is now named the Gord Lyons Weekend of Champs.
Finn Poulstrup
Builder
Without his organizational and fundraising efforts as a volunteer, many of Georgetown’s most-notable sporting accomplishments likely would not have been possible.
For the past four decades, the 66-year-old Denmark-born Poulstrup has had his fingerprints on the inner-workings of hockey teams, charities and the Hall of Fame he’s now entering, often spearheading the charge to financially support their existence.
His involvement with various organizations is too numerous to list here, but it includes being a founding member of the Halton Hills Sports Museum & Resource Centre in 2000 and the Kiwanis Club of Georgetown, secretary of what’s now the Ontario Junior Hockey League from 1993-2009, co-chair Stay at Home and Play Campaign to fund the three new arenas in Halton Hills, president of Jr. A Raiders’ hockey club from 1990-97, vice president Georgetown Intermediate ‘A’ Raiders 1979-82, a Level 4 GMHA coach, a Level 3 referee, team sponsorship through the real estate firm he sold last year, Johnson Associates, and general manager of the Georgetown Baseball Association’s Jr. Eagles in 1981.
He received the Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award in 2010 and has helped organize several international exhibition games, along with the successful 2005 Dudley Hewitt Cup Central Canadian Jr. A championship tournament.
It’s estimated that Poulstrup has raised more than $1 million for hockey alone in Georgetown.