2016 Inductees
When the Georgetown Royal Canadian Legion Branch discontinued its sponsorship of the local minor hockey organization in the late 1950's, Fisher assumed the house league chairman role with the incoming group of volunteers and went on to serve in several other capacities over close to three decades. According to officials with the Georgetown Hockey Heritage Council, Fisher was set to receive it's annual award in 1984, but
passed away at the age of 65, just weeks before the induction ceremony and instead received the posthumous Murray Ezard Award. Fisher a Winnipeg native, spent every Saturday through the fall and winter at the rink, serving as head coach, timekeeper, general manager of registration and chief fundraiser, always carrying draw tickets in his pockets to sell. He also coached minor baseball teams in Georgetown for several years.
Debbie Boycott - Builder, Special Olympics Rhythmic Gymnastics
The Special Olympics Motto is "Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." Boycott has certainly enjoyed success, serving as head coach twice and once as an assistant for Canada's rhythmic gymnastics team at the World Special Olympics Summer Games, during which her athletes earned 76 medals, while also providing young people with intellectual disabilities an opportunity to participate in the sport. The Oakville Butterflies Special Olympics Rhythmic Gymnastics Club was founded by Boycott in 1999 and she served as it's head coach, lead organizer and cheereleader. She became involved to support her daughter Emily who won 15 World Games medals before her retirement last year, but over the years Debbie helped foster the growth and development of Special Olympics rhythmic gymnastics in Ontario and across the country by running training camps and introducing new coaches to the sport. Since Boycott became involved, the number of clubs in the Province has grown to 17 from three in 1999. A native of Thunder Bay, Boycott has received several awards for her involvement, such as the Special Olympics Ontario Female Coach of the Year in 2013 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Halton Down Syndrome Association earlier this year.
Jim Hall - Athlete/Builder, Wrestling
It was the first time that a Waterloo wrestler was victorious at Nationals. As a builder, Hall was three time head coach of the Canadian Schoolboy Team that competed in world championships in New Mexico, California and Montana.
He taught locally at Centennial Middle School in Georgetown and at GDHS. The Arthur, Ontario native coached a variety of sports teams, earning several Halton championships in fast pitch while guiding local wrestlers to numerous provincial and national titles. Hall was also heavily involved in the Ontario Amateur Wrestling Association and conducted certification for coaches.
Colleen Shields - Athlete, Swimming
The puck always seems to find prolific scorers and the Norval native had a knack for being on the winning hockey teams as well. The son of a Russian father and a Latvian mother, Kudrasovs played minor hockey in Georgetown and starred on the only local team that won the Grand Championship at the International Bantam Tournament in 1967. Despite losing the top half of his thumb in a waterskiing accident as a teen, the talented, diminuitive centre enjoyed three solid seasons with the Jr. A. Kitchener Rangers and was a 10th round draft pick of the National Hockey League's Minnesota North Stars. Now 63, Kudrasovs broke into the International Hockey League in 1972-73 with a 34 goal campaign and went on to win the Turner Cup with the Toledo Goaldiggers as team captain, leading scorer and MVP, netting the clinching goal in the seventh and deciding game. Kudrasovs returned to Georgetown to play for the Intermediate A Raiders for six seasons, resulting in five OHA titles and the Hardy Cup Canadian championship in 1982.
2017 Inductees
NOREEN ATKINSON - BUILDER - SOFTBALL FAST PITCH UMPIRE
Forty-five years of umpiring experience from local rural diamonds to world championships, and Atkinson still witnesses plays she’s never seen before or comes across situations that aren’t covered by the rule book.
An elite-level catcher as a youth, she was recruited at age 12 to work Kinsmen Girls’ Softball League games. Atkinson soon moved up to the Georgetown Men’s Industrial League and worked her way through the ranks to become a Softball Canada Level 5 official, later achieving International Softball Federation certification.
She participated in several Canadian championships as both an umpire and supervisor.
The 56-year-old holds a master’s degree in education and officiated at international tournaments including the 2007 Jr. Women’s World Championship in the Netherlands, the 2012 Women’s World Championship in the Yukon, and the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.
Atkinson received the Jim Bradford Memorial Award in 2008 as the Ontario-based umpire who best exemplifies the characteristics of leadership, an educator and evaluator.
She was also a member of the Softball Canada’s Officials Development Committee (ODC) and continues to conduct umpire clinics locally and around the GTA.
JONATHAN CORNWELL - ATHLETE - MOTORCYCLE RACIN
Whether it was on the road, ice, dirt or short track, the 55-year-old Cornwell’s prowess on two wheels is directly attributed to a strong family tradition of riding motorcycles.
The Kingston, Ont. native’s grandfather rode British bikes following the Second World War and his father Norm, a mechanical engineer who died when Jon was just 17, instilled in him a deep passion for racing and a knowledge of how the machines worked.
Inducted into the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2011, Cornwell won several Canadian championships in multiple disciplines such as 250cc expert, mostly in the 1980s as a Georgetown resident.
He regularly competed in the U.S., qualifying for four national championships there, and in European spiked-tire ice and endurance events.
Retiring from professional competitive racing in 1994, the GDHS grad joined Swedish suspension manufacturer Ohlins on the World Superbike Circuit, contributing to the victories of several riders.
Cornwell now calls Erin home and works for Ohlins as its U.S. road racing technical manager. He is considered by his peers as one of the most knowledgeable suspension technicians in North America.
HUGO DITTFACH - ATHLETE - JOCKEY, THOROUGHBRED HORSE RACING
A refugee from East Germany after the Second World War who arrived in Canada with no knowledge of horse racing, Dittfach was working in a Calgary restaurant when a diner suggested that the young busboy had a suitable body type to become a jockey.
Having spent time in a concentration camp in Poland, he burst onto the thoroughbred racing scene in western Canada as an 18-year-old in the mid-1950s, taking on more mounts than any of his competitors before moving to Ontario.
‘Hustlin’ Hugo’ went on to have a 33-year career as a jockey and won more than 4,000 races, highlighted in 1991 when he received the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award for his achievements and contributions to the sport.
His resume´ includes a Queen’s Plate in 1991, five Prince of Wales Stakes’ titles and four Valedictory Stakes’ wins, 4,092 second-place finishes, 6,113 thirds, and $13,506,502 in earnings — working out to $398 per start across 33,905 rides.
Dittfach earned the Sovereign Award in 1975 as Canada’s best jockey and was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1983, ranked 67th among the world’s top jockeys of all.
MICHAEL MITCHELL - ATHLETE - TENNIS
An all-American and team captain at NCAA Division II West Texas State University, Mitchell has also contributed extensively to the sport of tennis as a builder during his decades-long involvement as a coach and mentor at the university and local levels.
The 56-year-old Sudbury native moved to Georgetown at the age of two and grew up playing on Georgetown’s Gordon Alcott courts. He remains as a coach and mentor with the Halton Hills Tennis Club.
In 1991, Mitchell warmed up against any local youngsters he could find as an amateur in preparation for a match against Canada’s top singles player at the time, Daniel Nestor, whom he led 3-0 at the SunLife men’s national championship before bowing out 6-3, 6-1.
He went on to coach at York University and was named Ontario University Athletics coach of the year three times, guiding the Yeowomen to a provincial championship in 2003 and the men’s squad in 2005, 2007 and 2009.
Mitchell also was appointed head coach for Canada at the World University Games in Serbia in 2009.
Described as an aggressive serve-and-volley player, Mitchell won the Canadian Senior Men’s (over-35) Outdoor Championships doubles’ title in 2000 with partner Alan Trivett of Brampton.
GABBY SZANTO - ATHLETE - TRACK AND FIELD AND SPRINT CANOE KAYAK
High-jump records began to fall in Szanto’s wake as a teen in her native Hungary and she continues to excel at international Masters competitions in both track and field and sprint canoe/kayak.
She competed for Hungary professionally from 1981-87 and still holds national age group records there, but upon emigrating to Canada in 1989 added hurdles, pole vault, long jump, shot put and pentathlon to her repertoire, winning several Ontario and national medals at the university level.
In 1995, she represented her adopted country in heptathlon in the Canada vs. U.S. combined events competition.
She lists her gold-medal performances in the pole vault at the World Masters Championships in Australia in 2001 and Finland in 2012 as the highlights of her career, while also holding Canadian Masters records in the pole vault, javelin and shot put.
The owner of a PhD in molecular genetics at Trent University, a master’s of science degree in zoology from the University of Guelph, and post-doctoral fellowship in cancer genetics at York University, Szanto began racing in canoe and kayak events in 2012 and within two years won all of her events at the World Masters Games.
She received nine gold medals at Ontario Masters Athletics events in 2014-15 and three times has been named the organization’s athlete of the year.
2018 INDUCTEES
TRENT CULL - ATHLETE - HOCKEY
After a 10 year career in minor pro leagues as a tough, stalwart defenceman, the 1994 Toronto Maple Leafs' free-agent signee is currently forging another path as the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks' American Hockey League club in Utica, NY.
Cull stepped into the Georgetown Jr. B Raiders as a 15 year old and quickly made the jump to the Ontario Hockey League, playing five seasons with Owen Sound, Windsor and Kingston, earning selection to Canada's under 17 national team.
Youngest of four brothers, the 44 year old Cull's minor pro career included 435 AHL games with St. John's, Springfield, Wilkes-Barre, Houston and Syracuse.
He lifted the Turner Cup championship trophy in 1989 as a member of the Houston Aeros in one of the highlights of his career.
Retirement from playing didn't last long as he accepted an assistant coaching role with the OHL's Guelph Platers for two seasons before moving on to the AHL's Syracuse Crunch as an assistant in the first of two four year stints there.
In between was a three-year tenure as head coach of the OHL Sudbury Wolves and last summer he took on the lead duties with the AHL's Utica Comets, who are trailing the Toronto Marlies 2-0 in their best of five first round playoff series.
DENIS GIBBONS - BUILDER - HOCKEY
A researcher, journalist, book author and former Acton minor hockey volunteer is considered an authority on international hockey history and documenter of the sport's development, having attended seven Winter Olympic Games, eight World Junior Championships and four World Championships.
Gibbons, who turns 75 in August, took great interest in international hockey in 1974 when he visited Moscow as part of the first sports exchange between the Soviet Union and Canada, since then developing a speaking, writing and reading knowledge of Russian, while studying Czech, German, Japanese and Spanish.
The former Independent & Free Press sports editor (1973-78) has been a part-time writer and editor for the Hockey News since 1980, as well as freelance writing for the Globe & Mail and Broadcast News. Gibbons was the chief writer for the official hockey program at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
He was presented with the President's Award in 2014 by the Society for International Hockey Research for his two-plus decades with that organization.
Gibbons, now a Burlington resident, also recently authored a book called Hockey My Door to Europe, in which he shares his many exploits covering international events.
SHAWN HILL - ATHLETE - BASEBALL
For a Canadian, just getting drafted by a major league club is a huge accomplishment and while his promising pitching career was thrown a series of curve balls in the form of arm injuries, the Georgetown Minor Baseball Association graduate is most proud of his diamond memories when wearing a Team Canada jersey.
Drafted by the San Diego Padres in 1999 and again the next year by Montreal, Hill toiled in the minor league system of the Expos for five years until making his debut in 2004 against Philadelphia.
The Mississauga native went 1-2 that season, with the win coming against the Toronto Blue Jays, before multiple injury setbacks, including two Tommy John surgeries, sent the six foot two, 225 pounder to the disabled list for much of five years, save for seven starts with the Washington Nationals in 2007 and three appearances with the Padres in 2009.
He did get to start four games for his hometown Blue Jays in 2010 and in his second go-around with Toronto in 2012.
Hill, who'll celebrate his 37th birthday on April 28, represented Canada at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Greece and tossed a gem in the semifinals, leaving the game with the lead before a turn of events, resulted in the red and white finishing fourth in the tournament.
The Stubby Clapp Award recipient in 2012 from Baseball Canada was on on board for his country as they won gold medals at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2011 and repeated as champs at the Pan Ams in Toronto in 2015, after which Hill retired.
1987-1988 GEORGETOWN JUVENILE AA JUNIOR GEMINI - TEAM
The only Georgetown team to ever win both an Ontario Minor Hockey Association title and North American Silver Stick championship in the same season almost didn't get the change to participate in the latter tournament.
At the regional qualifier in Ajax earlier that season, the Junior Gemini finished second in its division behind the host club and the format stated that only division winners could advance to the final stage.
GMHA executive members and team manager Barb Hanman argued that Georgetown's juveniles had a better record in the qualifier than other teams that had advanced and the organizers in Mooretown concurred, allowing the club to participate.
The Junior Geminis avenged an opening game 5-3 loss to Beamsville to beat the same club 7-2 in the championship game for the North American title baner.
Coached by 2005 Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award recipient Charlie Hanman, the team overcame several player injuries to pull off the rare double in its "miracle season."
Georgetown rolled through the OMHA playoffs, posting an 11-1 record in series wins over Streetsville, Kingston and Grimsby, backed by the superb netminding duo of John Lantz and Joe Balson.
HARRY LAWSON - ATHLETE - BASEBALL
The lifelong Acton resident was a star left-handed pitcher at the youth and Intercounty levels in the 1940s and '50s, so much so that he attracted the interest of some big league teams.
Lawson, who passed away in 1997 at age 65, attended a training camp for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1949 at London, Ont. along with fellow Halton Hills Sports Museum inductee Harold Townsley (2010).
In 1950, Lawson received an invite from the New York Yankees to attend their training camp inSt. Petersburg, Fla. that included superstar Mickey Mantle and the following year the St. Louis Cardinals came calling, offering him a minor league contract.
But Lawson declined, as he'd just married his high school sweetheart, hairdresser Lois Wilson, and didn't feel that the contract offer was lucrative enough to relocate to the U.S.
During his brief time with the Cardinals, however, Lawson became friends with the great Sachel Paige and was given a game worn St. Louis jersey by the first player from the Negro leagues to pitch in a World Series game in 1948.
After his outstanding playing career with the Galt Terriers of the Ontario Senior Intercounty League was over, Lawson remained active in coaching youth baseball and intermediate softball teams in Acton for more than 20 years.
