"He'd walk to every sporting event, even in -40 weather," Dennis Korte said of Elgar Petersen, famed Humboldt resident for his long association with the Humboldt Broncos hockey franchise.
"Nothing would keep him away; he'd be at all the games, hockey, baseball, you name it. Elgar would walk everywhere."
Arnold "Boots" Dust.
"Funny story about Boots,"Korte recalled with a smile, about the local sports name known for his affiliation with sports like water skiing.
"He loved water skiing so much that he even made his kids a pair of skis from scratch. Years later when we were doing the hall of fame, someone came forward saying they had actually found a pair of old water skis that Boots had made. Incredible," Korte said.
The 1986 Muyres brothers curling team.
The 1977 HCI girls curling team.
Ted Senko.
Wade Weseen.
Roger Haryett.
Many names from all around the Humboldt region who made an impact on the area's sports culture, whether as an athlete, coach, organizer or trainer, like Petersen.
Their faces are proudly displayed in the Humboldt Sports Hall of Fame, found aligning the walls of the Uniplex; their artifacts, from tethered baseball gloves to tarnished trophies, occupy a corner room of the Humboldt and District Museum.
"We're working on getting more space though," said Aaron Lukan of the Sports Hall of Fame. "We just have so much stuff to displayit's a good thing," he laughed.
Established in October 1987, the Humboldt Sports Hall of Fame's inaugural inductees were Leo Weber, Sylvester Strueby, Edward Saretsky, the 1949 Canadian high school curling champions and of course, Mr. Goalie himself, Glenn Hall.
The reason for the hall of fame is simple: Many notable athletes, whether known locally or internationally, grew up amid the vast canola fields of this area and though they may have traded in the gravely track at St. Augustine for the hallowed grounds of Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., where Olympian Brianne Theisen-Eaton trains, their roots -where it all started from the moment they laced up their first pair of running shoes or strapped on their first hockey helmet- are found here in Humboldt.
The hall of fame inducts people every two or three years at a special ceremony held at Jubilee Hall in the Uniplex.
Traditionally, the event included speeches from guest speakers but over the years, Korte and Lukan have noticed something that is making this part inessential.
"Everyone looks forward to mingling and catching up with old friends," Korte, who runs the hall of fame, said. "Some people come from out of town to be inducted and it's a real treat for them to see the people they grew up with and get reacquainted. That's the part that people seem to enjoy the most."
So for that reason, the ceremony now includes the induction presentations and speeches by the inductees but the rest of the night is a catered evening of dinner, drinks and hobnobbing with pals.
Right now, the hall of fame is getting ready for the 2014 induction ceremony, to be held in November, with the nominations deadline fast approaching.
The board encourages people to fill out nomination forms for someone they believe is deserving of being honoured along the likes of local athletic royalty.
"It can be anyone who made some sort of an impact on their sportan athlete or coach, a builder who maybe helped out in the sportit's our way of giving them a nod of acknowledgement that their work didn't go unnoticed," Lukan said.
People can be inducted as part of a team or as an athlete/builder.
Everyone who nominated someone will receive a follow-up call from the hall of fame to confirm what induction class they will be a part of.
As is customary with other halls of fame, candidates do not qualify for induction until they've retired from their sporting career.
To nominate someone for the 2014 class, nomination forms are available at the Humboldt and District Museum or on the museum's website at www.humboldtmuseum.ca.
The deadline for nominations is April 30.
