SMC Pres in Brockville Sports Hall of Fame

The Brockville and Area Sports Hall of Fame inducted its five newest members for the lobby wall of the Memorial Centre on June 10th.

With the well-deserved addition of Steve McAllister, Jim Hale, Roy Pyke, Jim Vickery and George Hunter (deceased), there are now an even 100 plaques recognizing the sports accomplishments and achievements of Brockville and area.

It’s an awe-inspiring wall to see and even more emotional to receive a spot there.

“I said it last night. There are so many amazing people up there,” said Jim Vickery. “There’s provincial champions, Canadian champions, world champions. I was concerned that I even belonged up there.”

Steve McAllister, now President of Sports Media Canada, who has spent 30 years in the sportswriting and sports business, is joining a wall of athletes he had watched play when he was a youth growing up in Prescott. He’s the first journalist to be inducted.

SMC President Steve McAllister

“A thrill to be inducted with Roy Pyke,” said McAllister. “I grew up watching Roy catch Roger Hodgkinson with the Commercial Stars. Then I see Garry Bates and Ernie Metcalfe. I watched them a lot as a kid. I’ve never been intimidated in covering pro athletes as I was always around and watching star athletes as I grew up in this area,” he continued.

McAllister, the Prescott native who wrote national sports for The Canadian Press for five years, was the sports editor for The Globe and Mail in Toronto for nine years and is currently the Managing Sports Editor of Yahoo! Canada.

“I was just a mediocre athlete but it’s special for me to be in the Brockville and Area Sports Hall of Fame,” said McAllister. Joining his father Lionel and uncle Les McAllister in the Hall of Fame, McAllister noted he didn’t comprehend the magnitude of the event until he arrived at the sports awards dinner, then, the honour began to sink in.

“Last night (Thursday) was really special. This is the highlight of my career,” said McAllister, who turns 51 at the end of the month. “I’d like to thank the Hall of Fame Selection Committee for allowing a guy from Prescott to come home and enjoy his fifteen minutes of fame among his friends, family and this area’s real sporting heroes past and present. I’m truly a lucky man!”

The casual, 60-minute ceremony recognized the returning Hall of Famers along with the newest inductees. The city-sponsored event was the second of the three-day Sports Hall of Fame weekend.