Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (; sometimes referred to as the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame) is a Canadian sports

hall of fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

and

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. Dedicated to the history of

sports in Canada Sports in Canada consist of a wide variety of games. The roots of organized sports in Canada date back to the 1770s. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey and lacrosse. Other major professional games include curling, basketball, bas ...

, it serves as a

and museum for accomplished Canadian athletes, and sports builders and officials. Established in 1955, the organization inducted its first class of hall of famers, and opened a museum to the public that year. The museum was originally located at

Exhibition Place Exhibition Place is a publicly owned mixed-use district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located by the shoreline of Lake Ontario, just west of downtown. The site includes exhibit, trade, and banquet centres, theatre and music buildings, monuments, ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. In 1957, the hall of fame moved to another facility at Exhibition Place, then moved into a new building to share space with the

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame () is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and National Hockey Le ...

in 1961. The two halls of fame continued to share facilities until 1993, when the Hockey Hall of Fame moved to a different location. Canada's Sports Hall of Fame became the building's sole occupant until it was closed in 2006 to make way for

BMO Field BMO Field is an outdoor stadium located at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Constructed on the former Exhibition Stadium site and first opened in 2007, it is the home field of Toronto FC of Major League Soccer (MLS) and Toronto Ar ...

. The organization continued to induct honourees to its hall of fame, although a new facility to house its museum was not completed until 2011. The facility was opened at

Canada Olympic Park Canada Olympic Park (COP), formerly known as Paskapoo Ski Hill, is a ski hill and multi-purpose training and competition facility located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, owned and operated by WinSport. It is currently used both for high performance ...

in Calgary, and houses the organization's offices and hall of fame museum. As of 2022, there were 668 inductees into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, categorized either as athletes, or as builders of the sport. Inductees are nominated by the Canadian public, though are ultimately selected by the organization's selection committee. In addition to inductions into its hall of fame, the organization has also conferred awards for accomplishments in sport, and in the larger community.

History

Efforts to create a national sports hall of fame were spurred by Harry Price, the chairman of the sports committee of the

Canadian National Exhibition The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), also known as The Exhibition or The Ex, is an annual fair that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the third Friday of August leading up to and including Labour Day (Canada), ...

, who began to travel across Canada in 1947 to gather support for a museum and hall of fame. The hall of fame museum was formally opened on 24 August 1955, at

Stanley Barracks New Fort York, later the Stanley Barracks, is a former British and Canadian military base in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It was built in 1840–1841 to replace Toronto's original Fort York at the mouth of Ga ...

. In 1957, the hall of fame was relocated to the Press Building in Exhibition Place, sharing the facilities with the

. After the Hockey Hall of Fame announced it would build a new museum and hall of fame building at Exhibition Place in 1958, it extended an invitation to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame to move into its new facility. The Hall of Fame building opened in 1961, and a new wing was added for the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1967, at a cost of . Canada's Sports Hall of Fame would share the same building with the Hockey Hall of Fame until 1993, when the Hockey Hall of Fame moved into Brookfield Place in

downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main city centre of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the nor ...

. The move of the Hockey Hall of Fame to downtown Toronto led to a decline in attendance at Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in the late 1990s. A plan was proposed to move the hall of fame to the former train station in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. However, the federal government cancelled those plans in 1999. Canada's Sports Hall of Fame closed its museum to the public in 2006, with the building being demolished to make way for

. The organization placed its collections in storage at Stanley Barracks, until a new facility to house the museum was completed. In 2008, the hall of fame's board of governors announced a national bid for a new permanent location for the museum. Nine cities submitted bids to host the museum, although the city of

was eventually selected. Constructed at

, funding was provided by the federal, provincial, and municipal governments and private funds. The federal government contributed to the construction budget, whereas the provincial government contributed C$10 million, and the municipal government contributing . Canada's Sports Hall of Fame was tasked with raising an additional to help pay operational expenses. The building opened to the public on 1 July 2011. In 2019, the hall of fame introduced the People's Choice Award, to recognize an individual sport champion who also contributes to charities and local communities. The inaugural winner of the award was champion golfer and 9-time winner on the

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly ...

, Brooke Henderson. In the same year, the organization also introduced the Order of Sport Award, which served as a physical award for being inducted to the hall of fame. As a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the hall of fame's museum was closed in April 2020, and was reorganized into a digital museum.

Building

The hall of fame and museum building is located on Canada Olympic Road, at

, a ski hill and multi-purpose training and competition facility in Calgary. Completed in 2011, Canada's Hall of Fame building was designed by

Stantec Stantec Inc. is an international professional services company in the design and consulting industry. The company was founded in 1954, as ''D. R. Stanley Associates'' in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Stantec provides professional consulting servi ...

, on behalf of CANA Construction, the project manager and design-lead for the museum. The exterior facade with its

cantilevered A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

structure, was designed to mimic the elevated platforms where athletes receive their medals. The building colour of red and white was taken from the colours of the

flag of Canada The National Flag of Canada (), popularly referred to as The Maple Leaf or l'Unifolié (), consists of a red field with a white square at its centre in the ratio of , in which is featured one stylized, red, 11-pointed maple leaf Charge (hera ...

. The structure was designed to be a

sustainable building Green building (also known as green construction, sustainable building, or eco-friendly building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's l ...

, and received LEED Silver certification. The interior of the building is made of three components, the museum and exhibition halls, the organization's office space, and storage space for the museum's collections. All components of the building are connected through a -storey atrium.

Former museum space

Prior to the closure of its museum in 2020, the museum and exhibit hall were housed in a purpose-designed on the upper level of the building, with the upper level having more floor area than the floor below it. The museum space took up approximately of the building's floor space. The upper level is perched on the glass and steel structure, and cantilevers above the lower floor, creating the illusion that the upper level was floating. The cantilevered area also held exhibits on individual sports. The museum space featured twelve galleries, a theatre, and interactive exhibits on the hall of fame's inductees, and Canadian sport. The museum's twelve themed galleries located on various levels, were separated by a "series of bays". The exhibits are designed to circulate around the museum's central atrium or the "Grand Hall," which houses six national trophy exhibits. The design of the museum exhibits was done by

Cambridge Seven Associates Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc., stylized as CambridgeSeven, and sometimes as C7A, is an American architecture firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Buildings designed by the firm have included academic, museum, exhibit, hospitality, transpor ...

. The museum's collections includes over 60,000 photographs, and 100,000 artifacts. After the museum space was closed, artifacts belong to the hall of fame were transferred to the

Canadian Museum of History The Canadian Museum of History () is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage of Canada, as well as support related res ...

for safekeeping in 2023.

Inductees

As of November 2019, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame had over 670 inductees, categorized either as athletes or builders of the sport. Beginning with the induction of the 2019 class of hall of famers, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame began to issue the

Order of Sport The Order of Sport is a national level award established in 2019 by Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. It is awarded alongside induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and regarded as Canada's highest sporting honour. Overview Canada’s Sp ...

award to inductees, as a physical token of their induction into the hall of fame. Hall of famers that were inducted prior to 2019 were all retroactively made "peers" of the order, upon its creation. Nominations for inductees are accepted from the Canadian public throughout the year. Athletes nominated are required to have been retired for at least four years, although builders may be nominated when they are still active in their careers. Animals and inanimate objects may be considered for induction, although their nomination requires the approval of the Hall's Board of Governors. A new group of inductees has been introduced into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame annually since its inception in 1955. The annual election of nominees is chosen through a selection committee of ten to 16 people.

Canadian sport legends class

On June 17, 2015, the Hall of Fame introduced the Sport Legends class of inductees, made up of athletes whose careers occurred before 1955. The creation of the Sport Legend class was undertaken in commemoration of the

150th anniversary of Canada The 150th anniversary of Canada, also known as the 150th anniversary of Confederation and promoted by the Government of Canada, Canadian government as Canada 150, occurred in 2017 as Canada marked the sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederati ...

. Athletes * George Burleigh * William Cecil Billy Christmas * Alex Decoteau * Carol Ann Duthie * Alfred Cam Ecclestone * Larry Gains * Bob Goldham * Gerald Gratton * Robina Higgins Haight * Barbara Howard * Bill Isaacs * Joe Keeper * Johnny Loaring * Harry Xul-si-malt Manson * Vincent McIntyre * Robert McLeod * Aileen Meagher * Albert Murray * Charles Murray * Alf Philips * Robert Pirie *

Robert Powell Robert Thomas Powell ( ; born 1 June 1944) is an English actor who is known for the title roles in '' Mahler'' (1974) and '' Jesus of Nazareth'' (1977), and for his portrayal of secret agent Richard Hannay in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1978) ...

* Harvey Pulford * Robert Scotty Rankine * Hilda Ranscombe * Eileen Whalley Richards * Winnie Roach-Leuszler * Mary Rose Thacker * Elizabeth Whittall * Rhona and Rhoda Wurtele Builders * Earl Bascom *

Frank Calder Frank Sellick Calder (November 17, 1877 – February 4, 1943) was a British-born Canadian ice hockey executive, journalist, and athlete. Calder was the first president of the National Hockey League (NHL), from 1917 until his death in 1943. He ...

* James Creighton * Norton Crow * Sidney Dawes * Jan Eisenhardt * Alexandrine Gibb * Cecil Grenier * Phyllis Griffiths * Frederick James Heather * Frank Read * Melville Marks "Bobby" Robinson * William Shuttleworth * Henry Sotvedt *

Stanley Thompson Stanley Thompson (September 18, 1893 – January 4, 1953) was a Canadian golf course architect, and a high-standard amateur golfer. He was a co-founder of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Early life, family, education, and mili ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Canada's Sports Hall Of Fame 1955 establishments in Alberta All-sports halls of fame Awards established in 1955 Canadian sports trophies and awards sports Museums in Calgary Sport in Calgary Sports museums in Canada