HIGH ACHIEVERS: Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame welcomes 3 players, 1 doctor, 1 media member, 2 teams

By Martin Cleary

On a fall day in 1974, the Ottawa Sooners junior football team had a less than inspiring practice session that didn’t sit well with head coach Jim Chiarelli.

In a post-practice, dressing-room meeting, Chiarelli asked every player why they were there. He received standard, sometimes, cliche answers, but not when he came to the soft-spoken Phil Ireland.

“‘Cause I get off on it, man,” Ireland reportedly said, according to teammate Earl Dooley.

That struck a nerve with Chiarelli and the coaching staff. A second later, the tension dissolved into laughter.

A few months later, Ireland died in a car accident.

But his message lived on, all the way to the Sooners’ fourth Canadian junior football championship appearance in seven years in 1974.

After losing the 1973 national championship, the Sooners, carrying Ireland’s motivating message in their mental playbooks, defeated the Vancouver Meralomas 17-4 in Vancouver for their first-ever Canadian junior football title.

Fifty years later, it’s time to celebrate that remarkable achievement again in a big civic manner.

The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame announced Tuesday its class of 2024 inductees and honoured teams, including the 1974 Sooners.

Tickets to the May 28 banquet at Lansdowne Park’s Horticultural Building are $125 each or $1,200 for a table and can be purchased at OttawaSportHall.ca.

The Sooners will honoured at the milestone 50th anniversary of their win, along with the 1999 Ottawa 67’s Memorial Cup-champion squad from 25 years ago.

Previously, the Hall inducted four other teams in the past 26 years – the 1948 RCAF Flyers hockey team (1998), the 1975 University of Ottawa Gee-Gees football team (2015), the 1968 Ottawa Rough Riders (2019) and the 1969 Ottawa Rough Riders (2019).

The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame also will induct athletes Luke Richardson (hockey), Mike Bullard (hockey) and Lyndon Hooper (soccer) as well as builders Dr. Mark Aubry (sport medicine) and James Duthie (media).

Ireland’s heartfelt comment not only brought laughter to a tense situation, but also served as a driving force for each player for the rest of the 1974 football season.

“We were all touched and inspired by the clarity of Phil’s response,” Dooley wrote in a letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen on Nov. 26, 1994. “It focused for us, precisely, above all else, why we were there – because we loved to play the game.

“Phil died tragically a few weeks later in a car accident. We went on to win the Little Grey Cup – the result of a number of factors, but underlying it all was Phil’s clearly expressed sentiment – we ‘got off’ on the game.

“Now, 20 years later, when I look at our team photo and don’t see Phil, my throat tightens for I know the value of his contributions to that winning season.”

Mike Morris and Ed Raicevic counted the Sooners’ touchdowns in the rainy 1974 national championship game, while J.T. Hay kicked two converts and a single and the team was credited with a safety touch.

The City of Ottawa honoured the Sooners with a civic banquet and the 500 attendees saw the players and coaches each receive a colourful Hudson Bay coat. The Ontario government gave each of the 36 players and the coaching staff a commemorative plaque.

In 1974, the Sooners moved to the new Imperial Junior Football Conference (formerly the Ontario Junior Football Conference) from the Quebec Junior Football League.

The Sooners posted an 8-2 regular-season record and won the Eastern Canadian junior title by a two-game, total-point margin of 33-30 over the Hamilton Hurricanes to qualify for the national championship. Earlier, they defeated Verdun 27-17 (quarterfinals) and Niagara 69-14 (two-game, semifinal).

1998-99 OTTAWA 67’S

A quarter century ago, the Ottawa 67’s won their last Memorial Cup national junior hockey championship in 1999. The 1998-99 season also was Jeff Hunt’s first season of team ownership with the 67’s.

But it was far from a smooth ride to the national title. After placing second in the OHL’s East Conference at 48-13-7, the 67’s swept North Bay Centennials 4-0 in the opening round of the playoffs. But they were ousted from the OHL post season by Belleville Bulls 4-1 in the conference semifinals.

The 67’s had to endure a multi-week break before they could play host to the Memorial Cup, but they were ready for it. The 67’s defeated Acadie-Bathurst Titan 5-1 and Calgary Hitmen 4-3 before losing to Belleville 5-4 in double overtime in the round-robin games and finishing in a three-way tie for first place.

In back-to-back, elimination playoff games, Ottawa defeated Belleville 4-2 in the semifinals and Matt Zultek counted the winning goal in overtime to give the 67’s a 7-6 victory over Calgary in the final in front of a sold-out Civic Centre crowd of more than 10,500.

Zultek was one of a dozen 67’s players from that team who were selected in the NHL entry drafts between 1996 and 2001. But only four of the players – defencemen Nick Boynton, Luke Sellars and Brian Campbell and forward Mark Bell – actually played a game in the league. Zenon Konopka wasn’t drafted, but worked his way into the NHL for 346 games.

Campbell was a standout for the 67’s that season as an OHL first-team all-star and the winner of three major league awards – MVP, most outstanding defenceman and most sportsmanlike player.

After the Memorial Cup, Campbell earned the sportsmanship award, while Boynton was the MVP and Justin Davis was the top scorer with three goals and six assists in five games.

LUKE RICHARDSON

When it came to defensive defencemen, Luke Richardson was the perfect model.

And his 21-year marathon career is a rarity in the NHL. He is one of only 41 players who have skated in the league for 21 years or longer. He was on the blue line for 1,417 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators.

Richardson, who is now the head coach of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, was drafted by Toronto in 1987 from the Peterborough Petes and played 78 games with the Maple Leafs as an 18-year-old rookie, counting four goals and six assists. He finished his career with 35 goals and 201 points.

The former Ottawa West Golden Knights player finished his career with Ottawa. He played 76 games for the Senators in 2007-08 and two games in 2008-09, compiling two goals and seven assists.

Richardson, who was an NHL assistant coach with Ottawa, New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens before becoming Chicago’s head coach in 2022, and his wife Stephanie were instrumental in raising awareness and money to support youth mental health initiatives. In 2010, they launched ‘Do It For Daron,’ following the tragic death of their 14-year-old daughter by suicide.

MIKE BULLARD

During his 11 NHL seasons with five teams, Mike Bullard knew how to not only score goals, but also set up his teammates.

Selected ninth overall by Pittsburgh in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft, he skated seven seasons with the Penguins and counted 51 goals and 41 assists in 1983-84, and 41 goals and 42 assists in 1985-86.

In his second of two seasons with the Calgary Flames, he broke the century-point mark with 48 goals and 55 assists for 103 points. Bullard played 727 career regular-season NHL games, scored 329 goals and added 345 assists.

The closest he came to reaching a Stanley Cup final was with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1988-89. The Flyers lost to the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 in the Prince of Wales Conference championship. In 19 playoff games, he had three goals and nine assists.

LYNDON HOOPER

For 16 years between 1986 and 2005, Lyndon Hooper was a steady and effective midfielder, whether it was outdoor, indoor or national team soccer.

His lengthy list of teams included the Toronto Blizzard, Montreal Supra, Montreal Impact and the Toronto Lynx in the National Soccer League or the A-League.

A two-time CIAU All-Canadian while attending Wilfrid Laurier University, Hooper played 68 games and scored three goals for the Canadian national men’s team between 1986 and 1997. He is ranked ninth on the all-time list for games played for the national men’s team.

He returned to amateur soccer for the 2005-06 season and helped Scarborough GS United win the Canadian club senior open men’s championship. In 2007, the Guyana-born Hooper, whose first Canadian soccer team was the Nepean Hotspurs, was inducted onto the Nepean Sports Wall of Fame in 2007.

Hooper, whose sister Charmaine was inducted into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame in 2013, is the co-ordinator, coach development for Ontario Soccer.

DR. MARK AUBRY

A family physician and sports medicine specialist, Dr. Mark Aubry has a strong connection to Ottawa professional sports teams as well as the international scene.

He researched and lectured on concussions, played a leadership role in safety in sport and is an activist for injury prevention in minor hockey.

Aubry served as the chief medical officer for the International Ice Hockey Federation and Hockey Canada and held that role with the Canadian teams at the 1991 World University Games and the 1992 Winter Olympics.

He is a team doctor for the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and was team physician for the Ottawa Rough Riders (1983-2005) and the Ottawa 67’s (1996-2005).

The former University of Ottawa student-athlete has won the Paul Loicq Award for his international work, the Dr. Tom Pashby Sports Safety Fund Award for Canada and the USA Hockey Excellence in Safety Award for the United States.

JAMES DUTHIE

For about 25 years, James Duthie has been an integral part of the TSN television broadcasting team.

Sharp-witted and entertaining, the former CJOH sportscaster has won eight Canadian Screen Awards and three Gemini Awards for his hosting or sports coverage.

Duthie, who earned his journalism degree at Carleton University, is the host of TSN’s extensive and award-winning hockey coverage. He also contributes to other major sports presentations like The Masters golf, the Super Bowl and the CFL playoffs and Grey Cup.

He has written four books, including They Call me Killer, which is about the legendary Ottawa 67’s head coach Brian Kilrea, and is host of The Rubber Boots Podcast.

The City of Ottawa presented Duthie with the key to the city in 2022.

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