Catch You On The Rebound: Legends Live Here!
The Wood Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame (WBSHF) recently inducted the Class of 2025 which featured two athletes (Suzette Gillingham, Scottie Upshall both hockey), one coach (Rick Burton, swimming) and one team with Keyano Huskies men’s basketball.
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Recognized as one of Fort McMurray’s greatest hockey talents, Upshall was only 16 years-of-age when he helped the Fort McMurray Oil Barons capture the 2000 Royal Bank Cup. Which to date is the greatest moment in local sports history!
A WHL Rookie of the Year with Kamloops, Upshall was part of Team Canada at the World Juniors (2002, 2003) claiming silver medal status both skates.
Drafted sixth overall in 2002 by Nashville Predators, Upshall would play 759-games accumulating 285 points with six teams.
Calder Cup (2004), World Championship silver (2009), and Spengler Cup gold (2020) also accomplished.
His Oil Barons jersey was retired in 2015.
Heading from the ice to water, we witnessed the success of Rick Burton for 15 years (1992–2007) when he was head coach of the Fort McMurray Mantas Swim Club.
The club grew from 18 to 250 swimmers, producing national and international talent, including Olympian Mark Versfeld.
Burton also led Team Alberta and guided the Keyano Huskies swim team.
Away from the pool he found time to become one of the top amateur golfers in our city.
Suzette Gillingham was a trailblazer in women’s hockey, starting in local boys’ leagues before making history with Team Alberta women’s gold medal at the 1991 Canada Winter Games.
For many years she drove up-and-down Highway 63 to play for the Edmonton Chimos women’s senior national championship team. She has, been inducted not once but twice, into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame.
Our Keyano Huskies men’s basketball team made history in 2024 by winning their first-ever CCAA national champioship—and the first national title in any sport for Keyano College since joining the ACAC in 1985.
Former head coach Jeremy Wielenga got the local community fired up about the game and Huskies sports in general.
Local arts & culture enthusiasts look to the Buffy Awards as a must-attend awards event to celebrate what they do. It is a gala evening. The WBSHF now faces a different challenge in filling the seats when the fact shows that a large portion of local sports organizations already have their own night to celebrate achievements in their particulate sport.
Guest speakers may only draw so much attention. We need to get behind our hometown heroes. We don’t want this annual event (started in 2007 with a brief hiatus) to become “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.”
I had the honour to present Mayor Sandy Bowman with the Fort McMurray Sports Timeline. Its been a volunteer project for a few years with 66,000 words and more than 110 local sports
Guest Speaker was Beckie Scott, three time Olympian with two gold medals in cross country skiing. The event was organized by the WBSHF and Wood Buffalo Sports Connection.
Congrats to Jeff Coles and Curtis O’Brien for their induction into the Alberta Softball Hall of Fame. Both men have been part of the Taber Oilmens men’s softball dynasty.
The sport has a rich history here with the Carlin Enterprises winning the 1972 Western Canadian Girls Championships. The sport was prime time in the 1980s and several provincial titles.
Pam Willier was named a 1986 All Conference for Mesa Community College Thunderbirds down Arizona way and in 1987 The Father Patrick Mercredi Trappers throttled Composite Miners 21-2 in girl’s softball to win the year-long Challenge Cup competition.
Catch you on the rebound!
Photos:
YMM Columnist Curtis J. Phillips (left) presents Mayor Sandy Bowman with a History of Fort McMurray Sports Timeline.
Inductee Suzette Gillingham stands beside a original painting by local artist Kelvin Sawatzky that highlights the Class of 2025
Inductee Rick Burton was inducted into the coach category due to his years with the Fort McMurray Mantas Swim Club.
About the author
Curtis J. Phillips
Honoured with the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2022, Phillips has been a Founding Father of various sports events and organizations, including the high school Challenge Cup (1984) and Wood Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame (2000). He has been inducted into three Sports Halls of Fame to date and was the inaugural recipient of two national tributes recognizing community involvement.