Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame has announced its class of 2019.
Among the honourees are late former Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback and punter Bernie Faloney, Paralympian Hilda May Binns, track and field stars Nancy Lewington and Paula Schnurr and former McMaster Marauders volleyball coach and athletics director Thérèse Quigley.
The honourees will be inducted on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at a lunch reception at Michelangelo Events and Conference Centre in Hamilton.
Tickets can be purchased for $45 at Hutch’s on the Beach, United Trophy and R&R Trophy & Award in Burlington.
The honourees
Bernie Faloney
Bernie Faloney, who was born in Carnegie, Penn., played 13 Canadian Football League seasons with the Edmonton Eskimos (1954), Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1957-64), Montreal Alouettes (1965-66) and B.C. Lions (1967).
The football player died in Hamilton on June 14, 1999, after a battle with colon cancer. Prior to his death, he served as the spokesperson of the newly formed Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada.
Faloney was also previously inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. He served two years in the U.S. Air Force after a collegiate career at the University of Maryland, where he finished fourth in the balloting for the 1953 Heisman Trophy.
The young football star was also a quarterback when the Maryland team became NCAA Division I-A national football champions and played in the 1954 Orange Bowl.
After university, he was drafted by the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and offered $9,000 to play defensive back and backup quarterback but instead chose the CFL route.
Faloney would go on to win three Grey Cups — first with Edmonton in 1954, then with Hamilton in 1957 and 1963.
In the CFL, Faloney was the first to quarterback to lead both east and west division teams to championship titles.
The five-time CFL East All-Star and 1961’s Most Outstanding Player finished with 1,493 pass completions for 24,264 yards and 153 touchdowns.
Faloney also had his number — 10 — retired by the Tiger-Cats in 1999, and he is enshrined in the Pennsylvania, West Pennsylvania and University of Maryland halls of fame.
A portion of Cannon Street in Hamilton near Tim Hortons Field was renamed Faloney Way in his honour.
After retiring from the CFL in 1967, Faloney started a construction company in Hamilton.
Hilda May Binns
Hilda May Binns won Canada’s first Paralympic gold medal in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1968. The Hamilton north-ender is a graduate of Westdale Secondary School, where she competed in track and field and swimming.
She won 58 medals over four years — six Paralympic and 18 Parapan American Games medals — and captured 34 Canadian championships. Her accomplishments were detailed in the book For the Record: Canada’s Greatest Women Athletes.
Binns was nine years old when she lost the use of her legs to polio. She became a founding member of the Steel City Wheelers as well as the Ontario Wheelchair Sports Association. She was also secretary of the Hamilton Post Polio Association and a member of the Hamilton Handicapped Club.
In 2018, she was inducted into Hamilton’s Gallery of Distinction.
Nancy Lewington
Nancy Lewington is a former Olympian who competed in both the 100-metre sprint and 4 x 100-metre relay at the 1960 Summer Games in Rome.
She made it to the semifinal stage before withdrawing with a leg injury.
The Delta High School grad collected over 100 medals, trophies and other awards at the midget and juvenile levels in events such as the 91st Highlanders and the Canusa Games.
She also competed in the Ontario Junior Championships, winning the 60-yard dash as a midget, and participated in the Eastern Canada Track and Field Championships.
Lewington has been a breast cancer survivor for more than 20 years and, following her track career, went on to teach and coach at several Hamilton elementary and high schools.
Thérèse Quigley
Thérèse Quigley arrived at McMaster University in 1984 as the women’s volleyball coach after competing as a player with the Western Mustangs.
She was named athletics director in 1990, a position she held for 18 years.
In 2003, Quigley was recognized by her peers as the International Athletic Director of the Year. She is widely credited for the rise of McMaster as one of the top athletic programs in the country.
Quigley was at the helm during the school’s building of the Ron Joyce Stadium, the David Braley Athletic Centre and Sport Medicine Clinic, Alumni Field, the Alpine Tower and major renovations to the Ivor Wynne Centre.
She is also credited with the inclusion of women’s soccer in the Summer Universiade and hosting the very first FISU women’s soccer championships at McMaster in 1993.
In 2009, Quigley returned to her alma mater, Western University, as director of sport and recreation services.
She retired in 2016.
Paula Schnurr
Paula Schnurr is a two-time Olympian, competing in the 1,500-metre track event at both the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics.
She was a decorated varsity track and cross country athlete at McMaster University, winning 28 OWIAA indoor and outdoor medals, 18 of which were gold.
The Kirkland Lake native also set CIAU records at both 1,000 metres and 1,500 metres.
In 1987, Schnurr captured the silver medal in the OWIAA Cross-Country Championships.
She was a five-time CIAU All-Canadian and was named as the top performer at the 1988 CIAU Track and Field Championships.
Schnurr is a graduate of Burlington Assumption Catholic Secondary School and won the Thérèse Quigley Award as the Marauders’ Female Athlete of the Year in each of the first four seasons of its existence between 1985 and 1988.
Schnurr was inducted into the McMaster Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998 and was also enshrined in the Athletics Ontario Hall of Fame in 2015.
Schnurr would go on to teach at the Halton Catholic District School Board and coach cross-country and track at McMaster.
She completed her 16th season as head coach with the Marauders in 2018-19.
Schnurr was also the first female coach of a men’s cross-country program in Ontario university history.
Comments