The Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame (SSHF) announced its 2021 inductees on Thursday with the 2013 Saskatchewan Roughriders Football Club leading the class.
Inducted under the team category, the Roughriders were Grey Cup champions in 2013.
It was the 101st Grey Cup in league history and the last time a championship game was played on Taylor Field. It was also the first time the Roughriders won the Grey Cup on home field.
“It’s pretty special,” said Chris Getzlaf, a receiver on the 2013 Saskatchewan Roughriders. “We had an amazing team that year, went through ups and downs and obviously every CFL team goes into the year with the goal to win the championship and the fact that the championship was going to be played on home turf was a little more significant.
“Having the opportunity now to be inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, goes a long way. I think it means a lot for a lot of guys on the team to get that kind of recognition.”
Joining the Roughriders in the team category is the 2000-01 University of Regina Cougars’ women’s basketball team.
The team was the university’s first Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU, now USports) basketball title after beating the University of Alberta Pandas 94-85 in the final, which took place in Edmonton.
Their 94 points are the most ever scored in a women’s national final.
The team also finished that regular season with 14 wins in a row and finished with a record of 20-2.
In the athlete category, there are five inductees – wrestler Justin Abdou of Moose Jaw, trapshooter Rod Boll of Fillmore, track and cross-country skier Colette Bourgonje of Porcupine Plain, soccer player Kaylyn Kyle of Saskatoon and bobsledder Lyndon Rush of Humboldt.
Abdou finished 13th in the men’s freestyle 85 kg competition in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Summer Games and won a gold medal in the middleweight division at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria.
He also finished fourth at the 1995 Pan-American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Between 1990 and 2001, Abdou won nine Canadian national championships.
Boll tied for 19th in the men’s double trap competition as the double trap in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
He was also member of the Canadian National ‘A’ Team from 1993 to 2005.
Bourgonje was a cross-country runner who competed nationally in high school before she was involved in a serious car crash that left her paraplegic in 1980.
She went on to attend seven winter and three summer Paralympic Games in which she won 10 medals – three silver and seven bronze.
Bourgonje won two bronze medals in the 100m and 800m wheelchair race at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics.
She took home two bronze in the 100m and 200m wheelchair race in the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta 1996.
In the 1998 Nagano Paralympics, Bourgonje won two silver medals in the 2.5km and 5km Para-Nordic sit ski.
She won two bronze medals in 5km freestyle and 10km classic Para-Nordic ski in the 2006 Torino Paralympics.
In the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics, Bourgonje took home a silver in the 10km Para-Nordic sit ski and a bronze in 5km classic Para-Nordic sit ski.
Kyle won a bronze medal with the Canadian women’s soccer team at the 2012 London Olympic Games and appeared in all six matches.
She also competed at two Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women’s World Cups, playing in five games.
Rush was part of two Winter Olympic Games, participating in the 2010 Vancouver Games as part of a four-man bobsled team where he won a Bronze medal.
He and his team finished ninth in both the two-man and four-man bobsled events at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Shannon Miller of Tisdale is being inducted under the builder category for her role in growing hockey in the province.
Miller was head coach for the Canadian women’s national team from 1995-1998. During that time, she won a silver medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics as the only woman head coach in the tournament.
In 1997, Miller was the winning coach of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship.
SSHF said this group was originally selected as 2020 inductees, but due to the coronavirus pandemic their inductions were pushed back to 2021.
“They will be officially enshrined at such a time that is appropriate and allows for safe communal gathering while following all provincial health guidelines,” SSHF said in a press release Thursday.
“The SSHF Board has determined that there will not be an induction in 2021. We look forward to announcing an induction date when the above parameters are met.”
Further information regarding the inductees can be found on the SSHF website.
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