Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame welcomes 5 new inductees

The Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame has officially welcomed its five newest inductees in the Class of 2022.

Canadian Football League great Jim Young, dragon boat racer Kathy Levy, gymnastics builder Dr. Gene Sutton, blind golfer Nick Genovese and long-distance runner Johnny Miles were recognized at a ceremony Wednesday afternoon for their incredible achievements in their respective sports.

Dr. Sutton, Genovese and Miles were inducted posthumously.

Nicknamed ‘Dirty Thirty’ for his aggressive playing style, Young started his football journey at Hamilton’s Westdale High School before moving to Kingston to play for Queen’s University.

Young caught the eye of the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings and joined the team in 1965, playing in six games over two seasons.

The running back and receiver was involved in the only trade between the NFL and the CFL, when Young was sent to the B.C. Lions and the Vikings obtained all-star quarterback Joe Kapp.

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Levy is a breast cancer survivor who founded the ‘Knot a Breast’ Dragon Boat Team in 1988.

The paddler helped guide the team to the gold medal at the International Breast Cancer Dragon Boat Challenge in 2010, defeating 73 other teams from around the world.

Dr. Sutton was a member of Gymnastics Canada’s Board of Directors for 21 years, including 17 as vice-chair.

She was Canada’s chef de mission at the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and was a driving force behind the 2015 Pan Am Games being held in Hamilton and the Golden Horseshoe.

After losing his eyesight in a workplace accident at the age of 17, Genovese tried his hand at golf and went on to win the Ontario Blind Golfers Championship 12 times from 1950 to 1974.

The former Brooklyn Dodgers’ prospect won the Canadian Blind Golfers Championship six times and was inducted into the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Miles was 20 years old when he entered the Boston Marathon in 1926 for the first time and won the event in a record time of 2:25:40.

He moved to Hamilton from Nova Scotia a year later and won the Canadian 10,000-metre championship and finished 17th in the marathon event at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Miles also won the Boston Marathon in 1928 and placed 14th in his last race, which was the marathon at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.