NEW GLASGOW –
The Pictou County Sports Heritage Hall of Fame will hold an induction ceremony on Oct. 19.
It will be at the Westville Civic Building. A meet and greet will be held 1-2 p.m., with the ceremony to follow from 2-4 p.m.
Tickets are $20.
The hall of fame is marking its 30th year in 2019.
What follows is a list of athletes and builders and teams whose sporting accomplishments will be enshrined in the hall of fame. An article detailing the teams that will be inducted will be published in the Oct. 4 edition of The News.
ATHLETES
Joe Baker:
“Smiling” Joe Baker was heavily involved in auto racing, starting in the 1960s. A resident of Westville, Baker followed in the footsteps of his father Jim Baker. He was one of the drivers who raced at the old track on Fraser’s Mountain, and also raced in Park Falls, Havre Boucher, Riverside International Speedway in James River, and at many other tracks. He stopped racing competitively in 1970, but in his active years, Joe took the checkered flag many times, and had dozens upon dozens of second and third-place finishes.
George “Stonewall” Jackson (posthumous):
It would be difficult to mention any athletic activities in which George “Stonewall” Jackson was not interested in.
Born in 1875 in New Glasgow, “Stonewall” Jackson was an all-around athlete who excelled at rugby, cricket and tennis. He teamed up with Dr. Garf MacDonald to play doubles in tennis and the two of them would be Maritime Doubles champions for four straight years in the first decade of the 20th century.
Jackson was the first president of the Abercrombie Golf Club (1919), was active with the Bluenose Curling Club and for a time, was president of the Union Driving and Trotting Club. He died in 1957.
Joe O’Brien (posthumous):
A world class harness racer and trainer and is considered one of the greatest driver/trainers in history, Joe O’Brien was born in in P.E.I. in 1917.
He lived for several years in Pictou County, where he drove in New Glasgow during the 1940s, racing at the old tracks in Parkdale and Blues Acres. He was asked to train and drive an 11-year-old pacer by the Dudey Patch Club of New Glasgow, and Dudey Patch was so successful that the horse was virtually unbeatable and banned from racing in the Maritimes. In a 45-year career, O’Brien won more than 4,200 races and $20 million in purses in prestigious races throughout much of North America.
O’Brien, who passed away in 1984, is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, the P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame and the U.S. Hall of Fame.
Jon Sim:
In the summer of 1999, Jon Sim was driven through the streets of New Glasgow, seated in an open-air convertible with the Stanley Cup at his side.
Born in New Glasgow, Sim played for the Weeks Major Midgets before his Junior days with the Sarnia Sting of the OHL.
Drafted in the third round by the Dallas Stars in 1996, Sim joined the team three seasons later, just in time to help them beat the Buffalo Sabres in the Stanley Cup final that year. He played 469 games in the NHL.
In addition to Dallas, Sim also played in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Nashville, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Florida, and with the New York Islanders, his final NHL stop. He also skated for two seasons in Europe.
After he retired, Sim returned to Pictou County with his family, where he conducts hockey schools and coached minor hockey. He is currently head coach of the Pictou County WearWell Major Bantam Bombers.
Vicki Cheryl (MacBeth) Turnbull:
Vicki Turnbull’s impact on softball in Pictou County is highly impressive, as both an athlete as well as a coach. Her achievements in the sport are too lengthy to list here.
In her high school days, Turnbull played softball, basketball and field hockey for SHS.
She began playing the sport in the 1960s and was part of various county and provincial championship teams from 1971 through 1974. She was just getting started.
She won with various Pictou County teams, including the Salem Witches, Stellarton Royals, Lobster House, Salt Springs Heat and in Springville.
In the 1970s and 1980s, she won Senior women’s championships at the Nova Scotia and Maritime levels.
She was also heavily involved with teaching the sport. Among her achievements in coaching, Turnbull coached the first girls’ softball team at Stellarton High School (1974), guided the East Pictou High School boys team to a provincial championship in 1994, and also coached boys and girls teams at East Pictou from 1998-2001. She taught elementary school basketball and was a coach with the vaunted Stellarton Stingers softball program, including a Midget national tournament in 1999 hosted by Stellarton.
Turnbull played for the Nova Scotia at the national senior women’s softball team in both 1973 and again in 1983.
Colin White
Born in New Glasgow, Colin White played Midget hockey with the Weeks Major Midgets in the mid-1990s, before being drafted 49th overall in the 1996 NHL draft.
Before he reached the NHL, White won a Memorial Cup while playing with the Hull Olympiques (years later, his #24 jersey would be retired by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team). A defenceman, White joined the Devils during the 2000 NHL season. The Devils won the Stanley Cup that year, and with White playing a pivotal role as a stay-at-home defenceman, they won the Cup again in 2003.
In total, Colin spent 10 years with the Devils and one with the San Jose Sharks before he retired. A member of the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame, White currently works for the Devils’ organization in an ambassador’s role.
BUILDERS
Pat Carty:
A resident of Pictou Landing, Pat was a coach of baseball, volleyball and basketball for 14 years after graduating from the Nova Scotia Teacher’s College.
Carty started coaching in schools in 1997, and continues to be involved with the sport today. He has been one of the driving forces behind the Pictou County Athletics and helped get the Pioneer Coal track and field facility constructed in 2011. The facility has hosted large-scale events that have benefitted Pictou County economically.
Carty has been heavily involved in in growing the club and has been recognized as Maritimer of the Week and by the Johnny Miles Running Events organization for the development of the sport of track and field.
Alvin Sinclair:
A life-long educator, Alvin Sinclair coached grammar school and high school hockey for many years, starting in the 1960s. Among his many achievements, his New Glasgow High School teams won three provincial championships in the 1960s and 1970s and coached its softball championship team in 1988.
He served on the board of governors for the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation for more than a decade throughout the 1980s, was involved with the Nova Scotia Golf Association for 15 years. He remains an active member of the Royal Canadian Golf Association, and served on the Johnny Miles committee for 15 years and was a hockey referee for 17 years.
He has received a Nova Scotia Award for his contributions to sport in this province.
Eben MacIsaac (posthumous)
A resident of Trenton, MacIsaac was born in 1900. He was one of the chief architects of the Nova Scotia softball governing body (1931) and was one of only six men to occupy the presidential chair in the first half of the 20th century. He was always involved in the administrative side of softball oat both the local and provincial levels. He received a 35-year pin for his work in the sport, and a ball field in Trenton (located near the Main Street tennis courts) was named in his honour. It was once said of Eben (who died in 1988): “softball can’t be talked about in Nova Scotia without mentioning Eben MacIsaac’s name.”
Lloyd “Suds” Sutherland (posthumous)
For more than 40 years, “Suds” contributed to sports in various capacities. While attending high school in New Glasgow, he was co-captain of the rugby team that won a provincial title, and played the sport at Mount Allison University, where his teams won two Maritime university championships.
Sutherland, who died in 2012, coached volleyball, track and field and basketball at the junior and senior high school levels, and was also active in officiating basketball and volleyball. He was a regional director with the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation and was inducted into the Colchester County Sports Hall of Fame in 1992. He was a respected educator, athlete coach and friend for many years across Nova Scotia for his work in sports.
Roger Swarbrick
A native of England who moved to Pictou County in in 1975, Roger Swarbrick quickly became a tireless promoter of rugby in Pictou County. He coached the Pictou County Senior Rugby Club until 1985, guiding the club to six provincial titles and four Maritime championships. He also launched a short-lived women’s rugby team in 1986 in Pictou County and a few years later coached the Maritime ladies team that won the first and only Atlantic championship.
He would officiate the sport at the local, provincial and national levels, serving as a referee, a trainer of rugby on-field officials and served as a member of the Canadian National Officials Committee.
Swarbrick also was the girls’ rugby coach from 2005 until 2009.
Barry Wisener
Born in Pictou in 1958, Barry started playing hockey at a very young age, like almost all of the youngsters in the town. He played on provincial championship teams in PeeWee and Midget hockey, and later played in the Northumberland Junior B Hockey League, where he would be named Rookie of the Year and MVP during his two seasons with the Pictou Maripacs.
Barry later played for the Acadia Axemen’s hockey program, and along with his friend Kevin Cameron, ran the Hector Hockey School from 1995-2002. In its final year, more than 300 kids signed up for the hockey school. Wisener also worked extremely hard to develop female hockey in Nova Scotia, part of which included a very successful Midget AAA female hockey program. While he no longer lives in Pictou County, he still has friends and family living in this area.
