Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Canadian Sports Hall beckons for Rees, Shields

Island legends Gareth Rees and Kathy Shields, being inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame tonight in Toronto, both said it is the result of a lifetime of absorbing information. “I never stopped learning . . .

Island legends Gareth Rees and Kathy Shields, being inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame tonight in Toronto, both said it is the result of a lifetime of absorbing information.

“I never stopped learning . . . when you do, that’s when you’re done,” said Shields, who coached the University of Victoria Vikes to eight CIS national women’s basketball titles, and said her greatest career achievement was coaching the Canadian national team.

It began for Rees with those mornings when teacher and rugby player Barry Robbins would let him sneak into the Willows Elementary gym before school began. Later, the Castaway Wanderers clubhouse “became my home.”

It led to 55 caps and four World Cup appearances with the national team, two as captain, and Rees generally being acknowledged as the greatest Canadian rugby player of all-time.

“Growing up in Victoria, sport was our community and we were surrounded by it with world-class athletes all around us,” said Rees, who played for St. Michaels University School and the UVic Vikes.

“As far as rugby, this [Hall of Fame] honour represents the efforts of all those players who put Canada on the map in the sport . . . I just happened to be the highest-profile player of that tremendous group.”

Rees will become the first rugby player enshrined in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Attending the induction ceremonies tonight will be several former Canadian national rugby team stars from Victoria — including Bobby Ross, Tom Woods, Mark Wyatt — and coach Ian Hyde-Lay from SMUS.

Also being inducted in the Class of 2014 is wheelchair basketball pioneer Tim Frick from Pender Island, who coached the Canadian women’s team to gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Paralympics and also Rick Hansen during the Man in Motion World Tour.

The Class of 2014 also includes Olympic figure-skating medallist Elizabeth Manley, Olympic gold-and silver-medallist hockey player Geraldine Heaney, the late champion superpipe skier Sarah Burke, dual Summer-Winter Olympian Pierre Harvey and Horst Bulau, Canada’s greatest ski-jumper.

After tonight’s enshrinement in Toronto, the 2014 inductees will take their spots in the $30-million national sports hall located at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. Shields joins husband Ken Shields — UVic men’s basketball coaching icon, former national team coach and 2009 inductee — in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame as a unique husband-and-wife pairing. Health issues will prevent Kathy and Ken from attending the ceremony in Toronto. Kathy has sent a videotaped speech.

“I can’t believe the company I will be keeping in the Hall of Fame. It’s mind-blowing. This is the highest honour in sport in this country,” said Kathy Shields, whose UVic teams produced 14 players who represented Canada at the Summer Olympics and world championships.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com

Twitter.com/tc_vicsports