To fully gauge the level of talent on the Vikes teams headed into the University of Victoria Sports Hall of Fame in the Class of 2023, one has to consider not only the varsity stage but also the Olympic stage.
The national-champion 1983 men’s basketball and 1992 women’s field hockey teams will be enshrined in the induction ceremony to be held tonight on campus at the University Club.
UVic basketball stars from the 1983 team, Eli Pasquale and Gerald Kazanowski, the following year would be playing for Canada against Michael Jordan and the U.S. in the semifinals of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The year before, Pasquale, Kazanowski and Kelly Dukeshire from UVic had shocked the U.S. team of Charles Barkley and Karl Malone in the semifinals en route to the gold medal in the 1983 World University Games in Edmonton.
The 1992 UVic women’s field hockey team featured Milena Gaiga, Sue Reid and Rochelle Low, who had just returned from representing Canada in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The UVic program had also just graduated Barcelona Olympians Deb Whitten and Lauralee Kopeck before that.
“Our Olympians were a big factor, of course, but we didn’t rely solely on them. We had a great mix and great balance from first- through fifth-year players,” said Lynne Beecroft, who coached the 1992 UVic squad.
Ken Shields, who coached the men’s basketball team, said the same about his 1983 squad, the fourth in a string of seven consecutive national-champion UVic teams.
“We had a very deep team that was the best defensive team in the country led by [Gerald’s brother] Greg Kazanowski, who was a little pitbull on the court,” Shields said.
“It was not the me team. It was the we team.”
Displays honouring the Class of 2023 will join those of the previously inducted classes in the UVic Walk of Fame in CARSA gym. Several of the players from the 1983 men’s basketball and 1992 women’s field hockey teams have also previously been inducted individually into the UVic Sports Hall of Fame.
