Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame

The French name for Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame is “Le Panthéon des sports canadiens”. I like that – not just a hall, but a temple, dedicated to the gods.
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In the shadow of the old Paskapoo Ski Hill, on the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics, a reincarnated Pantheon, opened on Canada Day, 2011 in Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park, 3,400 kilometres from its original location.

Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in Canada Olympic Park, Calgary, Alberta
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Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame was spawned in 1955 and originally located in Toronto on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition. Attendance had been tanking since its locker-mate, the Hockey Hall of Fame, vacated for better digs in 1993. The hall had been without a home since 2006 when the Toronto location was leveled to make way for BMO Field.

It took about eighteen months and $30 million to build the new 44,000 square feet facility. More than 50 interactive exhibits as well as a 120-seat theatre and 11 galleries feature an array of Canadian sporting success stories. Judy shadow boxed with Lennox Lewis, caught a 92 mile an hour fastball (ouch!), recorded her own sports broadcast, and perfected her front crawl with tips from Olympian swimmer Alex Baumann.

Interactive exhibits, a theatre and themed galleries feature an array of Canadian sporting success stories.
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Figuring prominently around the hall are seven magnificent bronze statues designed and produced by StudioEIS, a Brooklyn, NY-based sculpture factory. As well as Olympic gold medal diver Sylvie Bernier and hockey icon Wayne Gretzky, sculptures include figure skater Barbara Ann Scott; track-and-field star Phil Edwards as well as Ron Turcotte, jockey of Northern Dancer and Secretariat; cross-country skier Herman “Jack Rabbit” Johannsen and curler Sandra Schmirler.