Canadian Roadstories

Stories & Pictures about Canadian People, Places and Things

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Home
  • Canadian People
  • Canadian Places
  • Canadian Things
  • Canada’s First Peoples
  • About

Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame

April 16, 2013 by Glenn 19 Comments

Sylvie Bernier sculpture

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.
…….

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.

Canadian Sports Hall of Fame

Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in Canada Olympic Park, Calgary, Alberta
. . . . . . .

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.

Canadian Sports Hall of Fame

Interactive exhibits, a theatre and themed galleries feature an array of Canadian sporting success stories.
. . . . . . .

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.

Canadian Sports Hall of Fame mural
ROADstories logo slug

Filed Under: Canada, Canadian Things

Comments

  1. Barry says

    April 28, 2013 at 5:13 pm

    Your post is excellent and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary is definitely worth a visit. It will inspire the young and bring back fond memories of landmark moments in Canadian Sports history for those who were around to enjoy them.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Hotel X Toronto - Canadian Roadstories says:
    October 18, 2017 at 12:44 pm

    […] sixth building – an officer’s mess hall called Stanley’s Barracks, original home of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame – still stands and it too will be incorporated into the operation of the hotel. It’s going to […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Noteworthy

2019 International Indigenous Tourism Conference in Kelowna B.C.

Indigenous Tourism Conference Signals Success

Trump Hotel

Donald Trump’s ancestral brothel …

toronto subway from The Walrus

Tragic lives, subway poets and a walrus …

Canada and The Great War – 1914 to 1918

Canada and The Great War
1914 – 1918

West of the 5th blog canola barn

It’s a Canola Thing …

More Noteworthy Posts

. . . . . Tuktoyaktuk Or Bust . . . . .

Previous
Canada – US border patrol
Next
St. Andrews by-the-Sea
  • Home
  • Canadian People
  • Canadian Places
  • Canadian Things
  • Canada’s First Peoples
  • About