THUNDER BAY – Trevor Stewardson says he was having a bad day at work, when he got the call from the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, informing him he was being inducted into the 2019 class.
His day instantly got brighter.
Stewardson, who overcame a battle with the Canadian Olympic Committee to earn a spot on Canada’s boxing team at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, said he was thrilled to learn of his induction, alongside former NHLer Bill Houlder, Special Olympian Paul Wragg, two-time Grey Cup champion David Van Belleghem and builder Michael Furlong and legendary icemaker Lloyd Stansell.
“When he told me I was inducted into the hall of fame, my world turned upside down,” Stewardson said on Saturday, prior to the annual Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame induction dinner at the Valhalla Inn.
“It was amazing. It’s such an honour to be here, such an honour to come back and be included with the class of 2019. I look at some of these people here and say, ‘How do I compare to them. All I can say is it’s an honour.”
Stewardson won bronze at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and took silver at the International Amateur Boxing Association Olympic qualifying tournament in Brazil in April 2004, only to be told the COC was only taking gold-medal winners to Athens.
However, it took a court ruling to finally land him in the Games, where he eventually lost out in the second round to the eventual Olympic champion.
For Houlder, it was a chance to come back to his hometown for the first time in years.
A stay-at-home defenceman who spent parts of 16 seasons in the National Hockey League before retiring in 2003 after four seasons with the Nashville Predators, the now 52-year-old called his induction an honour.
“My mom and I were trying to figure out how long it’s been since I’ve been in Thunder Bay because my brothers and sisters have all moved away and my mom now visits us instead of us coming down because we all have big families now,” said Houlder, now an assistant coach with the Ontario Hockey League’s North Bay Battalion.
“It’s been so far awesome, coming back, seeing the old schools, spending time going to the old rinks that we used to play in. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Van Belleghem, a Kenora native who didn’t start playing tackle football until Grade 10, captured Grey Cups in 1991 with a star-laded Toronto Argonauts team owned in part by Wayne Gretzky and Hollywood comedian John Candy, and again in 1998 with Calgary, said entering the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame is quite humbling.
“For it to come full circle and being included with the class of inductees this year is very humbling and I’m very honoured, for sure,” he said.
Wragg, a weightlifter who swept the lightweight category at the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Raleigh, N.C. and brought home three more gold four years later in Dublin, Ireland, was equally thrilled.
“I’m very excited. I’m very honoured to be nominated and inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. “I was twice a world champion and now I’m retired.”
Furlong, a successful athlete and on-ice official, coached the Boise-Kenora Midgets to the 1993 Manitoba AAA title and also served as a consultant with the Ontario Ministry of Culture and Recreation in the 1970s and 1980s.
Stansell, who grew up in Red Lake before moving to Red Rock, was tapped to help out at six Briers, five Scotties and several international championships.
