Memories can last a lifetime and for a volunteer committee, they are hoping to bring some of those long forgotten memories back into the spotlight. A group of sport enthusiasts have been hard at work putting together a list of the top athletes from the around the province with hopes of developing a Moose Jaw and District Sports Hall of Fame.
The group, led by Fred Gattinger of Moose Jaw got the idea almost a year ago while in British Columbia.
“Last January, I was in Vancouver to watch my grandson play midget hockey at a rink near Simon Fraser University,” he said. “Between periods, I wandered around and I came upon a hall of fame they had in this rink. On it they had fellows like Joe Sakic, Cliff Ronning, Barry Melrose and our own Mike Mintenko. If they do this for Mike Mintenko, what is Moose Jaw doing?”
That idea got Gattinger thinking about the famous athletes that the city of Moose Jaw has had in the past and wanted to bring their achievements together for others to see.
“I came back and checked with Jerry Folk and he thought of the idea for us. He thought it was a good idea and the two of us started working,” he explained. “From then to now, we have been working ever since putting together all types of material of sport celebrities from 1908 and on.”
With a rich history of achievements from softball players, hockey players, and football players — the group were able to compile a list of some very famous Saskatchewanians.
“We’ve covered every Saskatchewan athlete we could think of and are including them…going right back to Fred Sasakamoose — the first Native to play in the NHL, Clark Gillies with the New York Islanders, Scott Schultz with the Roughriders and the list continues to grow,” Gattinger said. “We came up with a pretty impressive list to put up on a sports hall of fame in Moose Jaw.”
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
