Canada's Sports Hall of Fame inductees include Pinball, Trottier, Colleen Jones
7 named to class of 2016
Michael "Pinball" Clemons, Bryan Trottier and Colleen Jones headline the class of seven inductees named Tuesday to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
Also named were Olympic short track speed skating champion Annie Perreault, Paralympic swimmer Stephanie Dixon, mutil-sport Olympian Sue Holloway, and Special Olympics leader Dr. Frank Hayden.
The induction ceremony is set for Nov. 1 in Toronto.
Clemons starred for the CFL's Toronto Argonauts between 1989-2000, winning three Grey Cups along with the 1990 Most Outstanding Player award and becoming one of the most popular players in league history. The diminutive but electric Florida-born running back/receiver/kick returner went on to coach the Argos, guiding them to the Grey Cup title in 2004. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008 and became a Canadian citizen in 2015.
Trottier was a key member of the New York Islanders dynasty that won four consecutive Stanley Cups between 1980-1983. He added two more championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and '92. The Val Marie, Sask., native scored 524 NHL regular-season goals, was named the league's most valuable player for 1978-79, when he also won the scoring title, and joined the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997.
Jones won curling world championships in 2001 and 2004. In 1982 the Nova Scotian became the youngest skip ever to win a Canadian women's title before going on to add five more Tournament of Hearts crowns, including four in a row from 2001-2004.
Perreault won short track relay gold at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, and later won an individual Olympic title in the 500 metres at the 1998 Nagano Games, where the Sherbrooke, Que., native added a relay bronze. Perreault also won four relay world titles.
Holloway appeared in four Olympics, and the Ottawa native became the first woman to appear at both the Summer and Winter Games in the same year when she competed in cross-country skiing and kayaking in 1976.
Dixon is a 19-time Paralympic medallist who set multiple world records. At the age of 16, she won five gold medals at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. She added another gold medal at both the 2004 and 2008 Games.
Hayden, who will be inducted in the builder category, is a former University of Toronto professor who became a key figure in establishing the Special Olympics movement in the late 1960s.