Three athletes, two builders and an Allan Cup-winning hockey team are the latest inductees to the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Former NHL netminder Carter Hutton heads the list of those entering the hall in the athletes category.
Hutton played 12 seasons in the NHL, playing for the Chicago Blackhawks, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes.
He ended his playing career in 2022.
Hutton played his junior hockey in the Superior International Junior League (SIJHL) and was with the Thunder Bay North Stars that won the league title and the Dudley Hewitt Cup in 2005=06.
He would play NCAA Division I hockey with the University of Massachusetts Lowell for four seasons before starting his pro hockey career.
Joining Hutton will be long-time 5-pin bowler Ron Stansfield of Dryden.
Stansfield earned success at the provincial, national and world levels from the 1960s until the 2000s.
It included a singles championship at the World and National championships in 1974, and a gold medal as part of a mixed team during the 1975 event.
In 2009, the Canadian 5-Pin Bowling Association named Stansfield one of the top 100 bowlers in Canada over the past century.
Amateur wrestler Justin BeauParlant also enters the athletes’ category.
He began the sport while in Grade 3 and would earn success at the high school level, capturing three gold medals and a silver at the under-20 national championships in the late 1990s.
He later joined the Lakehead University wrestling team, earning further success at the provincial and national levels.
He captured silver at the World Championship in 2000 before retiring the next season.
Two builders from Thunder Bay will be honoured for their involvement in athletics.
Norm Bevilacqua, a multi-sport athlete, turned his attention to coaching hockey in the early 1960s and continued well into the 1990s.
He was recognized with a CAHA, now Hockey Canada, Meritorious Service Award in the 1970s.
He would continue to support hockey programs in the Thunder Bay and Dryden areas through his business, with the Dryden GM Ice Dogs, Northern Bands Hockey Tournament and Thunder Bay Queen’s Women’s Hockey among the beneficiaries.
Bill McDonald of Thunder Bay also enters in the builder’s category.
After a successful playing career that saw him be a part of three Allan Cup-winning teams with the Thunder Bay Twins, McDonald turned to coaching the team in the mid-80s and guided them to two more Allan Cup victories.
With the birth of the Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks, McDonald was named the inaugural coach and led them to four Colonial Cup championships in the Colonial Hockey League, two as the Thunder Hawks and two more when the team was renamed the Senators.
McDonald left the team to coach the Fort Worth Fire of the Central Hockey League, winning the league title in 1998.
McDonald would continue coaching at the professional level until the early 2000s, hanging up the whistle for good in 2012.
Rounding out the slate of new inductees are the 2005 Thunder Bay Bombers.
The Bombers, an unaffiliated team, were composed of former pro, university and junior players from the Thunder Bay area, formed in January of that year, and earned the right to compete in the Allan Cup tournament after winning the Ontario playdown.
The Bombers lost their first two game of the tournament, but won the next three, including a 4-3 overtime game over a Quebec team in the final, to bring the Allan Cup back to Thunder Bay for the first time in over 15 years.
The Bombers would earn a trip to Hungary the following February, representing Hockey Canada at a senior hockey tournament, before disbanding upon their return home.
“We are very proud to announce the addition of these outstanding athletes and sport builders into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, and we look forward to the sports community once again gathering together to help celebrate our region’s rich and proud sports heritage at our Induction ceremonies on September 26th,” states Diane Imrie, the hall’s executive director, in a release.
Tickets for the induction dinner and ceremonies are available by contacting the Hall of Fame.
