FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MONTREAL – The 1987 national champion Redmen football team headlines a
new cast of seven inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame. They are among
some 90 honoured members named since the pantheon opened in 1996.
Charlie Baillie, a 73-year-old native of the Notre-Dame-Grace region of Montreal,
who retired after the 2000 season after 29 years as head coach of the football
Redmen, including the Vanier Cup campaign, will be inducted separately, as a
builder.
Other honourees include 42-year-old Tim Iannone of Regina, Sask., a two-time
all-Canadian centre who won league MVP honours and graduated in 1990 as the
Redmen hockey team’s all-time leading scorer.
Gayle Noble, Peter Martin and Herb English, all native Montrealers were also
named, along with Dr. Wally Kowal, who will be inducted posthumously.
Noble, a 38-year-old lawyer with the firm of Stikeman-Elliott, was a three-time
all-Canadian defender in soccer who earned league MVP honours.
Martin, 62, won both Canadian and American doubles titles in squash and was
a three-time intercollegiate singles champion.
English, 76, won the Memorial Cup with the Junior Canadiens in 1950 and went
on to serve as captain of both the Redmen football and hockey teams. He was
offered a pro contract from the Montreal Canadiens and was drafted by the Montreal
Alouettes in 1955.
Kowal, who was born in the Ukraine in 1925 and died in Toronto on Aug. 9, 2007,
was a four-time all-star lineman with the football Redmen and won four intercollegiate
wrestling titles, three of them in different weight classes.
The induction luncheon, scheduled for Oct. 16, 2008, officially kicks off the
University's Homecoming Week celebrations. Tickets for the Hall of Fame event
are $60 and can be reserved by contacting Kathryn Weaver at kathryn.weaver@mcgill.ca
or 514-398-7002.
Submissions for future McGill inductions can be made by obtaining a nomination
brochure from the department of athletics. Biographies of previous inductees
can be found on the McGill Athletics website (athletics.mcgill.ca).
The selection committee, chaired by John Cleghorn, was composed of a group representing
students, administrative staff, university officials and alumni, including Prof.
David Covo, Tom Thompson, Dr. Alan Mann, Peter Smith, Mike Nelson, Dawson Tilley,
Sally McDougall, Gael Eakin, Bob Winsor, Robert Watt, Stephen Lloyd, Ryan Tomicic,
Shauna Denis, Drew Love (secretary), Kathryn Weaver (recording secretary) and
Earl Zukerman (research coordinator).
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A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF EACH INDUCTEE FOLLOWS:
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Charlie Baillie, born in Montreal on Valentine’s Day in 1935, was the son
of McGill quarterback Don Baillie, who was purported to throw the first forward
pass in Canada, when McGill played host to Syracuse in 1921.
Charlie Baillie played for Westmount high school before joining the junior varsity
football team at McGill in 1953 and the Canadian champion Lakeshore Flyers in
1954. He went on to a nine-year pro career with the Canadian Football League’s
Montreal Alouettes, the Quebec Rifles of the United Football League and the
Montreal Beavers of the Continental Football League.
Baillie took over the head coaching reigns at McGill in 1972 and held the position
for 29 years, outlasting the active service of six Canadian prime ministers
(Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, Joe Clark, John Turner, Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell,
Jean Chretien).
A four-time coach-of-the-year honoree in the Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate
Football Conference, Baillie guided the Redmen to more victories than any other
football coach in McGill history, implemented a national recruiting plan, played
a major fundraising role and nurtured the Friends of McGill Football alumni
support group. He straddled the McGill sidelines for 32 years in all -- including
three as an assistant coach -- posting a 119-111-2 regular-season record. He
led the Redmen to conference championships in 1973 and 1987 and was at the helm
in 1987 when McGill became the first Quebec school to capture the Vanier Cup
national title.
During his tenure, Baillie produced 18 players for the Canadian Football League,
including two that toiled in the NFL and three who participated in the East-West
Shrine Bowl Game, a high-profile contest featuring top NCAA seniors. He coached
103 Academic All-Canadians, 128 conference all-stars, 30 all-Canadians and seven
CIS major trophy winners.
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Timothy Louis Iannone, born in Regina on Jan. 6, 1966, was recruited out of
the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats. He was named Quebec university
hockey rookie of the year in 1986-87 and was voted as the nation’s most
sportsmanlike player that same season.
During his sophomore campaign, the 5-foot-9, 170-pound centre became the first
player in Canadian university hockey to score 50 goals in a season, accomplishing
that feat with a 52-39-91 mark in 38 contests overall, establishing single-season
McGill records for goals and points. He later served as McGill team captain
in 1989-90, earned all-conference honours three times, was twice named All-Canadian
and played on Canada's gold-medal winning team at the 1987 Spengler Cup tournament
in Davos, Switzerland.
In 1987-88, Iannone was awarded the team's Molson Cup (most three-star selections)
and Bobby Bell trophy (team MVP), won the Bill L'Heroux trophy as OUA East Conference
MVP and the Guy Lafleur trophy as the Quebec university player who best combines
hockey with academic success. In 1988, he won a male athlete of the year award
from the Quebec Foundation for University Athletics.
At the time of his graduation with an economics degree in 1990, he held 45 McGill
hockey records. Today, almost two decades after his last game with the team,
he still owns over 30 records and he remains as the team's all-time leader in
goals (136) and points (267), which he accomplished in 136 career games overall.
************************************************************
Gayle Noble, born March 4, 1970 in Montreal, was a niece of Hockey Hall of Fame
inductee Reg Noble.
Noble played five seasons as a defender with the Martlets soccer team from 1988
to 1990 and 1992 to 1993, earning all-conference honours fours times and All-Canadian
status on three occasions. A recipient of Uldis Auders memorial trophy as McGill’s
top sophomore student-athlete in 1990, she was voted player of the year in the
Quebec University Soccer league in 1992 and two years later, received the Muriel
Roscoe trophy, awarded to a graduating student-athlete for proficiency &
leadership in athletics.
Noble, who earned Academic All-Canadian status and made the Principal’s
Student-athlete Honour Roll, graduated from McGill in 1991 with a bachelor’s
degree, majoring in political science. After a stint studying overseas in France,
she returned to McGill for master’s and law degrees.
After her playing days were done, Noble went on to serve 10 years as an assistant
coach with the Martlets from 1994 to 2003. In 1996, she co-founded the Friends
of McGill Soccer alumni support group and went on to serve as co-president for
over a decade.
***************************************************
Peter Savage Martin was born on Dec. 28, 1946 and graduated from McGill with
an arts degree in 1969, followed by a law degree in 1973.
He played for the varsity squash team from 1965 to 1968 and with the tennis
team from 1967 to 1969. Martin was a three-time Molson trophy recipient as intercollegiate
squash champion of the Ontario University Athletics Association and as the team’s
top seed from 1965 to 1968, helped McGill capture four consecutive OUAA team
championships. He received the prestigious Forbes trophy in 1968 as McGill’s
male athlete of the year.
Martin twice captured the Canadian junior squash title (1966, 1967), was the
top seed on the Canadian team that captured the USA open team title in 1967.
The following year, he was a finalist in men's singles at the U.S. Open Championships,
losing the gold medal match to Colin Adair, who was later inducted to the McGill
Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.
While working towards his law degree, Martin played for the Canadian national
team at World Team Championship in New Zealand (1971) and was a three-time Canadian
doubles champion (1971-73). He was a Canadian singles finalist in 1971 and a
two-time doubles finalist at the USA championships (1971, 1972). He later captured
the U.S. doubles title in 1985.
***************************************************
Herbert Thomas English was born in Montreal on Feb. 13, 1932 and graduated from
McGill with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1955.
Although he became best known for his hockey achievements -- he was offered
a contract by the Montreal Canadiens after playing on the 1950 Junior Canadiens
team that won the Memorial Cup -- English was a star in football and in 1955,
was drafted by the Montreal Alouettes.
English didn't play sports for his first two years at McGill because he had
transferred from Loyola College, but in his third year he was voted winner of
the W.S. Lea memorial trophy as MVP of the Redmen football team. The next year,
he won the team’s Fred Wigle trophy as most sportsmanlike player and the
Forbes trophy as McGill athlete of the year.
English holds the rare distinction of serving as captain of both the football
and hockey teams in 1954-55. He was a centre in hockey and played both ways
in football as a running back and defensive back.
In the 1954-55 St. Lawrence University’s Hockey Media Guide, English was
named to the SLU all-opponent team, for “exemplifying the most desirable
qualities of good sportsmanship, athletic skill, and competitive spirit which
make intercollegiate athletics a worthwhile part of education.
English, who now resides in La Tuque, Que., was previously inducted into the
Loyola Sports Hall of Fame in 1969.
**************************************************
Dr. Walter Kowal was born in Kossow, Ukraine on Dec. 16, 1925. He emigrated
to Montreal as a young boy and lived there for the next 63 years. He excelled
in sports at D'Arcy McGee high school and at McGill, where he was a four-time
university wrestling champion and a four-time all-star at offensive guard, despite
his 5-foot-7, 200-pound frame.
He graduated with a BA in 1949 and a doctor of dental surgery degree in 1955
and later established a successful dental practice in Montreal. Also an associate
professor at McGill's faculty of dentistry, he taught post-graduate dental clinics
at the Montreal General and Royal Victoria hospitals.
Known to his teammates as "Wally", he played seven seasons for the
football Redmen from 1946 to 1952, and twice won the team’s Touchdown Club
trophy as most valuable lineman (1950 & 1952) and was known to play all
60 minutes in numerous games.
He was also an integral part of the wrestling team, serving as captain in 1946-47
and winning four intercollegiate wrestling titles in three different weight
classes!
He also found time to serve as chair of the McGill Intramural Athletics Council,
the Students’ Athletics Council and was a member of the Pre-Medical Society.
The culmination of the 1948-49 season, provided plenty of drama as Kowal was
scheduled to defend his heavyweight wrestling championship at Queen's in Kingston,
Ont.
Kowal, a pre-med student at the time, was scheduled to write a Graduate's Record
Exam on Jan. 25 and 26. The only way he could write the exams and go for gold
would be to commute to Kingston and back so he could write in the morning and
wrestle at night, then fly back in the morning to write again and then drive
back at night to wrestle in the finals.
Kowal was so well respected that the University agreed to accommodate his travel
schedule. He captured his fourth wrestling title after writing his second exam,
then driving to Kingston and entering the ring cold. He pinned opponent Harry
Dick of Queen’s after only 2:53 of first round. It was a fitting climax
to an unprecedented wrestling career, with titles in the 170-pound weight class
in his freshman year, followed by the 190 lbs. category as a sophomore and heavyweight
titles in both his junior and senior years.
Kowal further proved his mettle by travelling to Springfield, Mass., in 1947
and 1948 to defeat “Big” Jim Wentworth, the NCAA intercollegiate champion.
An avid skier, traveler, photographer, furniture restorer, and frustrated computer
whiz, Kowal was an active member of Canadian Dental Association and of the International
College of Dentists. A past-president of Montreal Central Lions Club, he was
a founding member and served as president of the Montreal branch of the Ukrainian
Medical Association and of the Montreal Ukrainian Canadian Professional Business
Association.
After retirement, he and wife Olga joined their family in Toronto, where he
served on the executive of the Toronto Ukrainian Canadian Professional Business
Association and Liberal Party of Canada. Kowal died while sleeping at home in
Toronto on Aug. 9, 2007. He was 82.
*****************************************************
The 1987 McGill football team won an unexpected Vanier Cup championship that
thrilled the Montreal and McGill community. It's a feat that hasn't been repeated
by the Redmen since. The team featured a rare collection of colourful characters
that came to be known as the "Crazy Dogs".
Led by quarterback Bryan (Pee Wee) Fuller and future-Alouettes star running
back Michael Soles and a voracious defence, the Redmen bounced back from a 2-5
record the previous year to post a 5-2 regular season record. They finished
at 9-3 overall, winning their final eight games, including what was considered
to be stunning post-season upsets over Bishop’s, Saint Mary’s and
UBC. Among the trophies they managed to win that season was the Montreal Shrine
Bowl, Shaughnessy Cup, Dunsmore Cup, Robert Stanfield trophy (Atlantic Bowl
champions) and the Vanier Cup.
The playing roster, in alphabetical order, included: Charlie Arsenault, Richard
Babin, Steven Baillargeon, Dr. Robin Bélanger, François Bélanger,
Claude Bourgeois, Anthony Boyce, Chris Call, Yvan Campbell, Michael Cann, Duncan
Carlyle, Jeff Challice, Paul Chambers, Denis Champagne, Alain Delorme, Joff
Elkas, Ian Fitz-Gerald, Bryan Fuller, Vincent Gagné, Bob Galvin, Rénald
Gauthier, Mark Haugwitz, John Hillhouse, Gerry Ifill, Paul Kerr, Duane Lambert,
Martin Lareau, Allan Lekun, Craig Leon, Michel Leveillé, Robert Linklater,
Doug Mann, Christian Masotti, Wayne McRae, Hagen Mehnert, Dave Moffatt, Paul
Moore (deceased), Dr. Joe Nemeth, Luis Oliveira, Chuck Petitpas, Bob Pichette,
Bruno Pietrobon, Paul Roman, Floyd Salazar, Marco Santillo, Courtenay Shrimpton,
Robert Shulist (deceased), Michael Soles, Wally Sordo, Luc Thiffeault, Denis
Touchette, Eric Toupin, John Vaughan, Dr. J.P. Veri, Scott Warr, Scott Weldon,
Danny Wong, Mike Zinga,
The coaching staff included Charlie Baillie (head coach), Pat Sheahan (offensive
coordinator), Larry Ring (defensive coordinator), Mike Maurovich, (defensive
backs), Gary Kirchner (linebackers), Chuck Poirier (offensive line), Perry Koziris
(strength & conditioning), John Kesson (defensive line), George Wall (quarterbacks)
and Neil Glasberg (volunteer asst. coach).
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1987 McGILL FOOTBALL RESULTS:
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DATE RESULT OPPONENT
Sept 5 Lost 11-20 vs Western (pre-season)
Sept 12 Lost 31-38 at Bishop's
Sept 19 Won 31-20 vs Concordia (Shaughnessy Cup & Shrine Bowl)
Sept 26 Lost 18-28 vs Bishop's (Homecoming Game)
Oct 3 Won 17-14 at Carleton
Oct 10 Won 7-4 at Concordia
Oct 17 Won 21-10 at Queen's
Oct 24 Won 18-15 vs Ottawa
Oct 31 Won 27-24 vs Queen's (OQIFC semifinal)
Nov 7 Won 32-16 at Bishop¹s(Dunsmore Cup)
Nov 14 Won 30-29 at St. Mary¹s (Atlantic Bowl)
Nov 21 Won 47-11 vs UBC (Vanier Cup @ Varsity Stadium, Toronto)
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer & Webmaster
Dept. of Athletics
McGill University
475 Pine Avenue W.
Montreal, Que. H2W 1S4
(514) 398-7012 (tel.)
(514) 398-1956 (fax)
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
www.athletics.mcgill.ca
