Harry Poole

Harry Bradford Poole

Born: August 17, 1937 (Mount Rose, Nova Scotia)
Died: February 26, 2014 (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia)

Member: Maritime Motorsports Hall of Fame (2012)

 

Harry Poole was co-owner of Scotia Speedworld and the Maritime Pro Stock Tour with Cecil Vance. Both men were inducted into the Maritime Motorsports Hall of Fame as promotors and builders in 2012.

Scotia Speedworld opened on May 27, 1988, as a three-tenths-of-a-mile race-track oval opposite Halifax International Airport. It later was converted to a D-shaped track and now seats 6,000 spectators.

In 2000, the co-owners founded the Atlantic Cat 250, an annual stock-car race. The following year, the men founded the Maritime Pro Stock Tour, one of the top stock touring races on the continent.

Born in Annapolis County, N.S., Poole worked in construction before founding his own Woodlawn Construction in 1969. In 1994, he began Amber Contracting Limited, specializing in road building and sewer and water work.

The sale of 50/50 tickets at the track over the past quarter-century has raised nearly $200,000 for the local Shriners Hospital for Children, while track management has donated $100,000 to the remedial seating unit at the IWK (Izaak Walton Killam) Health Care Centre in Halifax.

Poole leaves his wife, the former June Fraser; a son; a daughter; three grandchildren; and, a sister. He was predeceased by four sisters and three brothers.

Dr. Ian Reid

Ian Livingstone Reid

Born: April 7, 1931
Died: January 12, 2014 (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

Member:
Order of Canada (1983)
Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (1986)
Water Ski and Wakeboard Canada Hall of Fame (2007)

 

In 1951, Dr. Ian Reid founded the Selkirk Seals, the first waterski club in Manitoba. Two years later, he founded the Manitoba Waterski Association, the first provincial governing body for the sport in Canada.

He won numerous provincial titles and spent many years on boards at the local, provincial, national and international level. He was president of the Canadian Waterski Association in 1974-75.

Dr. Reid learned the sport from his father, Dr. William Reid. Among his own extensive contributions to the start was the introduction of safety helmets to waterski jumping. He also wrote “A History of Waterskiing in Manitoba” and served as creator and curator of a provincial waterskiing museum at the Marine Museum of Manitoba in Selkirk, the Red River city northeast of Winnipeg.

After graduating from the University of Manitoba, Dr. Reid was a surgeon in Selkirk from 1960 until his retirement in 1984.

He was invested as a member of the Order of Canada in 1983 for his community work in Selkirk, including the creation of a community health team and a crisis centre. His citation also notes his work supporting music and Block Parents, as well as his contributions to the sport of waterskiing, including his work as a judge and his role in teaching the blind to partake in the sport.

His three children — sons Kim and Bruce, daughter Patricia — all competed nationally and internationally in the sport. A grandson continues the family’s competitive association with the sport.

Gwen Morris

Gwendolyn Margaret (née Cleary) Morris

Born: 1922
Died: February 28, 2014 (Alexandria, Ontario)

Member: Glengarry (Ont.) Sports Hall of Fame (2000)

 

In high school, Gwen (née Cleary) Morris dominated sports at Maxville High School in Eastern Ontario. She had her name engraved on the Maxville High School Cup for five years in a row, earning recognition for achievements in the 50-yard toss, the high jump, the broad jump, and the softball throw. She also founded a women’s hockey team with players from surrounding communities, going on to become league scoring leader and captain of the championship team.

On graduating, she attended Ottawa Normal School for two years, becoming a teacher. Her first posting was a one-room school house at St. Elmo East. She then enrolled at Queen’s University in Kingston, where she captained the hockey and softball teams. She also won several track and field events.

In her 40s, she played catcher for Zoe Grant’s Red Devils, a local softball powerhouse.

Morris served as president of the local minor hockey association from 1959-65.

She retired from the classroom after a 35-year teaching career. She then entered politics, serving two terms as a member of Kenyon Township council before being elected reeve in 1995, the first woman to hold the post in the township’s two centuries.

Gary Morris

Gary Morris (far left) reaches for the puck. The UBC skater was loaned to the Rossland (B.C.) Warriors for this 1964 exhibition game against his UBC Thunderbirds. The legendary Seth Martin is in goal for the Warriors.

 

Gary Wayne Morris

Born: October 7, 1941 (Trail, British Columbia)
Died: February 23, 2014 (Salmon Arm, British Columbia)

Gary Morris played hockey for the Thunderbirds varsity team at the University of British Columbia while studying engineering. Under coach David Bauer, a Basilian priest who was the brother of NHL star Bobby Bauer of Boston’s Kraut Line, the Thunderbirds recruited four star players from Eastern Canada.

Fr. Bauer’s plan was to build a team of student athletes as the core for a national hockey team to compete against the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia at the 1964 Olympics.

The four recruits — Barry McKenzie, Dave Chambers, Terry O’Malley, and goalie Ken Broderick — enrolled as students, giving the varsity team a solid core to play alongside such British Columbia products as Morris. 

In 1962-63, the Thunderbirds tied the Trail Smoke Eaters 1-1 in a preseason game. The Smoke Eaters had won the world championship earlier in the year. (Trail was also the legendary team from Morris’s hometown.) The exhibition tie was an indication the ’Birds would have a solid season.

UBC then beat the Alberta Golden Bears, by 5-2 and 3-2, to claim the Hamber Cup for the first time in 12 seasons.

The Thunderbirds advanced to the first University Cup tournament at Kingston, Ont., defeating the University of Sherbrooke, 6-2, before losing the cup to the McMaster Marlins, by 3-2.

In 1964, many of the UBC players represented at the Olympics, finishing fourth after a controversial ruling by officials. Morris did not play on the Olympic squad. Several of the players also had NHL careers.

The 1962-63 Thunderbirds team was inducted into the university’s sports hall of fame in 2012.

Morris graduated with a civil engineering degree in 1966. He worked on projects in 11 countries, becoming fluent in German, Spanish and French. He was working on Russian language studies at the time of his death. He leaves his wife, Susan Baumgartner; a son; and, a brother.

Tayo Morrison

Omotayo Olaogun Morrison

Born: February 25, 1988
Died: February 8, 2014 (Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia)

 

Tayo Morrison won the senior boys 400m race in the Toronto District track and field championships in 2007. The winning time for the Westview Centennial Secondary student 52.51 seconds.

After graduation, Morrison enrolled in kinesiology and health sciences at York University in Toronto, where he also ran track for the York Lions.

At the 2008 CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sports) track and field championships, the York Lions 4×200 team was disqualified after a fumbled pass by Mat Stiver-Balla to Morrison. The team was in second place at the time.

Morrison was studying medicine at the Spartan Health Sciences University in the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia. He was walking home one night with a fellow student, 24-yearold Maninder (Mani) Kaur, an American, when both were struck by a passing car.

Doctors at Sty. Jude Hospital diagnosed a severe brain injury with bleeding. The island lacks facilities to treat neurological cases and plans were made to transfer him to Martinique, the island to the north. A medical team at the hospital in the French island did not accept the transfer of the patient as his condition was considered to be unfavourable, according to a report in the St. Lucia Mirror newspaper. Morrison’s condition deteriorated and he died on Saint Lucia. He was 25.

He leaves his mother, Modupe, and father, Barrington; three siblings; and, three grandparents.

A memorial fund has been established in his name. The money raised will be used to improve facilities at St. Jude Hospital in Saint Lucia.

Jim Buchan

The 1979 Victoria Budget Rent-a-Cars won a softball gold medal for Canada at the 1979 Pan American Games at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

James Robert (Bucky) Buchan

Born: December 2, 1942 (Barrie, Ontario)
Died: February 6, 2014 (Victoria, British Columbia)

Jim Buchan was a coach with the Victoria Budget Rent-a-Car senior men’s fast pitch team, which won the softball gold medal at the 1979 Pan American Games. He also coached the team to consecutive national championships.

The Budgets added five players to the roster before traveling to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to take part in the Pan Am Games tournament. Canada went 6-1 in the double knockout round-robin, the only loss delivered by the United States, who won 3-0. Canadian pitchers threw no-hitters in games against Colombia, Venezuela, Virgin Islands and Netherlands Antilles.

In the gold medal game, American lefthander Ty Stofflet matched Rob Guenter of Saskatoon, Sask., the rivals pitching shutouts into the 14^th inning. Canada scored the game’s only run on a walk, a single by Guenter, and a fielder’s choice play at the plate.

Buchan also coached the Budgets to the national title in 1982 at Thetford Mines, Que. The team, renamed the Royals, repeated as champs the following year in a tournament played in Victoria.

He later coached and umpired Little League baseball. In 1991, he worked as an umpire at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

Born in Barrie, Ont., Buchan grew up in Saskatchewan. He joined the army in 1961, spending a decade with the Queen’s own Rifles and Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He later worked for the Department of National Defence and later still as a commissionaire until retiring in 1991.

Boots Olson

Jesse Wayne Olson

Born: September 25, 1930
Died: February 24, 2014 (Surrey, British Columbia)

Member: Greater Vancouver Motorsports Hall of Fame (2008)

 

Boots Olson learned the craft of painting and pinstriping automobiles at a North Hollywood, Calif., shop alongside the legendary Kenny Howard, better known by his nickname Von Dutch.

In 1955, Olson moved to Spokane, Wash., where he opened a business at a car wash, charging $20 to paint cars. He later moved to Seattle, where he purchased and redesigned his masterwork, a 1963 Corvette Stingray he named Fantasia and which he decorated in an exotic style. The vehicle won numerous awards at car shows in Washington State and British Columbia, including the people’s choice award at the 1964 Chilliwack (B.C.) Custom Car Association show. Two years later, he claimed three trophies (best sports car, best paint, best interior) with Fantasia at the Inland Empire show at Spokane, Wash.

He moved to the Lower Mainland in 1970, operating a custom-car shop in the False Creek warehouse district. He later moved his shop to New Westminster and, later, Surrey, where he lived and continued painting and striping into his 80s.

Olson was inducted into the Greater Vancouver Motorsports hall of fame as a pioneer in the custom car category.

A sample of Boots Olson’s handiwork.

Harold Evans

Harold William Evans

Born:
Died: February 14, 2014 (Calgary, Alberta)

Member: Alberta Amateur Sports Hall of Fame (1968)

For 20 years, Harold Evans was one of Canada’s top amateur wrestlers, three times winning the national championship in his division. He also competed for Canada at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago.

Evans served in the Canadian navy during the Second World War, serving aboard the destroyer HMCS Assiniboine before being discharged in September, 1945.

He won the Alberta amateur flyweight (less than 114 1/2 pounds) championship the following year, holding on to the title for a remarkable 20 years until retiring from the sport.

Evans won the national title in his division in 1952, 1953 and 1956. The first and last of those were victories at tournaments that doubled as Olympic qualifications, though Evans was not selected for the team in either year. (In 1956, Canada only sent two of eight division champions to the Olympics at Melbourne, Australia.)

Evans was also national runner-up in his weight class in 1954 and again in 1955, when he lost the title after being pinned by Antti Filppula of Sudbury, Ont. The Calgary wrestler finished in third place in the 1958 tournament held in Vancouver.

Evans was eliminated from Pan Am Games competition in the second round after losing to Dick Wilson of Toledo, Ohio, the eventual gold-medal winner and a three-time Olympian.

After retiring as a competitor, Evans coached other wrestlers at the YMCA in Calgary. Most of his working life was spent with the Canadian Pacific Railway. In retirement, Evans crisscrossed the continent in a motor home. He died on Valentine’s Day, aged 93.

Harold Evans (far left) and other wrestling champions after the Olympic qualification tournament in Winnipeg in 1956.

Russ Dunn

Russell McIlwain Dunn

Born: January 29, 1935 (Toronto)
Died: February 24, 2014 (Toronto)

 

For 65 years, Russ Dunn competed in the famed blue-and-yellow colours of the Balmy Beach Canoe Club, winning eight Canadian championships between the ages of 13 and 33. He founded CanMas (Canadian masters championships) for older canoe sprinters and competed at three world masters games.

In 1989, he received the prestigious R. Edgar Gilbert Award from CanoeKayak Canada for his contributions to the discipline of sprint racing.

An award in his name is presented annually at the Canadian masters championships. As well, the trophy presented to the national champion of the junior women’s C1 1000 race bears his name.

Dunn also played football, basketball and hockey for the famed Toronto canoe club. In 1955, he was a founding member of the Balmy Beach rugby club and became president in 1958. He was elected commodore of the club in 1961 and later served three years as president.

He was always happy to be competing on the water, enjoying many victories for Balmy Beach, including as a member of the club’s war canoe in a mile-long race at the Dominion day regatta in 1957.

Off the water, he worked for IBM for 37 years as a parts and operations manager with postings in Toronto, Bromont, Que., and the United States.

Melanie Walters

Horse trainer Melanie Walters with her father Ken Walters at Hastings.
Photo by Nick Procaylo of the Pacific Newspaper Group.

Melanie Ann Walters

Born: May 28, 1976 (Vancouver)
Died: February 13, 2014 (Langley, British Columbia)

 

Melanie Walters, a top trainer at Hastings Race Park in Vancouver, died following a riding accident at her parents’ farm in Langley, B.C. She died in surgery after being crushed by a horse. She was 37.

Walters had 14 wins in 52 starts at Hastings in 2013, her first full season as a trainer. Walters was a top-10 trainer at the track.

Her main client was her father, Ken Walters, a dentist who was a prominent horse owner at Hastings for many years. He was also for a time the dentist for the Vancouver Canucks hockey team.

Walters was a successful equestrian rider before becoming a trainer and taking over her father’s stable.

In 1993, the 17-year-old rider won the American Horse Shows Association medal final at Harrisburg, Pa., riding New Generation, an 11-year-old thoroughbred. She was only the second Canadian to win the medal final. The first was her coach, Laura Balisky, an Olympian who won the same event in 1981.

In 1994, she won the Canadian Equestrian Team finals.

After having spent her youth in the show-horse world, her father convinced her to make the leap to the racing side.

“Dad never tells me how to train the horses,” she told Tom Wolski of the Province last year. “What he does and is very good at is every day he studies and watches the races. He picks out his own horses. So he leaves me alone to train. And I leave him alone to buy them.”

Walters was a welcomed presence at Hastings.

“Everyone in the backstretch is in shock,” trainer Dino Condilenios told the Daily Racing Form. “She would show up in the barns everyday wearing a big smile.”

She leaves two children — Laurel, 8, and Caden, 7. Her friend and former equestrian coach Laura Balisky has launched an online fundraising campaign at fundrazr.com to support the children.