Independent & Free Press (Georgetown, ON), 20 Apr 2007, p. 22

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Six inaugural inductees to enter Sports Museum EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer The newly established Halton Hills Sports Museum will welcome six inductees into its Hall of Fame when the inaugural gala ceremony takes place Thursday, June 21 at the John Elliott Theatre in Georgetown. Two athletes and four builders were recently selected from several nominations submitted by members of the public in recognition of the inductees' achievements as residents of Halton Hills. Amateur golfer Mary Ann Lapointe and middle-distance runner Bruce Andrews were chosen for the athletes' category. Two of the builder inductees will be inducted posthumously-- National Hockey League referee and director of officiating John McCauley, along with one-time Skate Canada head Bob Howard, considered a key contributor to the growth of figure skating through the 1980s and '90s. Also set to be enshrined in the builder's category are a couple of longtime volunteers in youth sports-- Jim Ford and Hal Pells. Ford has been involved in almost all capacities of running the Kinsmen Girls' Softball League for nearly 40 years and was also an organizer for house league minor hockey. Pells has been president of the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association for the past 15 years and has overseen the implementation of skills development programs. Pictures and profiles of the half-dozen inductees will soon be on display in the Halton Hills Sports Museum's Resource Centre, located in the upstairs hall of the Mold-Masters SportsPlex. A permanent section in the room will be dedicated to the Hall of Fame inductees. Tickets for the gala ceremony at the John Elliott Theatre are $30 each and can be reserved through HHSM chair Finn Poustrup at 905-8775165. Canadian Golf Hall of Fame this July at her home North Halton Golf & Country Club course and she continues to play at an elite level, currently representing Canada at the Commonwealth Matches in South Africa. Three times each Lapointe has won the Canadian and Ontario ladies' amateur championships and in 2005 became the first nonAmerican golfer to capture the U.S. women's mid-amateur title. An accountant by profession with two teenage daughters, Lapointe says she never wonders about what a pro career in golf could have been like because she tried playing on a satellite tour 20 years ago and wasn't comfortable with the lifestyle. BRUCE ANDREWS MARY ANN LAPOINTE Bruce Andrews Many Acton residents would consider the retired teacher a builder for his coaching pursuits with Bearcat high school teams and aren't aware of his prodigious track and field exploits some 40 years ago at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. A middle-distance runner, Andrews finished runner-up in the mile to future Commonwealth Games champion Bruce Kidd at the 1960 Ontario high school finals and won the Canadian juvenile cross-country title in 1956 and 1957. He received scholarship interest from U.S. colleges such as Notre Dame and Michigan State before choosing Seton Hall, also representing Canada at international meets. The 65-year-old's career highlight was winning the U.S. Two-Mile indoor relay championships in 1964 and 1965, captaining the Seton Hall team. "We went to all of the big indoor meets, Madison Square Garden, and to do what that two-mile relay team did was a big deal back then," the Georgetown resident said. "We had great coaches at Seton Hall. They were teaching things 50 years ago that the top athletes are still doing today." JIM FORD JOHN McCAULEY Mary Ann Lapointe Guidelines for induction into the Halton Hills Sports Museum's state that a nominee can no longer be active in their sporting career, but an exception was made in the case of one of Canada's top amateur golfers over the past decade. Lapointe, 47, will also be inducted into the Bob Howard Some builders are inducted for their dedication to grassroots level sports and others for their work on the international stage and the late Bob Howard falls into the latter category. Although he did serve as president of the Georgetown Skating Club in the early 1970s, See SIX, pg. 23 STYLE, QUALITY, DEPENDABILITY.

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