Sports Hall of Fame

Hall of Famer Highlights

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Nikki Ross - (1951 - 2013)

Class of 2019

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Nikki Ross' contributions as a volunteer have been invaluable in the Mississauga baseball landscape. Well known as an umpire, she had more than 25 years of experience as a volunteer across North America. Ross was a past president of the Mississauga North Baseball Association (MNBA), served as umpire-in-chief of MNBA, MBA and COBA. She held national crew assignments for Baseball Canada and was a supervisor/clinician for the Female Umpires of America. Ross wass honoured with the Ontario Baseball Association's Dick Willis Senior Umpire of the Year award in 2010. An eight -week winter training clinic for umpires she started in the early 2000's is now named in her honour and continues to support the development of umpires.

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Pat Differ - Class of 2018

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Only a handful of Mississauga athletes can call themselves world champs. Pat Differ is one of them. In 1978, as a member of Team Canada Lacrosse, Pat and crew beat a heavily favoured U.S. team to win the World Field Lacrosse title. The win was doubly amazing because Canada was mostly made up of box lacrosse players. Differ was one of the best lacrosse players in Canada. During his fabled five-year career with the Mississauga PCO's of the Ontario Lacrosse Association, he was a high-scoring, two-way leader. When he graduated to the pro league, the NLL, he went on a scoring tear and was fourth in league scoring in 1974 (Syracuse). The next season he led the Quebec Caribou to a Nations Cup title. In 1977 he was second in OLA Senior A scoring with Brampton and still shares a Mann Cup (senior men's box lacrosse title) record of eight assists in one game.

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Susan Stewart - Class of 2008

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Susan stands tall as one of the greatest basketball players in Canadian women's hoops history. She has played for Canada a record 150 times.

Susan is a true home-grown Mississauga Sports Hall of Famer. As a high school student at Streetsville S.S. she was the bright star of the Tigers team, and in1988 was selected Mississauga's High School Athlete of the Year. At university, she led the Laurentian Lady Voyageurs to four straight Ontario titles, and back-to-back national championships. In 2003 she was inducted into the Laurentian University Sports Hall of Fame. She also played pro basketball in Germany, and for Team Canada at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Susan has travelled the world, a strong competitor at all levels. She is the consumate ambassador for sport and a role model for youth. Even in the face of adversity, she embodies our much esteemed grassroots philosophy "for the love of the game."

Susan continues to give generously of her time, promoting the benefits of sports and values of a true Olympian.

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Thank you, Hazel

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As, Mayor, Hazel played a major role in the birth of the Sports Council. Her devotion to sport and recreation has been unwavering and she is much beloved in our city. We are saddened by her passing on Sunday, January 29th at the age of 101 years. Our thoughts are with her family and friends. 

 

Born the youngest of 5 children in the small Gaspe fishing village of Port Daniel, Que., the love for hockey came naturally to her. Later in Montreal she even had a brief professional career in 1940, being paid $5 a game. In her golden years, at opening ceremonies, she often skated out to centre ice - with hockey stick in hand.

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Hazel McCallion's public life - politics and hockey - both require deft footwork and an ability to stickhandle. And Hazel's exceptional at both. During a long and colourful reign in the mayor's chair of Canada's "boom town" she has earned the respect of voters, grudging admiration of her political allies and opponents, and along the way picked up a most fitting nick-name that stuck like glue.

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"Hurricane Hazel" created a legacy in more ways than one. Her political life, lived in a glass house, is  quite visible and there for all to see. What is not so transparent is the role Hazel McCallion has been playin in elevating women's hockey to become an Olympic medal sport.

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"She belongs to the world of women's hockey and the City of Mississauga has to share her with the world," said Fran Rider, executive director of the Ontario Women's Hockey Association, regarding then Mayor, Hazel.

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"I am a great believer in the benefits of sport and recreation," McCallion said. "Sport, particularly hockey, has played an important role in my life and I have always been committed to making sport events accessible to the people of Mississauga."

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