Welcome to the Hall Four new members inducted into the P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame in Summerside
MIKE CARSON The Guardian
It was a Hall-Of-Fame night Saturday at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club as four new members were inducted into the P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame. Standing, from right, are Jerry Muzika, inducted in the curling builders category, Jack Milford, son of the late John ‘Jake’ Milford, nominated into the hockey builder category and Earl Ross, inducted for motorsport. Seated, from left, are Clair Sudsbury, president of the board of the Hall of Fame, and Barbara Bonogfski and Velda Gould, sisters of the late William John Paul, inducted for distance running.
Guardian photo by Mike Carson
SUMMERSIDE — Family members, friends and lovers of sport filled the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club Saturday night as four new members were inducted into the P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame.
Honoured during the ceremony were John ‘Jake’ Milford in the hockey builder category, Jerry Muzika in the curling building category, William John Paul, athlete distance running, and Earl Ross, athlete motorsport.
John Calverley ‘Jake’ Milford, one of the finest hockey minds of his era, and a native of Charlottetown, is the Island’s only member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He received that honour shortly before he died in 1984.
Milford was a fine junior player in Manitoba and spurned offers from the Red Wings and the New York Rangers to play in England with the Wembley team who offered greater financial incentives than the NHL in pre-war times.
Milford’s son Jack, in Summerside from Calgary to accept the induction award for his father, said over the years his dad played in more countries prior to international hockey matchups today.
He was GM of the Los Angeles Kings in 1973 under the contentious Jack Kent Cook. His son said the debates between his father and Cook were legendary. In 1977, he took over as GM of the Vancouver Canucks, ultimately taking them to their first Stanley Cup finals in 1982.
Born in Saskatchewan, Charlottetown’s Muzika has had a distinguished career in curling, one that has seen him become a member of the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1989 in the builder category.
From 1982 to 1988, he held many key posts in Canadian curling, including president in 1986. In 2007, he founded the P.E.I. Curling Hall of Fame and he continues to promote the growth and development of the sport.
Muzika said he is pleased to have been able to make the contributions he has to the sport, but credited the hard work of others throughout the years for helping bring the sport to the level it enjoys today.
Paul was born in Half Way River, N.S., but lived on Prince Edward Island for over 40 years.
Self-trained, Paul’s finest hour probably came in 1936 when he finished 13th in the Boston Marathon. The Saint John Ten Mile Trophy was his own personal property, winning it seven times.
Life was never easy for Paul during his running days, but he did leave a legacy. He died in 1980.
Graham Tuplin, Paul’s brother-in-law, said times were different for runners back then, particularly Mi’kmaq runners.
“You have to understand that we didn’t have these Nikes or all of these sneakers today,” he said. “Most times, we had a heavy pair of socks and it was hard running on those things.”
Born in Fortune Cove in 1941, Ross made history in 1973 by becoming the only Canadian to date to win a NASCAR Winston Cup race and the only non-American to win on the circuit before Juan Pablo Montoya’s victory at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in 2007.
Carling O’Keefe Brewery decided to sponsor a car in the legendary Daytona 500 and their choice of driver was Ross. In 26 races, he recorded 10 top-10 finishes, finishing eighth overall in 1974
and winning the NASCAR rookie-of-the-year award in 1974.
Ross said it always seems to be the driver who gets all the praise and publicity but racing is a team sport and he was always fortunate for his team of Canadians behind him.
“The only part of the team that wasn’t Canadian was the engine,” Ross said. “Everything else, all the work that was done on the car was Canadian.”
The Guardian is committed to encouraging intelligent discourse among our readers and to creating a forum where diverse views and opinions on a wide range of topics can be aired. The forum you are in now is a result of our continuing efforts to facilitate a dynamic online conversation among our readers.
This is a moderated conversation. Once a reader follows the steps to register and submit his or her comment it goes to a moderator for the website. Once it has been approved, your comment will be displayed on the website. A comment may be edited or deleted for reasons of content or language.
All readers wishing to join a conversation must first sign in and agree to the Terms of Usage, which explain the rules of acceptable content.
Larry Cantelo from Edmonton, AB writes: Winning the Rookit-of-the-Year was an amazing accomplishment icar racing.
Earl Ross in Nascar and Barrie Poole in Drag Racing made all of us from Kings County proud of their accomplishments.
Please let us know if this reader's comment breaks the rules explained in the Terms of Usage and is obscene, abusive, threatening, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, profane or racially offensive by selecting the appropriate option to describe the problem.
Do not use this to complain about comments that don't break the rules, for example those comments that you disagree with or contain spelling errors or multiple postings.
donald wood from sackville, nb writes: willam john paul was my grandfather so i thing the women in the photo were his children not his sisters check it out thanks
Please let us know if this reader's comment breaks the rules explained in the Terms of Usage and is obscene, abusive, threatening, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, profane or racially offensive by selecting the appropriate option to describe the problem.
Do not use this to complain about comments that don't break the rules, for example those comments that you disagree with or contain spelling errors or multiple postings.
NOTE
The management of this site emphasizes that it is in no way liable for persons, physical or legal, who are hosted here. Moreover, the managers of this site may not be held liable for errors and omissions that may slip into the information displayed in these reader comments. Everyone who submits a comment should read, understand and agree to the Terms of Usage for this section.
