After months of planning and preparation, the inaugural class was inducted into the UFV Cascades Hall of Fame on Friday.
More than 30 years since its inception, UFV’s athletics department is recognizing those that helped build the program with the newly created Cascades Hall of Fame and an induction ceremony was held between the women’s and men’s basketball games on Friday in the Envision Athletic Centre.
The five inductees included former athletic director Jane Antil, former basketball coach Pat Lee, women’s basketball athletes Carolyne Lucy and Tracy MacLeod, and the 1987-88 men’s basketball team.
The inductees, who were chosen for their accomplishments as players or role in developing the athletics department, were entered into one of three categories: builders, athletes, or team.
“It’s allowed us to recognize some people who wouldn’t otherwise be recognized for those accomplishments and that hard work and determination,” director of athletics and campus recreation Steve Tuckwood said. “It’s a way to immortalize them, put them up on a wall. Everybody who walks in [the Envision Athletics Centre] now and goes in the mezzanine is going to see plaques of people who we really appreciate the efforts of.”
Tuckwood decided to start the Hall of Fame as a way to highlight the Cascades’ history and acknowledge those involved in creating it.
“I knew there were some stories that needed to be shared about successes, not only of teams that won but also athletes, administrators, and coaches, and people who really made a difference in the early years,” he said. “The Hall of Fame is really our opportunity to recognize some of those contributions and the ones that really paved the way for where we are today … They didn’t have a gymnasium, they played off campus, and so it was a lot of pioneering. I give a lot of those folks from the early years a lot of credit to be as persistent as they were.”
Nominations were open until the end of August and a selection committee chaired by Tuckwood and comprised of both internal and external members of the UFV community voted on who the five inductees would be.
“We wanted to get a mix of folks involved,” he said. “We had some UFV staff members, we had a representative from the alumni association, and then we had an external representative too from the media, Eric Welsh who writes for ***the Chilliwack Progress.”
The inductees were announced in December, and along with plaques in the Envision Athletics Centre will be featured on the UFV Cascades website.
“Some people were just utterly surprised,” Tuckwood said. “Others, we had to do some sleuthing and send some emails so it was almost some exploration and digging which was nice.”
Going forward, a new class will be inducted on a yearly basis, and anyone who has been removed from the program for at least five years is eligible to be nominated.
“We have a lot of catching up to do,” Tuckwood said. “There’s lots of athletes and teams who otherwise haven’t been recognized yet.”
Tuckwood noted that although this year saw five inductees, it’s likely that there will be more in the future.
“The inaugural class could have been a little larger but we also really wanted to focus on that group of people who were really head and shoulders above sort of the next class,” he explained. “We’ll build along the way and make it an annual thing so people expect it and want to participate. If we can get a crowd like this again when we do it again I’d be thrilled.”
More than anything, Tuckwood hopes that the Hall of Fame will be a reminder of the hard work and determination that helped form the athletics department into what it is today.
“It took somebody in those early years to say, ‘You know what? We just need to do this, we need to try it and we need to continue to get better,’” he said. “It’s easy to give up but I really appreciate the people who don’t.”
