The Hall of Fame had not held an induction since 2014.
The museum side had been forced to move out of the Old Land Titles Building by the City, leaving the memorabilia in storage – a situation made worse when the storage location flooded in 2020, damaging a portion of the collected photographs, newspaper clippings and sport items.
The existing Board of Directors at the time went into a period of hiatus.
But the Hall of Fame and Museum is back in action now.
They have a board of directors, a blend of returning veterans and new blood.
They have a location on the second level at the Gallagher Centre – at least for some of the accumulated museum items.
And, they are planning the first inductions in years.
“We’re progressing on the next induction ceremony,” said Board chair Don Pfeifer, adding they are targeting the induction to be held in September or October of 2022.
And that means they are looking for nominations in the categories of athlete, builder and team. Pfeifer said nomination forms – which will be available online or at the City office in the Gallagher Centre later this month – need to be submitted by May 31.
Those who are chosen – Pfeifer said it will likely be a larger group as a sort of ‘catch-up’ year having not held and induction since 2014 –will join the 79 individuals and 17 teams representing some 25 sports in the hall. The first group was inducted in 1994.
The group is also continuing to work on the museum side of things.
In addition to a revitalization of the display at the Gallagher Centre – a couple of hundred hours of work noted Pfeifer – they have also secured safer storage for materials not lost in the flood.
Through a grant which allowed a student to be hired this summer the Museum’s artifacts have also been catalogued with each photographed, and information on the item logged.
In total 247 items and 582 photographs were catalogued, explained Dick DeRyk who designed the group’s webpage.
The webpage, (yorktonsportshalloffame.ca), has a picture of each inductee and information on the induction, and is searchable, he explained.
The items catalogued over the summer are also destined for the web as a ‘virtual museum’ through www.saskcollections.org, said DeRyk.
“All of the items that we have and information associated with that” will be on the site, he said, adding it is hoped when people see items they might actually have additional information they can share to make the stories related to articles as complete as possible.
Pfeifer also announced Thursday that an annual general meeting is planned for early in 2022, adding hopefully “a few more board members” will emerge from the meeting.
The Hall of Fame was initiated in 1994, when Vern Pachal first initiated the idea. It is one of 11 halls of fame under a provincial umbrella, and is registered as a non-profit organization.
