Hot on the heels of the Windsor Spitfires
winning the 2017 Memorial Cup, we thought it
only appropriate to look at other Canadian
achievements in sport. Get ready to wow your
team-mates with these great facts!
The Great One
After a successful 20-year career with four teams in the NHL
(1979-99), Wayne Gretzky holds many records deemed to be
unbreakable. Gretzky accumulated more assists than any other
player scored total points and is the only player to ever total
200 points in a single season - he did this four times. When
Gretzky retired in 1999 he held 61 NHL records. If Wayne
Gretzky never scored a single goal in the NHL, he would still
be the all-time point leader in the history of the NHL
The newest star
Penelope "Penny" Oleksiak is a 16 year-old Canadian swimmer
who specializes in freestyle and butterfly events. She started
swimming at the age of 9 and was rejected several times by
clubs in Toronto as she was having trouble swimming the
length of the pool. Seven years later, Oleksiak captured four
medals in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and is Canada's
youngest Olympic champion. Her success at the Olympics led
to her to being awarded the 2016 Lou Marsh Trophy as
Canada's top athlete and the Canadian Press team of the year.
Basketball
The game was invented by Canadian James Naismith at the
YMCA International training school in 1891. Naismith was
looking for an indoor recreational sport during the colder
winter months. The or iginal game involved 13 basic rules and
peach baskets hung 10 feet above the floor. Canada's
professional basketball teams began playing in 1946 as the
Toronto Huskies in the Basketball Association of America and
the Vancouver Hornets of the Pacific Coast Professional
Basketball League. The Toronto Raptors and Vancouver
Grizzlies brought major professional basketball to Canada for
the first time as members of the NBA in 1995.
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is an indigenous contribution to Canada, though it is
believed by many that the game was invented in the 1850s
when the Anglophone middle-class of Montreal adopted the
Aboriginals game of baggataway, an extremely violent game
played by the First Nations teams. Games were originally
played on fields a couple of kilometres in length and played a
big role in the community and religious life of First Nations
for years. Lacrosse was re-confirmed by Parliament as the
National (Summer) Sport of Canada in 1994.
The Stanley Cup
The championship trophy awarded annually to the NHL
playoff winner is named after Lord Stanley Preston, former
Governor General of Canada. It was originally named in 1892
as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, awarded to the top
amateur ice hockey club.
There are actually 3 parts to the Stanley Cup. the
original bowl of the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the
Presentation Cup and the Replica Cup which is kept on
display at the Hockey Hall of Fame. The 1907 Montreal
Wonderers were the first team to engrave every
member of the team on the bowl’s interior surface.
Fergie Jenkins
Ferguson "Fergie" Jenkins
was born and raised in
Chatham, and is a former
Canadian baseball player.
Jenkins played for four
different teams over his
18-year career (1965-83).
Jenkins played a majority of his MLB career with the Chicago
Cubs where he was a three time National League All-Star. He
was a 20 game winner in seven seasons, including six
consecutive. In 1971 he became the first Canadian to win the
Cy Young Award, awarded to the best pitcher in the league.
He is one of only 16 pitchers in MLB history to record over
3,000 strikeouts and is the first and only Canadian inducted
to the Baseball Hall of Fame.