Skip to content

Wrestler Huynh one of 10 to be inducted into Alberta Hall

Wrestler Carol Huynh is one of this year’s 10 inductees into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.Huynh moved to Alberta in 2007 and went on to win gold and bronze in women’s wrestling in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and claim her 11th national championship. She also won gold medals at the Pan-Am and Commonwealth Games.

Wrestler Carol Huynh is one of this year’s 10 inductees into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.

Huynh moved to Alberta in 2007 and went on to win gold and bronze in women’s wrestling in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and claim her 11th national championship. She also won gold medals at the Pan-Am and Commonwealth Games.

Other former athletes to be included in the induction ceremony May 30 at the Sheraton Red Deer are Keith Morgan and Susan Sloan-Kelsey.

Morgan is a four-time Olympian in judo with his best finish being a fifth at Sydney in 2000. He was a Canadian champion for over a decade, was twice named Judo Canada’s athlete of the year, was ranked in top seven in the world for eight years and won gold at 1999 World University Games and silver at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Sloan-Kelsey learned to swim at the Centennial Pool in Stettler and went on to set Canadian and Commonwealth records in the 100-metre butterfly event at the 1976 Olympic Games trials. She then won a relay bronze in the ‘76 Olympics at Montreal, garnered a relay gold in the ‘78 Commonwealth Games and a relay bronze in the ‘78 World Aquatic Championship, and competed in the ‘79 Pan-Am Games in Puerto Rico.

Inducted in the team and pioneer categories are the synchronized swim team of Erin Chan, Kirstin Normand and Reidun Tatham, and the Broder’s Chinooks basketball squad.

The synchro swim trio were members of the bronze-medal Canadian team at the 2000 Olympics, won bronze at the ‘99 World Cup and gold in the ‘99 Pan-Am Games in the team event. Chan also competed in the 2004 Olympics.

The Chinooks men’s basketball team, to receive the 2014 Pioneer Award, won three national senior A titles — in ‘58-59, ‘60-61 and ‘61-62 — while based out of Lethbridge and captured four consecutive Alberta championships.

Dr. Gary Bowie will be inducted in the builder’s category, as will Don Phelps (hockey), Don Horwood (basketball) and Phyllis Sadoway (ringette).

Bowie, a multisport builder, is a founding member of the Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame and various committees and councils, was on the 1975 Canada Games committee and chaired the 1996 Alberta Winter Games. He has been a sports figure in Lethbridge as a participant, coach, teacher, administrator and author.

Phelps coached in the Alberta Junior Hockey League from 1974 to 2011 and holds the Canadian record for most wins for a junior A coach. He guided his teams to five AJHL championships and won a Canadian crown with the Calgary Canucks in the 1995 Centennial Cup tournament at Ottawa, was named the Calgary Booster Club sportsman of the year in 1998 and was inducted into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame last year.

Horwood was the head coach of the University of Alberta Golden Bears for 27 years — beginning in 1983-84 — and led his team into 11 Canadian championship tournaments, winning in 1994, ‘95 and 2002 and twice finishing as runner-up. He is a three-time CIS coach of the year and two-time Alberta provincial coach of the year, coached the Canadian junior team at the 1998 world qualifying tournament and was the basketball colour commentator for CBC television during the 1996 Olympic Games.

Sadoway coached ringette for 27 years, beginning in 1982 at Sherwood Park. She has helped develop the sport provincially, nationally and internationally by her contribution to the building of the USA national program, has been a technical course conductor and chairperson, helped coach Team Alberta and Team Canada, and was head coach of Team USA for three years and head coach of the Edmonton WAM from 2007 to ‘09.

The 2014 winner of the Bell Memorial Award for media is long-time Edmonton Oilers play-by-play broadcaster Rod Phillips, who called NHL games for 37 years before retiring in 2011. Phillips worked in TV and radio for many years and in 2003 won the Foster Hewitt Award for broadcasting excellence.