BREAKING NEWS : Boston Bruins Former super star Craig Billington reportedly confirm dead at 57 From a fatal car accident 😢😭
The Oakridge Secondary School boys hockey teams from the early 1970s are among the latest athletes to be inducted into the London Sports Hall of Fame.
The inductees were announced Monday by the organizing committee at a news conference held at Budweiser Gardens.
The other 2018 inductees are:
Craig Billington, Team Canada and long-time National Hockey League goalie and team executive
Al Coulter, a member of Team Canada and Canada’s Olympic volleyball team
Adam Purdy, legendary para-Olympic and world championship swimmer
Tom Partalas, soccer player and builder; president and CEO of the BMO Centre
The Oakridge Oaks hockey teams are being honoured for winning the Ontario Federation of Secondary Schools Association (OFFSA) boys championship an unprecedented – and never repeated — three times in a row: in 1971, 1972 and 1973.
Only two players, Jack Gulka and Gary Hubbell, were on all three championship teams, along with head coach Fred Israels.
Fred Israels, head coach, of the Oakridge Oaks hockey teams that won three consecutive OFFSA championships in 1971, 1972 and 1973, a feat never repeated.
Israels credits his winning teams for putting “high school hockey on the London map.”
“Before that, it was hardly noticed, and then that grew until you have fans at Thompson arena of 3,000 or more. I think we started that process.”
Israels said he never envisioned the teams being honoured to this degree but he and the members have kept in touch, holding reunions over the years.
“These guys were teenagers when I knew them and now they’re senior citizens, which is really quite incredible to me.”
London native Craig Billington, NHL goalie for 15 years, is among the 2018 inductees to the London Sports Hall of Fame. (NHL.com)
Craig Billington, the NHL inductee, was born in London on September 11, 1966 and was a goalie in the league for 15 years. He was part of the World Union Hockey Championship gold medal team in 1985 in Helsinki.
Following his retirement as a player in 2003, he joined the Colorado Avalanche’s front office staff, where he is currently the teams’s assistant general manager responsible for player development and minor league operations.
Billington attended Northridge elementary school and A. B. Lucas secondary school and was a product of the Stoneybrook Minor Hockey Association.
He wasn’t on hand for the announcement, but his father, Bill Billington, said he spoke to his son by telephone and said he was excited by the news.
“He said ‘gosh, I haven’t been really connected with London for many, many years. And to still be thought of is highly regarded.”
Allan Coulter took up volleyball as a student at London’s Banting Secondary School in the late 1970s. In 1979, he joined the men’s national volleyball team based in Calgary. He competed for Team Canada from 1979 to 1992, the longest competitive volleyball career on record for a Canadian. Coulter also represented Canada at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Adam Purdy was born in London in 1981 with a congenital condition call arthrogryposis, which resulted in the fusing of his ankles and elbows and two club feet. He participated in hydrotherapy rehabilitation programs at the Thames Valley Children’s Centre and became a lover of the water.
Purdy won three goal medals and set two world records at the 1998 World Para Swimming Championships in New Zealand.
Inductee Tom Partalas, London soccer player and builder.
Tom Partalas is being honoured for his contribution as a soccer player and builder of the sport. He was born in Greece and moved to Canada in 1967. He played professionally for London from 1969 to 1970, and as president and CEO of the London Optimist Sports Centre led the building of the $14.5 million BMO Centre, which opened in 2011.
