Author Archives: Gabrielle Ramsum

McDavid VS Gretzky

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Wayne Gretzky

So you might wonder why I have Wayne Gretzky and Connor McDavid in the same article, but I do have some reasons for it, other than they both played for the Edmonton Oilers. The records achieved and the awards received are insane.

Wayne Douglas Gretzky is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player for the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and New York Rangers. His nickname was The Great One and he retired when he was 38 in 1999. Now Connor Andrew McDavid is a current Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL. He is currently 27.

Gretzky has won the Hart Memorial Trophy as an NHL Most Valuable Player 9 times, 8 of which were in a row. Whereas Connor has only had it three times so far in his career. However, McDavid and Gretzky are the only players in the 97-year history of the award to win the trophy by unanimous selection. McDavid has got him beat for being the youngest captain in NHL history at only 19 years old. McDavid and Gretzky are the only two Oilers in history to reach 20 points in 11 games during back-to-back seasons.

Gretzky played with the Oilers from 1979 to 1988. There is even the “Gretzky Rule” that was part of a package of five rule changes to be implemented in the 85 to 86 season. The NHL Board of Governors Society introduced offsetting penalties where neither team lost a man when coincidental penalties were called. The Oilers faced a lot of four-on-four or three-on-three situations with the opponent. Although after winning the Hart Memorial Trophy, Gretzky had criticized the NHL for punishing the teams and players who previously benefited. This is when the rule change became known as the “Gretzky Rule”, although the rule was reversed for the 1992 to 1993 season. He spent 1988 to 1996 with the Los Angeles Kings until he was traded to the St. Louis Blues. But he wasn’t there for long. In the summer of 1996, Gretzky signed as a free agent with the New York Rangers and remained there until he retired after the 1998-99 season. Gretzky has so many records that I can’t even count them. If I did this would be too long. Although I do also have to mention that Wayne Gretzky also has his own award, the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award. It’s awarded annually to the Most Valuable Player in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. Although you also have The Wayne Gretzky International Award that’s presented by the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. And the Wayne Gretzky Trophy that is awarded annually to the playoff championship of the OHL’s Western Conference.

Now McDavid has won the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award. But he also has a few records. Including, obviously, youngest captain in NHL history. McDavid broke 1 of Gretzky’s records this past playoff season. McDavid achieved 34 assists in the playoffs beating Gretzky’s previous record of 31. Who knows what other records he might actually break? All I know is that their stats are pretty close to each other.

Joe Sakic

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Joe Sakic Colorado Avalanche

Source Image: Håkan Dahlström, 'Joe Sakic Colorado Avalanche', 1997,
Via www.flickr.com/photos/dahlstroms/257173433

Joseph Steven Sakic also known as Joe Sakic is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He played his entire 21-year NHL career with Quebec Nordiques which later moved to the Colorado Avalanche. He was nicknamed Burnaby Joe, for the fact that he grew up in Burnaby.

Like I said, he was born in Burnaby, BC to 2 immigrant parents from Croatia. He didn’t actually learn to speak English until he was in kindergarten as Croatian is his mother’s tongue. He played hockey growing up. He modelled himself after his idol, Wayne Gretzky, but he had to use his skill rather than size. He ended up scoring 83 goals in 156 points in 80 games for the Burnaby BC Selects while attending school at Burnaby North Secondary. But soon after that, he was added to the Lethbridge Broncos of the WHL for the last part of the 85-86 season. During the next season, the Broncos relocated to Swift Current, Saskatchewan and so they became the Swift Current Broncos.

On their way home on December 30th, 1986, after going against the Regina Pats they faced some bad weather and the bus crashed after the driver lost control just outside of Swift Current. Joe was unharmed but four of his teammates were killed. This had a lasting impact on him and he declined to talk about the crash throughout his career.

He was named the WHL’s Most Valuable Player and Canadian Major Junior Player of the Year for the 1987 to 1988 season.

He was drafted 15th overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft. Instead of making an immediate jump into the NHL, he told the Nordiques management he would prefer to spend the 87-88 season with Swift Current to prepare for the NHL. He made his professional debut in 1988. Joe became Co-captain just two years after he started and then became sole captain in 1992. Under his leadership, the Nordiques made the playoffs for the first time in six years and set a franchise record for wins and points in the process which has since been broken by the 2021-2022 Colorado Avalanche team.

In May 1995, the Nordiques announced that the team had been sold and relocated from Quebec to Denver, Colorado. Joe led the team to a Stanley Cup championship in the first year. While playing his first Olympics with Team Canada, he suffered a knee injury which forced him to miss 18 games with the Avalanche in the 1997-1998 season. He led the Avalanche to their second Stanley Cup championship in their 2000 to 2001 season and instead of hoisting up the cup, he broke tradition and gave it to one of his team members, Ray Bourque, who had waited 22 seasons to win a Stanley Cup.

Joe also played some international games as well. In 1988 he helped the Canadian junior team win the 1988 World Junior Championships. In the 1991 World Championship, Joe helped Team Canada win silver. He played in the 1994 World Championships for Canada and won gold. His first Olympic appearance came in 1998 at the Nagano, Japan Olympics where he suffered a knee injury. Joe also played in the Olympics in 2002 in Salt Lake City where they won gold. His final Olympic appearance was the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy where he was captain of Team Canada. Unfortunately, they failed to medal.

He announced his retirement in July 2009 and the Avalanche retired his jersey number 19 prior to the 2009-2010 season. A C on the banner represents his lengthy service as team captain, having been captain of the Avalanche until he retired. They also named him the inaugural member of the Avalanche Alumni Association.

In 2011, two years after his retirement, he returned to the Avalanche to work in their front office. Joe was named Executive Advisor and Alternate Governor of the team. In 2012, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and in 2013, he was promoted to Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations. In 2014, Joe was named General Manager and remained in this position until 2022 when the Avalanche announced that he would be ceding the General Manager title to longtime assistant Chris MacFarland and assuming a new role as President of the Hockey Association.

He is only one of four players to captain his team to the Stanley Cup championship and win the Hart Memorial Trophy in the same year.

First African-American NBA Coach in History

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Monument to Bill Russell

Source Image: Robert Lyle Bolton, 'Monument to Bill Russell', 2016,
Via www.flickr.com/photos/robertlylebolton/27569425634

William Felton Russell, most commonly known as Bill Russell, was the first African American coach in NBA history. He was born in Monroe, Louisiana, USA in 1934. Initially, when he tried out for his basketball team in junior high, he was cut because he didn’t understand the game. As a  freshman in high school, he was almost cut, but not quite. His coach at the time, George Powles encouraged him to work on his fundamentals. He ended up getting cut from the junior varsity basketball team as a junior in high school. But Powles gave him a spot on the varsity team and bought him a yearlong community centre membership. When he started getting recruited to go to college, he ended up ignoring a bunch of the recruiters until he talked to the recruiter from the University of San Francisco. This is, ultimately, where he ended up going to university.

When he started at the University of San Francisco in 1952, he averaged 20 points per game and made his varsity debut in December of 1953. His coach, Phil Woolpert, became the first coach of a major college basketball program to start three African American players in 1954. Russell played on the USF’s varsity team from 1953 to 1956. During his time at USF, and slightly after, the NCAA made two new rules. First, the lane was widened for his junior year and second, basket interference was now prohibited. Russell became one of several big men who have brought about an NCAA rule change.

Prior to starting his rookie season in the NBA, Bill ended up as the captain of the 1956 US Men’s Olympic basketball team, competing in the 1956 Summer Olympics. The US even earned a gold medal.

Now, his professional career in basketball for the NBA started in 1956 and only went until 1969, all with the Boston Celtics. However, during that time, he ended up acting as a coach, which is known as a player-coach. Bill started this role in 1966 and he did that until he left the Celtics in 1969. But he ended up winning quite a few NBA championships in that time. 11 to be exact and two of them were while he was a player-coach for the Celtics.

He also went on to coach the Seattle SuperSonics and the Sacramento Kings. Seattle from 1973 through 1977 and the Kings from 1987 to 1988.

Because of the time that he was playing, there was a lot of prejudice and racism involved and he had to endure it quite a lot. But he made history. He died in 2022, but he’s immortalized in Boston on the City Hall Plaza as a statue. Also, the Bill Russell Legacy Foundation was established by the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation. And I proceed to say again, he made history.

Vancouver Film Festival

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Film

Source Image: Andrew Hitchcock, "Film", 2005, 
Via www.flickr.com/photos/adpowers/8045962

The Vancouver Film Festival started on September 26th and runs to October 6th. I’ve always loved watching new movies. I’ve only gone to the Film Festival once in my entire life. I wish I could go this year, but unfortunately, I can’t. But it definitely looks like this one has an impressive lineup this year.

Now let’s get into some history. The Vancouver Film Festival started in 1958. But it did face financial hardship in the late 1960s and had to discontinue after the 1969 festival. The festival is now operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society, which was incorporated in the early 1980s and launched the festival in 1982. When it had relaunched, it was held at the city’s independent Ridge Theatre. However, it did expand in 2005 when the Vancouver International Film Festival Centre was built in downtown Vancouver.

Some of the films this year are The Piano Lesson, a Netflix film which stars Samuel L. Jackson in the lead role, Emilia Pérez a Spanish-language French musical crime comedy that stars Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldaña in the main roles with Selena Gomez part of the cast as well, and even The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal a documentary series that is to premiere on Prime Video this year. It’s very Canadian of us to have a Canadian band in a documentary in the Film Festival. Believe it or not, it also won the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award for documentaries.

One of the previous films that I can remember that was pretty big was Room. It won Vancouver International Film Festival’s most popular Canadian feature film award and that was back in 2015.

Some of the films that I wanted to go to were: Curl Power, which is a documentary that follows a teenage curling team from the suburbs of Maple Ridge, BC. Flow, which is about a future without humans and follows a black cat surviving a tsunami and finds refuge on a sailboat. Also, the fact that it’s an animated movie gives it a bonus for me. Happyend, a Japanese American drama set in near-future Tokyo about two friends about to graduate with the threat of an earthquake. And of course, I can’t forget Saturday Night a biographical comedy-drama that’s about the night of the 1975 premiere of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. I was really looking forward to that one. Like always, there are other ones I want to watch but, of course, if I listed all of them then, this would be too long.

Sports as a Kid

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461277268_10159730409297396_9067992333734899813_n

So I grew up playing a bunch of sports. Yes, I was one of those kids who could not pick a sport to play. Although I had to drop all my sports by the time I got to 11th grade. I did soccer, I did fastpitch or fastpitch softball, I figure skated, I did taekwondo, I did basketball while I was in elementary school, track, and I did floor hockey.

I did track throughout elementary school mostly. I started doing track when I was 6. I was a fast little thing of what people told me. By the time I was in grade, I think 2, my mom had to pull me and my sister out because of my principal complaining that I wasn’t sitting still after the competition. But I started it back up when we changed schools in grade 4. And I did that till I was in grade 6, I believe.

I only did soccer for a couple of years starting when I was 7. It was definitely an experience in itself. One of the days that we had practiced, because we had to practice rain or shine, it ended up raining, windy, sunny, and it ended up hailing, all within the span of an hour. The only reason why our coach let us go home early was because it started hailing. Most of the time when you participate in soccer practice, it is going to be literally rain or shine. They don’t care that it’s going to be raining when you’re practicing. Actually, that’s not entirely true. It depends on what type of surface you’re practicing on. For me, it was gravel, so it didn’t matter.

I did fastpitch when I was in grade 5, from what I can remember. And I ended up getting MVP for actually hitting my first ball with a bat during one of our tournaments.

I did basketball in grades six and seven. As well as floor hockey. Basketball practice was usually in the morning or sometimes it was after school instead. For floor hockey, we actually did it with the puck instead of a ball. And our games would be during lunch. I remember my teachers telling me that I was very good at defense. I loved doing floor hockey, but only when there’s a puck, don’t like playing when it’s with a ball.

I started with skating lessons. I don’t exactly remember what age I was. But then we started doing figure skating, me and my sister. I remember we had to stop figure skating in grade 6 because mom couldn’t functionally afford it anymore. She could only afford to put one of us through figure skating. So, we ended up dropping it. It was also getting harder for us to be able to get to figure skating since we had moved further away from the rink.

I did Taekwondo in grade 9 and I had to drop it just as I was starting grade 11. We already knew that I wasn’t going to have time for extracurriculars at the time because I ended up in a university program at school. I ended up with all my academic classes in my first term of grade 11 so we were more worried about me getting my homework done than being able to participate in sports.

Now, yes, I did a lot of sports as a kid. However, it did help me grow. I learned how to work with people. And I learned how to stand up and fight.

First Hockey Win in Olympic History

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Sunset Hockey

Source Image: Tyler, "Sunset Hockey", 2010, 
Via www.flickr.com/photos/tazphotos/4400220464/in/dateposted/

Did you know back in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium during the Summer Olympic Games ice hockey made its first debut, and the Canadians took home gold. Don’t remember? Back then, the rules were slightly different. But it’s rather fitting that we won gold, isn’t it? At the time, we were represented by the Winnipeg Falcons. During the quarterfinals, we had gone against Czechoslovakia and won 15 to 0. We then went against the US in the semi-finals, and we won 2 to 0, which probably looks more accurate for a normal current game of hockey. During the gold medal game, we went against Sweden. We won 12 to 1. Now, I don’t know if you were counting, but Canada scored a total of 29 goals! The only one that got anything through our goalie, was Sweden, but only once! Like I said, we won gold. The US won silver and Czechoslovakia won bronze.

Since it was 1920, I didn’t expect there to be very many people playing hockey for the Olympics. Or at least that many teams. But in actuality, there were seven teams. Quarterfinals for the other teams were paired up as Sweden with Belgium with Sweden winning 8 to 0. And then the United States against Switzerland, winning 29 to 0. And then Switzerland ended up in the semi-finals against France, winning 4 to 0.

For the silver medal round, it ended up being the US against Sweden with the US winning 7 to 0. Then the silver medal game was the US against Czechoslovakia with the US actually winning 16 to 0.

For bronze, it ended up being Sweden against Switzerland with Sweden winning 4 to 0 in the semifinals. And then the bronze medal game was Czechoslovakia against Sweden with Czechoslovakia winning 1 to 0.

I still find it funny looking at what all the goals were in the United States making the most at 52 overall goals. However, they still did not win. They only ended up getting in second. Canada only scored 29 goals overall, but they also won all their games. Then you have Sweden, who had a total of 17 goals, won 3 games and lost 3 games and only ended up in fourth. Czechoslovakia ended up only doing one goal to win bronze. They scored one goal over the entire time they played! Just to win bronze!

Canadian Sports History

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Canadian Flag

Some of the most iconic moments in Canadian history are actually in Canadian sports. Like when Marilyn Bell swam across Lake Ontario in 1954. She was a long-distance swimmer who won virtually every possible athletic award. Marilyn was inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame in 1958. But she is best known for being the first person to swim 51.5 kilometres across Lake Ontario from Youngstown, New York all the way to Toronto, Ontario. And she was only 16.

Another one was when Terry Fox ran the Marathon of Hope in 1980 after losing his leg to cancer at the age of 18. He did it to raise awareness and raise money for Cancer Research in a marathon that lasted 143 days before he was forced to stop due to the return of cancer in his body. We celebrate Terry’s legacy every year with elementary schools and high schools doing a Terry Fox run. It’s one of the most well-known Canadian sports things in history.

Or the time Cindy Klassen won 5 medals in 2006 at the Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. She was a world-class speedskater and won 1 gold, 2 silvers, and 2 bronze that year. She had missed out on a second gold medal by just .04 seconds in the 100m race.

Or when Donovan Bailey became the fastest man in the world at the time in 1996. He made history for that one at a competition in Reno, Nevada, breaking the world record for the 50-metre indoor. He also ended up setting a new world record at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia for the 100-metre title, having a top speed of 12.10 metres per second. This was the fastest top speed ever recorded by a human being at the time. He also achieved a national record at 37.69 seconds for the Summer Olympics 4 x 100m title in the same year.

Where if you want something a little bit more recent, in 2019 the Toronto Raptors became NBA champions. They became the first Canadian team to win in NBA history. They had also won a conference title that year.

And don’t forget the time in Amsterdam in 1928 when we made Canadian history. That is when women started competing in the Summer Olympics and we ended up winning. We ended up bringing 4 medals home and 2 of them were gold.

But I think you get the gist of what I’m getting at. Canada has done a lot for sports and its history, including inventing basketball, lacrosse, and, surprisingly, 5-pin bowling. Maybe we should learn about some more.

Playing Sports is Expensive

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SportsBall

Some of the most expensive sports are some of the most popular. Hockey included. To put it into perspective for you, I’m still going to use hockey as an example. For hockey, you need to buy the skates, the padding, the helmets, and all the necessary requirements to keep your kids safe. As well as a stick and, every time they break that stick, you’ll have to get a new stick. And every time their skates need to be repaired or anything like that, you have to pay for the repair or you’ll have to pay for new skates. Let’s throw figure skating and gymnastics into this. For figure skating and gymnastics, they both use costumes for the competition. Each costume, depending on where you get it, can range in price drastically. And most of the time coaches do require you to get multiple different costumes, so that way you’re not wearing the same costume over and over and over again. For figure skating you are required to buy your skates. As well as pay for private lessons. That applies to both figure skating and gymnastics. Especially if you’re going to go to the competition level. If you’re just doing it for fun, that doesn’t matter as much. In the beginning, you do individual competitions against the same people that you learn with and you have performances at the end of the season. If you’re looking at skiing or snowboarding, you’re buying the skis or the snowboard and all of your gear. Which can also cost a pretty penny. If you’re doing any sort of martial arts. Sometimes you have to pay for your uniform. You pay for the lessons, you pay for any gear that you may need, including any staffs or anything like that, as well as fees to go into competitions, which usually applies to any competition within any sport or most sports. The least expensive sport that I actually know of is actually swimming. Because the only things that you need to pay for are the lessons and the bathing suit, and then if you need goggles and a swim cap. If you’re doing baseball or softball, you also have the cost of the bats, the helmets, gloves, and safety gear.

Yes, putting your kids into sports is expensive. However, it is something that kids love to do. A lot of kids like to be active and to be active sometimes you have to give a little. Especially if they become passionate about the sport. I’ve talked to so many people who have done sports in the past. They developed real-world experience to do what they do at work. Especially if it’s a team sport, you actually learn to work within a team when you play a team-based sport.

E-Sports in Canadian School

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Video Games Players

Source Image: włodi, "Video Games Players", 2008, 
Via www.flickr.com/photos/wlodi/2254657082/in/dateposted/

With the rise of E-sports around the world, you wonder is there anywhere in Canada, especially in college where you could play? Well, in Windsor, Ontario a new gaming lab featuring Dell Technologies Alienware computers was officially unveiled on September 19th at the St. Clair Colleges E-sports program. The Alienware Gaming Lab is the first of its kind in Canada. The Gaming Lab is stationed in the College’s 15,000 square-foot Nexus E-Sports Arena and broadcast facilities which opened in 2022. The Gaming Lab features 48 new free-play PC’s for novice gamers at the college and 62 computers to enhance competitive gaming play for varsity and academy players. The Nexus Arena also features a 5v5 competition stage, an E-sports classroom featuring broadcast studios and the latest industry equipment, 3 dedicated VR and sim racing space connected directly to the broadcast studio, 5 separate soundproof streaming rooms, and a console gaming lounge featuring 8 stations for drop-in play. The console stations include Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, and PlayStation 5.

The Saints E-sports program, representing St. Clair College in Windsor, ON, was the first of its kind in Canada, founded in 2017. The Saints varsity E-Sports athletes earn scholarships to compete in leagues against colleges and universities across the world. The team competes across 15 titles, including League of Legends, Overwatch, Valorant Fortnite, Rocket League, Call of Duty and Rainbow 6 Siege. The program consists of more than 150 student E-Sports athletes, marketing and social media staff, broadcasters and more. Many of whom have studied at the college and competed around the world.

Most people might wonder why this is relevant. This is a big step in E-Sports for Canada. The last time I heard about anything E-sports related in Canada was when the League of Legends World Championship was held in North America in 2022 when there was a continental tour that included a stop in Toronto. From the research that I’ve done, there is actually not very many E-Sports training facilities anywhere in the Lower Mainland. Of what I could find, there are about 3. One of which is in Burnaby called Valhallan E-sports Training.

It’s going to be interesting what this is all going to lead to. This could lead to more schools doing the same thing as St Clair College. Which would be an interesting thing to see. I wonder what other people’s opinions on this is going to be.

Raptors Set to Retire Vince Carters Jersey

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Vince Carter

Image Source: Tom Thai, "Vince Carter", 2008, via 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eviltomthai/3032864214

47-year-old Vince Carter is said to be the first former NBA player to have his jersey, No 15, retired and hung from the rafters of the Scotia Bank Arena. Even though he’s native to Florida, he spent 5-1/2 out of his 22 seasons with the Toronto Raptors. He’s had many nicknames including Vinsanity, Air Canada, and Half Man, Half Amazing.

He started with the NBA in 1998 where he was drafted into the Toronto Raptors. An NBA lockout during his rookie season caused the actual season to start in January of 1999. He quickly became a fan favourite with a soaring offensive game which earned him the name Air Canada. He had won the NBA Rookie of the Year award after averaging 18.3 points per game. During his second season, he averaged 25.7 points per game. In December of 2004, he ended up getting traded to the New Jersey Nets where he spent another five seasons. He spent a year with Orlando Magic and a year with the Phoenix Suns where he reached his 20,000th career point during a game between the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns. In December of 2011, he signed a three-year contract with the Dallas Mavericks where he surpassed the 23,000-point mark in 2014 becoming the 27th NBA player to do it. In July of 2014, he got traded yet again to the Memphis Grizzlies where he spent another three seasons. In February of 2017, he hit his 2,000th career 3-pointer mark, making him the fifth person to ever reach this point. In 2017, he was traded to the Sacramento Kings, where he only spent a year. After that he signed with the Atlanta Hawks where he spent his final two seasons. He even got to play in Sydney for the 2000 Summer Olympics for the US, winning gold in the sport.

In October of 2023, he announced that he joined YES Network as a part-time analyst for the Brooklyn Nets games. He is the only player in NBA history to appear in games in four different decades the 1990s, the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. He’s also one of six players in league history to score 24,000 points, 6,000 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 1,000 steals and 1,000 3-pointers.

The Toronto Raptors are set to retire his jersey on November 2nd in their game against the Sacramento Kings. The Brooklyn Nets are also set to retire his jersey on January 25th, 2025 at the Barclays Centre when they take on the Miami Heat.