Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame keeps growing
The Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame will welcome four new individuals and a new team on April 14 at the Thompson Rivers University Grand Hall.
John Burris, Peter Findlay and Maurice Bradley are three of the four individuals who will join the Hall.
One more individual is expected to be announced on Friday, March 2, and a team will be announced next week.
Burris, who passed away suddenly in 2001 at the age of 47, was best known for his involvement in racquet sports.
He won several provincial badminton tournaments, including the 1970 B.C. Interior Closed Championship when he was 17.
In his prime, Burris was a nationally-ranked squash player and would eventually make a living from the game, but not by playing it.
He took over as club pro at Racquetor Courts in 1985 and, two years later, became the B.C. sales manager for Black Knight racquets.
Burris became a shareholder and, eventually, a franchise owner with the company.
Findlay is an endurance athlete who excelled in running, mountain biking and cross-country skiing.
The 52-year-old Sa-Hali secondary teacher has performed excellently on local, national and international stages for almost three decades.
In 1991, Findlay placed third in the Western States 100 Mile Trail Run, which traverses the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
No Canadian has ever placed better than third in that race, according to a KSHF press release.
Two weeks after the Western, Findlay won the Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run in West and North Vancouver with a record time of four hours and 45 minutes.
He has won the race, widely considered Canada's first ultra-marathon, seven times.
Findlay was also fourth in the World Masters mountain bike championships in the 40- to 44-year-old age group in 2000.
The Kamloops resident was the top Canadian at the 2011 Masters World Cup cross-country skiing event in the Vernon area.
Bradley is a Kamloops fishing legend.
He arrived in the River City when he was 28 and immediately began exploring the area.
Bradley hosted an award-winning community television show — Just Fly Fishing — and wrote a book on fly-tying, Ice Off to Ice On.
"During his 47 years in the area, Bradley has been an ambassador looking over tremendous natural resource, encouraging people to sport-fish, but teaching all the importance of cultivating growth through the maintenance and preservation of the fishery," a KSHF press release said.
Included in Bradley's many awards are a Distinguished Service Award from the City of Kamloops and the Governor-General’s Award for the Province of B.C.
Tickets for the 22nd annual KSHF banquet are $45 and can be bought at the Interior Savings Box Office.
Mark Recchi will be the banquet's keynote speaker.
For more information, call KSHF chairman Frank D'Amore at 250-318-0023.
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