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Patrick Gillick

Lawrence Patrick David Gillick, baseball executive, general manager Toronto Blue Jays (born at Chico, California, 22 Aug 1937). Pat Gillick grew up in Sherman Oaks, California, and was educated at the University of Southern California, where he earned a business degree.

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Frank Clair

Frank Clair, football coach (born 12 May 1917 in Hamilton, Ohio; died 3 April 2005 in Sarasota, Florida).

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Lloyd Percival

Lloyd Percival, sport figure (b at Toronto 3 June 1913; d there 23 July 1974). A controversial and versatile entrepreneur, Percival was an all-rounder in his youth, competing successfully in many sports.

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Frank J. Selke

Frank J. Selke, sport administrator and coach (b at Kitchener, Ont 7 May 1893; d at Rigaud, Qu 3 July 1985). At the age of 13, Selke became the manager of the Iroquois Bantams ice-hockey team in his hometown.

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Conn Smythe

Constantine Falkland Cary Smythe, "Conn," sports entrepreneur (b at Toronto 1 Feb 1895; d there 18 Nov 1980). He was awarded the Military Cross in WWI and was severely injured by shrapnel in WWII. His reputation for

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Hec Crighton

Hector Naismith Crighton, "Hec," athlete, coach, referee and teacher, author (b 2 April 1900 at Toronto, Ont; d 17 April 1967 at Toronto, Ont) Crighton is best known for his donation of the coveted HEC CRIGHTON TROPHY, presented annually to the Outstanding University Football Player in Canada.

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Ronald Lancaster

Ronald Lancaster, football player, coach (b at Fairchance, Pa 14 Oct 1938; d at Hamilton, Ont 18 September 2008). He quarterbacked the OTTAWA ROUGH RIDERS from 1960 with Russ JACKSON and was later traded to Saskatchewan (1963-78).

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Scotty Bowman

William (Scotty) Bowman, hockey coach (b at Montréal 18 Sept 1933). Bowman's junior hockey career ended in 1952 and he began coaching in the MONTREAL CANADIENS system from 1954 to 1966 when he joined the St Louis Blues as coach and general manager in 1967.

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Michael “Pinball” Clemons

Michael “Pinball” Clemons, O Ont, football player, coach, motivational speaker (born 15 January 1965 in Dunedin, Florida). Michael Clemons is one of the most accomplished athletes in Canadian Football League (CFL) history and the first African American to coach in the Grey Cup. Known to many simply as “Pinball,” he is a CFL Hall of Famer and four-time Grey Cup winner with the Toronto Argonauts, earning three championships as a player (1991, 1996, 1997) and one as a head coach (2004). He is the all-time leader in total combined yards in CFL history (25,438). Clemons, a naturalized Canadian citizen, moved into an executive role in the Argonauts’ front office after retiring from coaching. He is involved with a number of charities, including the Pinball Clemons Foundation.

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Harold Ballard

Harold Ballard, hockey executive (born 30 July 1903 in Toronto, ON; died 11 April 1990 in To-ronto, ON). Ballard was a sports enthusiast from a young age and began running hockey teams in Toronto in the early 1930s. After helping to build a successful organization with the Toronto Marlboros in the 1940s and 1950s, Ballard became part of a seven-man committee running the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1957. He was one of three owners in control of the team when Toronto won the Stanley Cup four times in the 1960s, but after becoming principal owner in 1972, his bombastic, autocratic style contributed to the team’s decline on the ice. Ballard was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1977. He bought the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1978 and was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1987.

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Lucien Laverdure

Lucien Laverdure, coach, promoter, entrepreneur (b at Montréal 25 Sep 1915; d there 25 Dec 1976). Lucien Laverdure picked up a TENNIS racquet for the first time at around the age of 12 at the Collège Mont St-Louis, thus discovering the sport that really suited him.

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Art Ross

​Arthur Howey Ross, hockey player, inventor/innovator and NHL team executive (born 13 January 1885 in Naughton [Sudbury], ON; died 5 August 1964 in Medford, Massachusetts). Ross was considered a top defenseman during a playing career that included several years as a professional (with a brief stint in the fledgling National Hockey League). Following his retirement as a player in 1918, Ross worked as an NHL referee and coached the NHL’s Hamilton Tigers in 1922–23. The Boston Bruins hired him when they entered the league in 1924, and Ross served as coach, general manager and vice president (often holding all three titles at once) until 1954. Ross also invented improved versions of the hockey puck and goalie nets that were used for decades in the NHL, and introduced many of the rules that modernized the game.

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Pat Burns

​Patrick John Joseph Burns, police officer, hockey coach (born 4 April 1952 in Saint-Henri, QC; died 19 November 2010 in Sherbrooke, QC).

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Lester Patrick

Lester Patrick (born at Drummondville, Qué 31 Dec 1883; d at Victoria 1 June 1960), patriarch of a family which dominated the early development of HOCKEY as players and managers.

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James Naismith

Dr. James Naismith, physical educator, author, inventor, chaplain, physician (born 6 November 1861 in Almonte, Ontario; died 28 November 1939 in Lawrence, Kansas). James Naismith is best known as the inventor of the sport of basketball. He was also the first full-time athletics instructor at McGill University and established the basketball program at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where he worked and lived for 41 years until his death. Naismith became the first member of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959. He was posthumously inducted to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and Canada’s Walk of Fame. In 2010, his original hand-written rules for the sport of basketball were sold at auction for $4.3 million, a sports memorabilia record.