When Josephine Lee came to Canada, specifically Burnaby, in 1994 to escape continued unrest from the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China, she was looking for something new to spark her interest.

So Lee and husband Freeman Watt turned to lawn bowling, a sport Watt had been fascinated with since he was a boy in Hong Kong. Lee became so proficient at bowls she got to travel the province, country and the world to compete.

Since 2001, she has won 37 provincial medals (24 gold) and 19 national medals (10 gold). Internationally she has won two gold medals at the US Open, a silver at the 2009 Hong Kong Open and represented Canada at the 2008 Asia Pacific Games and the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Dehli, India.

Sean Fleming, born and raised in Burnaby, spent 16 seasons in the CFL kicking for the Edmonton Eskimos. He set club records for points (2,571), field goals (553), converts (713), punts (1,264), punt yardage (52,957) and kickoff yardage (69,973).

Fleming, who attended Parkcrest Elementary and played soccer for Cliff Avenue United and baseball for the Burnaby Baseball Association, played in five Grey Cups, winning three, and was named the 1983 Grey Cup’s Most Valuable Canadian. He kicked the game-winning field goal in overtime in the 1995 Grey Cup.

He’s a four-time West Division all-star and two-time CFL all-star.
After graduating highs school from Vancouver College, Fleming went to the University of Wyoming where he still holds almost every Cowboys place-kicking record including scoring 324 points in his four years there.

As a pro, he had brief stints in the NFL with Washington and Kansas City before joining Edmonton, who selected him sixth overall in the 1992 CFL draft. He was inducted into the team’s Wall of Honour in 2011.

If it wasn’t obvious Burnaby Central student Doug Chapman was destined for an international sprinting career but it became crystal clear one day in 1969. It was at the Vancouver and District Inter-High track meet when Chapman won the 100-yard, 220-yard and 440-yard races along with being on the winning 4×220-yard relay team.

The most impressive result came when Chapman stunned everyone by rocketing across the 100-yard finish line in 9.9 seconds breaking a 42-year-old record high school record held by famed sprinter Percy Williams, who went on to win two gold medals at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

Under the tutelage of legendary Burnaby Central track coach Ken Taylor (Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame honoured member inducted in the class of 2003), Chapman’s speed earned him a scholarship to the University of Oregon, a U.S. track and field collegiate power. Here he helped the Ducks win an NCAA championship in 1970, which led to the team being inducted into the school’s sports hall of fame.

Chapman went on to represent Canada at several international competitions. That same year, the 18-year-old was on Canada’s 4×400 relay team that finished fourth at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. At the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Columbia, Chapman came in sixth in the 400 metres and fourth in the 4×400 relay. Chapman was also chosen for the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich and the 1973 Pan Pacific Games.

It’s usually the father introducing their sons to a sport, but in John Rideout’s case it was the other way around. In 1992, Rideout’s 15-year-old son suggested he take up downhill mountain biking. Rideout thought why not?

He thought his son wanted to further their father-son bond by bouncing down the hills over rocks, roots and ramps together. In hindsight, though, Rideout suspects his boy was hoping “there might be a significant trickle-down effect of expensive biking equipment.” Whatever the motive, Rideout was hooked.

Initially he joined some other fathers of sons who mountain biked. But soon he was taking part in local and provincial events and his competitive juices flowed. When Canada was named host of the world masters circuit over a six-year period Rideout was all in.

Rideout won his first world title in 2002 taking the 55+ category and his second two years later in the 55-59 category. Both events were held in Bromont, Que. Then in 2016 in Val di Sole in northern Italy, Rideout captured his third world crown by winning the 65-and-over competition. In addition, Rideout finished in the top five in his age category at four other world downhill biking championships.

Lui Passaglia’s formative football years growing up and maturing into a professional were spent while residing in North Burnaby. His legendary gridiron exploits led him to induction into the BC Lions Wall of Fame, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the BC Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and now the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame.

Lui’s family moved to Burnaby in 1968 when he was 14 years old and attended Notre Dame High School where he started playing football with the Jugglers juggernaut coached by Al Blesch and George Oswald (a 2012 Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame inductee). Passaglia helped lead Notre Dame to three provincial championships (1968, 1970, 1971) playing quarterback, safety, punter and place kicker.

After graduation he headed up Burnaby Mountain to play for Simon Fraser University where he played wide receiver along with his kicking duties. He also played on SFU’s soccer team. Passaglia’s pigskin exploits caught the eye of the local Canadian Football League team and the BC Lions chose him fifth overall in the 1976 CFL draft. He remained living at home in Burnaby during his first four seasons with the Leos. He even caught a 10-yard touchdown pass in his first CFL game, July 22, 1976 against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Lui went on to play 25 seasons in the CFL, all with the Lions. No one has played more CFL games than Passaglia’s 408, and no one has scored more points, 3,991, than Passaglia. He also holds CFL career records for most converts, 1,045 (he only missed three in his career), most field goals, 875, and best single season field goal percentage, 90.9 per cent in 2000 his final season. He is second all-time in punting, behind only Winnipeg’s Bob Cameron, with 3,142 punts for 133,826 yards. Passaglia also holds the CFL record for most points in a season, 210, and is tied for most field goals in a season with 48. Passaglia was a CFL Western Division all-star nine times and a CFL all-star four times.

Most importantly, he was a member of three Grey Cup championships for the Lions (1985, 1994 and 2000). Passaglia retired after kicking the winning points in the Lions’ 28-26 victory over the Montreal Alouettes in the 2000 Grey Cup. He also kicked the winning field goal on the last play of the 1994 Grey Cup when BC beat Baltimore 26-23 at BC Place. In 2007, the Lions named that kick the greatest play in the club’s history.

Santorelli, who grew up in Burnaby and played for both Burnaby Minor Hockey Association and Burnaby Winter Club, was not a primo puck prospect. But that didn’t deter him from climbing the hockey ladder and eventually playing 406 regular season and four playoff games in the National Hockey League. His story is one of perseverance. Santorelli played two seasons in the BC Hockey League with Langley and Vernon.

His 67 goals and 148 points in two seasons caught the eye of scouts from Northern Michigan University, where he played three seasons scoring 61 goals and 110 points in 121 games. The Nashville Predators took notice of his play, drafting him in the sixth round of the 2004 NHL draft. After joining the Predators organization, Santorelli spent the best part of three seasons playing for the team’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, where he scored 74 goals and 171 points in 207 games.

Nashville called him up for two games in 2008-09 and another 25 the next season before he settled in as a regular. The Predators traded Santorelli to Florida in the summer of 2010 before he was claimed by the Winnipeg Jets in April 2013. That off-season, he became a free agent signing with his hometown Vancouver Canucks.

He played 49 games for the Canucks scoring 10 goals and 28 points while becoming a fan favourite of Canucks nation before being felled by injury. He then went on to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Nashville again and the Anaheim Ducks. Santorelli scored 64 goals and 138 points in his time in the NHL before finishing his professional playing career in 2016-17 with a six-game stint in Switzerland.

As a youngster, Mike McLenaghen thrived in the sporting breeding fields of Wesburn and Confederation Park community centres but eventually it was the soccer pitch where his talent bloomed the most. By 1972, McLenaghen was playing for British Columbia’s first-ever BC under-18 team which won the Western Canadian championship and came second in the national championship.

The next year, the midfielder/defender made Canada’s initial national youth team and was chosen captain. McLenaghen moved on to play at Simon Fraser University participating in two NAIA national championships.

He was a first-round selection of the Minnesota Kicks in the 1979 North American Soccer League draft. He went on to play for not only the Kicks, but the NASL’s Toronto Blizzard, Los Angeles Aztecs and Edmonton Drillers as well. McLenaghen also competed in eight international games for Canada.

Erin Gee’s softball prowess was born on the diamonds of Burnaby and thrived there for almost two decades before she took it to the national and international stage. The speedy centrefielder helped the Burnaby Oakeys win three provincial softball titles, a Western Canadian championship and two national crowns, including being named the top batter at the under-16 national championship.

After attending Sperling elementary and Burnaby North secondary, Gee took her skills to Burnaby Mountain where during her collegiate career at Simon Fraser University, Gee and the Clan won four NAIA regional titles and two NAIA national championships. In her final season, 2006, she was named a NAIA all-American and a national championship all-star.

At SFU, she had a career .424 batting average and is the school’s top career leader in runs scored, second in hits and stolen bases and third in batting average and on-base percentage.

She played for Canada at the 2004 World University Softball Championship. She went on to compete for Canada at two Canada Cups, the 2007 US World Cup of Softball and the 2007 PanAm Games in Brazil where Canada won a silver medal. She was also an alternate on Canada’s 2008 Olympic team in Beijing.

]]> https://bshofbc.com/fame-members-listing/erin-gee-softball/feed/ 0 https://bshofbc.com/fame-members-listing/fred-usselman/ https://bshofbc.com/fame-members-listing/fred-usselman/#respond Wed, 14 Dec 2022 21:13:01 +0000 https://bshofbc.com/?post_type=fame-members-listing&p=989

Fred Usselman, an East Burnaby boy, was a long, lanky sniper who was lethal playing on one of the era’s most prolific lines. The six-foot-four Usselman played alongside two other Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame inductees, Gord Gimple and Alex Carey, starting from their early days in minor lacrosse in Burnaby.

The trio led the Vancouver PNE Indians (1954) and Mount Pleasant Legion (1956) to Minto Cup national junior championships and then followed it up with Vancouver Burrards/Carlings to capture the 1961, 1963 and 1964 Mann Cup Canadian senior men’s titles. A five-time Western Lacrosse Association all-star, Usselman scored 476 goals and 773 points in his 12-year career.

He was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1979 and those Mann Cup championship teams have also been inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame. After winning the 1961 WLA scoring title, Usselman told the league it should have a trophy for the scoring leader. The league agreed and created the Denny Huddleston Trophy in 1962, although it turned out to be too late for his name to be engraved on it.

Kevin Reynolds’ amazing athleticism helped to influence changes to figure skating judging. Based out of the elite skating program at Burnaby 8-Rinks and Reynolds represented Canada at six world championships, finishing has high was fifth, as well as the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Reynolds trained under the tutelage of another Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame inductee Joanne McLeod (2005). He was the first skater to land two quadruple jumps in a single program and five quads in one competition. But in his early days of competing he wasn’t getting rewarded by the judges for executing difficult and eye-popping elements. That didn’t deter him, though.

Instead it motivated him to continue to challenge the system by performing his array of difficult elements in the hope change would come, and it did. Since then the judging criteria has completely flipped, says Reynolds, and he is “very proud” of being part of that change.

Late in his career, Reynolds persevered on the ice despite a hip injury and a torn labrum. That’s usually a career-ending injury in figure skating, but Reynolds rebounded with rehabilitation to skate for another four years.