Five of the nine team members — Joy Fera, Christine Neuland, Tricia Smith, Kim Gordon and Kelly Jacklin — went on to win a bronze medal for Canada at the 1978 world championships in New Zealand. 

The other members of the Lakers eight were coxswain Barbara Mutch and rowers Ina De Lure, Katie Burke and Lorna Schultz. The coach was Pat Sweeney.

Allison McNeill served as the SFU women’s basketball coach for 13 seasons, compiling an amazing 363-79 record.

During that time she led the Clan to 11 consecutive NAIA national championship berths and two NAIA final four appearances.

In 1992, McNeill was named NAIA coach of the year and in ’95 was selected a YWCA Woman of Distinction for her success as a coach and her dedication to female athletes.

She went on to be an associate head coach with the University of Oregon women’s team for four seasons (2001 to 2005). While with the Ducks they won the Women’s National Invitational Tournament in 2002 and secured a spot in the NCAA tournament in 2005. She served as head coach for Canada’s women’s basketball team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

“I’m honoured. I’ve never been elected to a hall of fame. It’s a real thrill. We had some great years up at SFU. It just feels really good and I’m honoured for all the girls who played up there,” McNeill said at the time of her induction to the Burnaby Hall.

“It (the induction) brought back all the years and all the great kids that played there. I always thought of Simon Fraser as Burnaby’s university.”

The Coaching Association of Canada gave her the Geoff Gowan Award for her lifetime contribution to coaching development in Canada.

McNeill has been inducted into the SFU Sports Hall of Fame (2012) and the BC Sports Hall of Fame (2016).

Arif Mawani served as provincial coach for Badminton B.C. from 1991 to 1994 and was instrumental in the growth of the sport throughout the province.

The Burnaby North grad coached Douglas College to provincial titles from 1985 to 1991 and in that final year coached a unique all-Douglas team to a Canadian college title.

As Badminton B.C.’s under-16 coach and performance director, Mawani led B.C. to back-to-back Western Canadian titles, a gold at the U19 Western Canada Summer Games and a team gold medal at the Canada Winter Games. He has placed players on Canada’s Commonwealth Games teams, coached at international events and written a badminton coaching manual titled Badminton 2000: A Guide to Teaching Badminton.

His Douglas College teams of 2007, 2008 and 2009 were inducted into the Coquitlam Sports Hall of Fame (2025). 

Mawani owns, operates and coaches at the Shuttlesport Badminton Academy in Port Coquitlam which he started in 2000.

Alex Turkington spent close to 40 years working in youth soccer as an official and referee. He is a life member of the BC Soccer Association (1975) and the BC junior and juvenile soccer associations, now B.C. Youth Soccer.

Turkington was secretary of the juvenile soccer association for the Vancouver District for four years and Burnaby area director for two years. He was secretary of BC Juvenile (Youth) from 1964 to 1974. In three of those years he was also a director on the provincial board. He was a director of BC Soccer from 1976 to 1987.

Turkington also oversaw the formation of the Burnaby juvenile boys soccer association and served for three years on the city’s Parks, Recreation and Culture committee.

He passed away in 2015. He was 90.

Merrill Gordon was the founder of Cliff Avenue United Soccer Club in North Burnaby in 1956, which grew into the largest juvenile soccer club in Burnaby. Gordon was the club’s president for 15 years.

Burnaby’s 1967 citizen of the year also founded Burnaby Youth Soccer and started the first youth soccer exchange with Washington State, a program that grew to involve over 10,000 boys. Gordon also served on Burnaby’s parks board from 1987 to 1992.

Gordon was awarded a BC Soccer Award of Merit in the early 1980s.

Gordon, who was born in 1929 passed away in April 2025.

Bill Colbourne was a co-founder of the Burnaby Minor Hockey Association in 1964. He was involved in minor hockey for nearly 50 years as an official, referee-in-chief and coach, from peanut to junior for over 20 years. He was the BMHA’s first referee-in-chief (1964 to 1966) and its president for two stints (1966-1968 and 1973-1974). Colbourne was awarded a life membership by BMHA.

After undertaking the role of division manager with the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association in the early 1970s, Colbourne served 11 years with the B.C. Amateur Hockey Association, including a stint as its president from 1981 to 1984 and as general manager of the Grandview Steelers of what is now called the Pacific International Junior Hockey League.

He passed away in 2023 just 16 days after his 90th birthday.

Jack McIlhargey began his hockey career in the minor program at the Burnaby Winter Club, competing in peewee through to juvenile. He played major junior hockey in Victoria and Flin Flon from 1970 to 1972 before plying his trade in the pro minor leagues.

McIlhargey made stops with the Jersey Devils of the Eastern league, Des Moines of the International league and Richmond of the American league before making the jump to the NHL. He played three seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers and was then acquired by the Vancouver Canucks in 1977 where he spent the next four seasons.

He retired after three more seasons in Hartford in 1982. In 393 NHL games, McIlhargey scored 11 goals and 45 points and amassed 1,102 minutes in penalties. 

McIlhargey, who was voted one of the 30 all-time greatest Canucks and throughout his career resided in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood of Burnaby, died in July 2020 at the age of 68.

McIlhargey spent 13 seasons over two stints as an assistant coach for the Canucks (from 1985 to 1991 and 1999 to 2006). In between he was the head coach of the Canucks’ IHL/AHL teams in Milwaukee, Hamilton and Syracuse. He finished his coaching career as an assistant with the Philadelphia Flyers for three seasons (from 2007 to 2010).

Gordie Gimple began his lacrosse career in the Norburn minor development system before graduating to the junior ranks where he won the MVP award in 1954, while helping his teams win two Minto Cups in three seasons.

In the senior league, the Burnaby resident helped spearhead the Vancouver Burrards to three national Mann Cup titles in 1961, ’63 and again in ’64. During his playing career, Gimple scored 543 goals and 417 assists for 960 points in just 407 senior A games.

He was named a league all-star eight times in his 11-year career and was a recipient of the Mike Kelly medal as a Mann Cup MVP in 1963. Gimple was also a six-time winner of the R.L. ‘Pat’ Maitland award for sportsmanship, value to his team and assistance to minor lacrosse. In 1972, Gimple was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Gimple went on to serve as a coach for the Burnaby Sr. Lakers, the Jr. Lakers and the Coquitlam Adanacs.

Peter Ogilvie, a St. Thomas More Collegiate grad, represented Canada in the track and field sprints at the 1991 and 1996 Olympic Games. He amassed eight individual medals in international competition, including gold at the 1994 Francophone Games in Paris, silver at the 1991 Pan Am Games and bronze at the 1993 world indoor championships.

Ogilvie was recognized with a distinguished top-40 ranking in the 200-metres four times in the 1990s and was ranked No. 1 in the world as a junior-aged athlete. At the time of his induction he held 25 provincial and national records in junior and high school competition. Ogilvie was named Sport B.C.’s high school athlete of the year in 1989 and ’90.

“I’m shocked and I’m honoured. I hadn’t thought about it,” said Ogilvie prior to being inducted. “I went through the school system in Burnaby and having this kind of recognition made me go through the scrap book again. “All-in-all, it’s an honour. Now I can go back in my career and say, ‘this is where I’ve been.’ It’s the sport I love.”

Ogilvie stayed in the sport as an administrator in both British Columbia and Alberta. He died in October 2024 at the age of 52.

Debbie Brill is considered the finest woman high jumper ever to compete for Canada and is the originator of the now common backward style of jumping, then aptly described as the ‘Brill Bend.’ Brill represented Canada at three Olympics Games, two world championships, four Commonwealth Games and three Pan American Games.

During her career, she won more than 65 national and international medals, including gold at the worlds, Pan Ams and Commonwealth Games. Brill became the first North American woman to jump six feet and was named B.C.’s athlete of the decade in 1980. 

She later set an indoor world high jump record of 1.99 metres a few months after giving birth to her first child. While that mark has since been surpassed, as of 2026, it was still a Canadian record and her jump in 1984 of 1.98 metres remained the outdoor high bar. Brill is an 11-time Canadian champion with her wins coming between 1968 and 1984.

Brill went on to compete at the master level setting five age-class world indoor and outdoor records.

Brill was named an officer of the order of Canada in 1983 and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.