Sports in Canadian culture

[P Unit]

Thanks for finding that, very interesting!

[elly63]

Originally Posted by elly63

Greg Wiltjer – Drafted in the second round of the 1984 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, playing professionally for 12 seasons in Italy, Spain, and Greece. His son Kyle currently plays for the Kentucky Wildcats.

Greg "G" Wiltjer's Quest to Dunk

Interesting ending

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Bcasey25raptor

I'm still waiting for Canada to finally be assimilated into the US.

Canada has NO RIGHT being a different country. Never did.

Most of the world's countries are fairly artificial constructs anyway. Unless you are Iceland or Korea.

Even the United States of America is an artificial assemblage of a country.

[Allan83]

Originally Posted by elly63

Greg "G" Wiltjer's Quest to Dunk

Interesting ending

Thanks for that post on the 83 team! Kyle Wiltjer transferred to Gonzaga this year, btw. He's currently sitting out his redshirt year and will be a redshirt Jr. next year. I think he's hoping to make the same kind of improvements Olynyk did in his redshirt year.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Allan83

Thanks for that post on the 83 team! Kyle Wiltjer transferred to Gonzaga this year, btw.

Yes, Gonzaga has been good to Canadians: Pangos, Sacre, Olynick and a few others I can't think of off the top of my head. And it's Der Bingle's alma mater, how can ya beat that?

[elly63]

Great Canadian Sporting Moments

Graham Smith was born to swim.

Commonwealth Games History Graham Smith CBC Video

His father, Don Smith, was a prominent swimming coach. His brother, George, and sister, Sandra, swam for Canada from 1967 to 1970. Another sister, Susan, joined the national team in 1972. A younger sister, Becky, was an Olympic bronze medalist in 1976. It was Graham, however, who established the most impressive record among this incredible family.

He amassed a total of 56 gold, 23 silver, and eight bronze medals in Commonwealth, Olympic, national, and world championship events.

When Montreal hosted the Olympics in 1976, Smith had his heart set on winning a gold medal for his father, who was seriously ill at the time. Though he narrowly missed an individual medal placing in two events, Smith didn't come away empty handed; he helped the men's 4 x 100m medley relay team claim the silver medal.

After Smith's father passed away shortly after the Olympics, an Edmonton swimming pool was re-named in his honour. The Donald Smith Pool just happened to be the site of the 1978 Commonwealth Games aquatic events, and it was in this pool that Graham washed away his Olympic disappointment and established his own swimming legacy.

He won a record six gold medals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke, the 200m and 400m individual medley, the 400m freestyle, and the 4 x 100m medley relay. In addition, he set a remarkable five Commonwealth Games and three Commonwealth records.

Despite these outstanding achievements, the pinnacle of his career was yet to come. Just a few weeks later, at the world championships in West Berlin, he won the 200m individual medley event in a world record time of 2:03.65, beating out three other world record holders in the process.

Smith later attended the University of California at Berkley, where he championed the school's swim team to six U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association swimming titles. He was also the first Canadian to win an NCAA triple crown in 1979, with three gold medals and a relay title to his name.

After returning to Canada to complete his degree, he led the University of Calgary's swim team to six national titles.

Nineteen-seventy-eight, however, remained his most exceptional year. He received the Lionel Conacher Trophy as Canada's top male athlete, the Norton Crowe award as Canada's top male amateur athlete, and the Lou Marsh Trophy as the Canadian Press choice for the nation's most outstanding overall athlete. Smith also received an honoured place in the Canadian Aquatic Hall of Fame in 1986.

[Prometheus]

Embarrassing malfunction at the beginning of the Sochi 2014 opening ceremony!

[elly63]

Well, I think we as Canadians can sympathize with that, as long as nobody got killed, it's all good, as they say.

[elly63]

Dufour-Lapointe sisters offer tear-jerking tale
Steve Buffery, QMI Agency Feb 9, 2014


Canadian silver medallist Chloe Dufour-Lapointe (C) and her sisters, gold medalists Justine (R) and Maxime (L) stand with their mom, Johane Dufour and dad, Yves Lapointe, as they talk to the media in Sochi, Russia, on February 9, 2014. (Al Charest/QMI Agency)

Moments after middle daughter Chloe gave a tearful speech about how much her parents meant to their daughters, Johane Dufour — the mother of the suddenly world-famous Dufour-Lapointe sisters — waved her arms towards her girls and said: “Look at how beautiful they are. Look at these wonderful girls.”

Yes, look at them.

But even more, look at this family. And listen. Listen to Chloe speak about the love she and her sisters, Olympic moguls champion Justine and oldest daughter Maxime, have for their parents, Johane and Yves, and how much of their success, both as athletes and women, they owe to their parents, and how much Justine’s gold and Chloe’s silver medals are the result of the sacrifices their parents made.

“They are our most loyal fans and we wouldn’t be here without them,” said Chloe, breaking down in tears. “From when we were very young, they surrounded us with love. My parents kept telling us that we would make it. And we couldn’t let them down. And we were bound to end up here.”

Chloe spoke about how they would camp out in Lake Placid, N.Y. in the summertime so she could train for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and how, at day’s end, her dad would make the family homemade soup, and they’d all sit down together as a family and eat. A simple sentiment, but beautiful. She spoke of the family selling their beloved boat, which they used to sail on Lake Champlain on summer weekends, so she and her sisters could spend more time focusing on moguls.

Yves spoke of how his wife, who holds three university degrees, gave up her career so the girls would have a rock at home.

And Johane recalled telling her girls they were a triangle “and all the angles should be equal to make a stable triangle.”

There was so much love inside Chekhov Hall in Sochi’s main press centre on Sunday that even some members of the media found themselves fighting back tears.

This is a family that, from the time the Dufour-Lapointe sisters were babies, spent as much time together as possible. When they’re travelling on the World Cup circuit, the Dufour-Lapointe sisters room together. This is about as close a family as one could imagine, and you could see that at a day-after media conference organized so Justine and Chloe could talk about their 1-2 finish in the Olympic moguls competition.

Yves, an electrical engineer, was asked about the sacrifices he and his wife made over the years for their daughters.

“You ask me, ‘What was our sacrifice?’” he said. “Really there were no sacrifices. It’s all about choices. It was a question of believing in a dream and believing in what the girls were telling us.”

“That was our choice. To be close to them and to watch every single moment when they had success or pain,” added Johane. “When we’re old, and we don’t have any more money, we will be happy now to sit in a rocking chair, in a 2 1/2-room apartment. But right now, those babies, these little girls, these little teenagers, need us.”

For Johane and Yves, the weeks leading up to the Sochi Olympics were difficult. The girls were away training, and they hardly had a chance to speak to them. So when Justine and Chloe roared down the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park course Saturday (oldest sister Maxime failed to make it into the final), their parents were almost unable to contain themselves — the family’s long journey coming to an almost-unthinkable climax.

“I just wanted to see my babies,” Johane said when asked what her thoughts were when Justine and Chloe won their medals.

The sisters’ world is bound to change. But one thing is clear. As a family, they’ll never drift apart. When asked about where they go from here, Justine, in all her teenage exuberance, said they were going to establish a clothing line for young girls who want to train hard and look good.

“We love fashion, we’re addicted to clothing and makeup and hair. We’re not just athletes, we’re girls too,” she said with a laugh. “This is the start of a new chapter for all of us.”

Added Chloe: “Yes, and three is a very beautiful number.”

[White Pine]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

Embarrassing malfunction at the beginning of the Sochi 2014 opening ceremony!

Better than the torch not working and leaving Tretiak just standing there

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by elly63

Dufour-Lapointe sisters offer tear-jerking tale
Steve Buffery, QMI Agency Feb 9, 2014


Canadian silver medallist Chloe Dufour-Lapointe (C) and her sisters, gold medalists Justine (R) and Maxime (L) stand with their mom, Johane Dufour and dad, Yves Lapointe, as they talk to the media in Sochi, Russia, on February 9, 2014. (Al Charest/QMI Agency)

Moments after middle daughter Chloe gave a tearful speech about how much her parents meant to their daughters, Johane Dufour — the mother of the suddenly world-famous Dufour-Lapointe sisters — waved her arms towards her girls and said: “Look at how beautiful they are. Look at these wonderful girls.”

Yes, look at them.

But even more, look at this family. And listen. Listen to Chloe speak about the love she and her sisters, Olympic moguls champion Justine and oldest daughter Maxime, have for their parents, Johane and Yves, and how much of their success, both as athletes and women, they owe to their parents, and how much Justine’s gold and Chloe’s silver medals are the result of the sacrifices their parents made.

“They are our most loyal fans and we wouldn’t be here without them,” said Chloe, breaking down in tears. “From when we were very young, they surrounded us with love. My parents kept telling us that we would make it. And we couldn’t let them down. And we were bound to end up here.”

Chloe spoke about how they would camp out in Lake Placid, N.Y. in the summertime so she could train for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and how, at day’s end, her dad would make the family homemade soup, and they’d all sit down together as a family and eat. A simple sentiment, but beautiful. She spoke of the family selling their beloved boat, which they used to sail on Lake Champlain on summer weekends, so she and her sisters could spend more time focusing on moguls.

Yves spoke of how his wife, who holds three university degrees, gave up her career so the girls would have a rock at home.

And Johane recalled telling her girls they were a triangle “and all the angles should be equal to make a stable triangle.”

There was so much love inside Chekhov Hall in Sochi’s main press centre on Sunday that even some members of the media found themselves fighting back tears.

This is a family that, from the time the Dufour-Lapointe sisters were babies, spent as much time together as possible. When they’re travelling on the World Cup circuit, the Dufour-Lapointe sisters room together. This is about as close a family as one could imagine, and you could see that at a day-after media conference organized so Justine and Chloe could talk about their 1-2 finish in the Olympic moguls competition.

Yves, an electrical engineer, was asked about the sacrifices he and his wife made over the years for their daughters.

“You ask me, ‘What was our sacrifice?’” he said. “Really there were no sacrifices. It’s all about choices. It was a question of believing in a dream and believing in what the girls were telling us.”

“That was our choice. To be close to them and to watch every single moment when they had success or pain,” added Johane. “When we’re old, and we don’t have any more money, we will be happy now to sit in a rocking chair, in a 2 1/2-room apartment. But right now, those babies, these little girls, these little teenagers, need us.”

For Johane and Yves, the weeks leading up to the Sochi Olympics were difficult. The girls were away training, and they hardly had a chance to speak to them. So when Justine and Chloe roared down the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park course Saturday (oldest sister Maxime failed to make it into the final), their parents were almost unable to contain themselves — the family’s long journey coming to an almost-unthinkable climax.

“I just wanted to see my babies,” Johane said when asked what her thoughts were when Justine and Chloe won their medals.

The sisters’ world is bound to change. But one thing is clear. As a family, they’ll never drift apart. When asked about where they go from here, Justine, in all her teenage exuberance, said they were going to establish a clothing line for young girls who want to train hard and look good.

“We love fashion, we’re addicted to clothing and makeup and hair. We’re not just athletes, we’re girls too,” she said with a laugh. “This is the start of a new chapter for all of us.”

Added Chloe: “Yes, and three is a very beautiful number.”

Great story.

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by White Pine

Better than the torch not working and leaving Tretiak just standing there

I don't think so.

The five Olympic Rings are the most recognizable and objective symbol of the Olympic Games. All five rings are an absolutely necessary component of that symbol. It is all or nothing. When only four of the five rings open the symbol is destroyed. It is like the Canadian flag without the maple leaf.

The shape and look of an Olympic cauldron, by contrast, is unique and original to each and every games. Although one piece of the cauldron failed to work in Vancouver, that piece was not functionally essential and the cauldron still lit and performed its function as a cauldron. And since each cauldron is a unique creation for each games and no one knows exactly what a particular cauldron is supposed to look like, the incompleteness of the cauldron in Vancouver was not nearly as unmistakeable as the incompleteness of the Olympic Rings in Sochi. Both in form and in function, an Olympic symbol was not destroyed in Vancouver.

Moreover, the malfunction in Sochi was at the very beginning of the ceremony. It was the opening special effect of an event designed to marvel and impress the world. Its failure made one uncomfortable at the very beginning of the ceremony and created a temporary distraction from the artistry that immediately followed. It took a while to relax psychologically and enjoy the rest of the show.

At least in Vancouver, you were able to sit back and enjoy the beauty of the first 99% of the ceremony without any uncomfortable distractions. But imagine if the snowboarder in Vancouver crashed badly on the opening stunt. That's what Sochi's mistake was like.

Vancouver's cauldron malfunction was embarrassing to be sure, but for the reasons above, I will take Vancouver's cauldron malfunction over Sochi's Olympic Rings malfunction every time.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by elly63

Great Canadian Sporting Moment

Excellent writeup on the 1983 Canadian Men's Basketball "Meh" Team, good pictures too. Man, I could have wrote this, my memories exactly and very little info on the web aside from this - elly

Canada’s Greatest Basketball Moment
robvogt80s.blogspot.ca 27 April 2013

Long before Steve Nash, and Jamal Magloire, and all those other Canadians who played in the NBA, and long before the NBA returned to Canada in 1995 with the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies, there was a group of relatively unknown Canadians who shocked the basketball world.

Shocking the world

The year was 1983, and the setting was the World University Games in Edmonton, Alberta. The Canadian men's basketball team was assembled from a group of college players, mostly from Canadian schools, but also a few American NCAA schools. At the time, the University of Victoria Vikings ruled men's basketball, and they were well-represented at the Universiade.

The team was coached by Jack Donohue, who had more success with the Canadian national team in international play than any other coach. He took them to fourth place finishes in the 1976 and 1984 Olympic Games. No one knows what could have happened in 1980, but Canada chose to boycott the games that year, held in Moscow, over the Soviet Union's aggression in Afghanistan. He also coached Lew Alcindor in high school. Alcindor would go on to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the greatest college and professional players in history.

There is not a lot of information readily available on the 1983 World University Games tournament. We pick up the story after Canada managed to make it all the way to the semi-finals.

Awaiting them were the heavily-favoured and star-studded team from the United States. According to USA Basketball, the Americans had captured four straight gold medals and were loaded with talent. The team featured Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Johnny Dawkins, Ed Pinckney, and Kevin Willis. They cruised to the semi-finals with five straight wins, including a 156-75 win over Lebanon. In fact, the Americans hit or surpassed 100 points in each of their first four games. Their first test came against Cuba, but the U.S. still won by 15. This team averaged 112.7 points and had six players average in double figures.

Back in those days, unfortunately, it was before TSN or Sportsnet, so there was no wall-to-wall sports coverage. We missed the game that shocked the world (Edit: I'm pretty sure I saw it on CBC - elly). In front of 10,000 fans at the Butterdome in Edmonton, Canada defeated that world powerhouse the United States of America. It was not even that close, as Canada won by a score of 85-77, connecting on 29 of 40 free throws.

The win put them in the gold medal game against Yugoslavia, who was led by future NBA star Drazen Petrovic. By then, the Canadian team had drawn some attention. The game was broadcast on CBC, and I stayed up relatively late to watch it. So, on the campus of the University of Alberta, on a warm Saturday night, a group led by players with names such as Pasquale, Triano, Wiltjer, Kazanowski, and Tilleman, Team Canada claimed gold by defeating Yugoslavia, by a score of 83-68.

Relative obscurity

It is a crime that so few people know about this team, and their tremendous achievement. There is no information readily available on the Internet, and barely a mention from Basketball Canada. This team won a major international tournament, unlike any other Canadian men's team. It is true many of the players from this team would take fourth the next year at the Olympics, and that team has been inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame. Yet, this team won, and no one knows it. They were loaded with talent as well, and virtually all the top players were drafted by NBA teams.

Consider this:

Eli Pasquale – Drafted in the fifth round of the 1984 NBA draft by the Seattle Super Sonics, and played professionally in Argentina and Europe.

Jay Triano – Drafted in the eighth round of the 1981 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, and played professionally in Mexico and Turkey. He went on to coach the Toronto Raptors, and is in his second stint as head coach of the Canadian national team.

Greg Wiltjer – Drafted in the second round of the 1984 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, playing professionally for 12 seasons in Italy, Spain, and Greece. His son Kyle currently plays for the Kentucky Wildcats.

Gerald Kazanowski – Drafted in the seventh round of the 1983 NBA draft by the Utah Jazz, and played professionally for teams all over Europe including Spain, and Argentina and Mexico.

Karl Tilleman – Drafted in the fourth round of the 1984 NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets.

Danny Meagher – Drafted in the sixth round of the 1985 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, playing professionally overseas for eight years in Europe.

Bill Wennington – Drafted in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks, and would go on to win three NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls.

Howard Kelsey – Played professionally in Mexico, and now is heavily involved in Basketball Canada.

Tony Simms – Drafted in the sixth round of the 1983 NBA draft by the New York Knicks.

As much talent as the Americans had, that was not on the team, Canada had had two first-round picks who could have played for them as well: Leo Rautins and Stewart Granger.

Parting thoughts

It's funny how things can stick with you. I remember this team so well, and it has been 30 years since they won that gold medal. I remember the way Pasquale controlled the tempo of the game, and how Kazanowski dominated the boards. He wore this big bandage on his chin from a cut he suffered in a previous game. He also had this uncanny ability to find the open man, especially with the baseball pass. The announcers even said he had become proficient at it at UVic where he often connected with his brother. Wiltjer was another great post player, and Triano was the perfect complement to Pasquale in the back court. Tilleman was the one I knew best from his time at the University of Calgary. He was just a deadly outside shooter. As I watched that gold medal game, I hoped so bad he would play, and he did, but not that much. He was a guard too, and it was difficult to displace Pasquale and Triano.

Recently I just realized something as well. Four short years after the Canadians won gold, I was playing basketball on that same court when I attended the University of Alberta. A year after that, I was even playing ball wearing a UVic sweater, a gift from my sister who went there in 1988.

Anyway, maybe some day the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame will see how important this team really was and induct them. After all, they are some of the few Canadians who can call themselves champions. They provided Canada's greatest basketball moment – ever.

Thanks for quoting that, it was interesting to read. Yes, it is a shame that that win isn't more known, though that in itself is telling, isn't it? Basketball in Canada didn't take off until the Raptors and Grizzlies joined the NBA. Before then it was an eccentric sport played by giants who weren't allowed to hit each other.

Canadians just weren't into it in the 1980s or before. I know, because I was there. The NBA standings and results were consigned to the back pages of the sports sections if they even showed up at all, and rarely was there an actual story. Sometimes a one-paragraph round-up of the previous evening's games was all you got. And NCAA ball? You maybe got results, but never a story unless something unusual happened or it was March. And on TV? A short blip during the sports broadcast, if that.

I agree that the Universiade win was the best accomplishment by Canadian players, but I still disagree that it was the greatest moment for Canadian basketball as a whole. Because the epitome of basketball is the NBA. A world university basketball tournament just isn't in the same league. At all.

You really can't underestimate the impact made by the Raptors in 2001, when they got within a second of making the conference finals. Yeah, they were all American players, but the point is, we finally had a team on the big stage. The Raptors were ours. Every hoops fan in Canada was following their playoff run, even if lots of Canadian basketball fans hadn't adopted them as "Canada's team." The excitement was palpable, and unlike anything I had ever experienced as a hoops fan in Canada. The Raptors literally inspired a whole generation of amazing talent in the GTA that is now making a splash in the NCAA and the NBA. One after another, these great Toronto players talk about how Vince Carter was their inspiration when they were kids.

The Universiade win in 1983 didn't do that.

[Antigonish]

Basketball has been big on the East Coast long before the NBA came to Canada just maybe not nation wide though.

My favourite moment was seeing StFX win the national championship in front of a 10,500 sell out at the Metro Centre in Halifax circa 2000. With the game tied vs Brandon University and a second left a bogus foul call gave X 2 free throws to basically win the championship. Allegedly the X coach told Power Forward Dennie Oliver to miss both free throws (which be blatantly did) for a fair overtime showdown which X ended up winning. This was highlighted with a Mastercard commercial starring Oliver (one of those "priceless" adverts) that ran that spring and summer.

StFX ended up winning back-to-back in 2000 & 2001 with a team stacked with local talent: Fred Perry, Dennie Oliver, Jordan Croucher (all from Halifax) who had successful careers in Europe, Croucher eventually became a successful R&B/Hip Hop musician after his playing days.

I should add B.C. native Randy Nohr who was the starting point guard for that team was the final cut from the Canadian Olympic team for the 2000 Olympics that summer. Great basketball team.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Basketball in Canada didn't take off until the Raptors and Grizzlies joined the NBA. Before then it was an eccentric sport played by giants who weren't allowed to hit each other.

Canadians just weren't into it in the 1980s or before. I know, because I was there. Sometimes a one-paragraph round-up of the previous evening's games was all you got. And NCAA ball? You maybe got results, but never a story unless something unusual happened or it was March. And on TV? A short blip during the sports broadcast, if that.

Because the epitome of basketball is the NBA.

Sorry, Rousseau but you're way off base. It's obvious from your posts that you're an American basketball fan. Some of the things you're saying make no sense. Why would Canadian papers or TV cover NCAA or even much of the NBA when there was no Canadian franchise?

Your premise that the NBA is the "epitome" of basketball is disingenuous. What does "epitome" mean? Highest paid? Traditionally wouldn't most longtime ball fans in Kentucky and Indiana live and die with the Wildcats and Hoosiers first moreso than another team.

It's as if you're saying basketball started in Canada when the Raptors arrived. You're seeing that several people here disagree with your vision. And to say that Canadians just weren't into it (before the Raptors) in the 80s or before is ludicrous.

Seriously dude you gotta broaden your scope. It's great you wanna drink the American Kool-Aid but some of us choose not to and are aware of our own history. OUR HISTORY! It would be like me pimping the NHL and CHL and ignore the KHL as if it were nothing.

And with that here's a little lesson in Canadian basketball, hate to come across as so preachy, but gee whiz!

[elly63]

Great Canadian Sporting Moments

Noel MacDonald Edmonton Grads

In 1933, Noel MacDonald received her basketball baptism.



Joining the Edmonton Grads, Canada's greatest women's basketball team, the rookie was given the unenviable task of guarding Alberta Williams, Tulsa's tall centre. Surprising perhaps even herself, MacDonald outscored Williams and helped lead the Grads to victory.

Before she finished playing in 1939, retiring as the Grads' captain, MacDonald would lead the Grads to success around the world.

In 1915, the girls' basketball team of John A. McDougall Commercial High School in Edmonton, under the tutelage of coach Percy Page, who has been inducted as a builder into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, won the Alberta provincial championships.

The women decided to continue playing following their school days and formed the Commercial Graduates' Basketball Club. Thus were born the Edmonton Grads, the most successful team, regardless of sport, male or female, in the history of Canadian sport.

Between 1915 and 1940, the Grads played 522 games against both men's and women's teams around the world, winning 502 and recording winning streaks of 147 and 78 games. They lost only one provincial championship (1921) and, beginning in 1922, won the Canadian championship every year of their history.

They won the first Underwood Trophy—a challenge cup contested primarily between Canadian and American women's teams in 1923 and did not relinquish the trophy in the next 17 years.

Although, women's basketball was not an official Olympic sport, exhibition tournaments were held in conjunction with the 1924, 1928, 1932, and 1936 Games. The Grads represented North America and went undefeated in 27 games.

The standard of excellence set by the Grads in the 18 years before MacDonald joined the team made her achievements all the more remarkable. She was recruited for the Grads' feeder team, the Gradettes, out of Grade 12 at McDougall Commercial High School. She played a year-and-a half for the Gradettes before joining the Grads in 1933.

In 1936, she was named captain of the squad that won the Olympic exhibition tournament in Berlin. When she retired from the Grads in 1939, MacDonald had played 135 games for the Grads and was the team's all-time leading scorer with an average of 13.8 points per game.

She was called by one reporter "Canada's best female basketball player" of her era and in 1938 Canadian Press recognized her as Canada's female athlete of the year. Despite her individual success, MacDonald listened as coach Page preached the importance of team play. During her tenure with the team, the Grads won every provincial and national championship they contested.

In Underwood Trophy challenges, the Grads defended the cup 20 straight times between 1933 and 1939, winning 57 games and losing only three in the process. MacDonald retired after marrying Harry Robertson, a one-time world champion hockey player, in 1939. She served on the executive of the Canadian Amateur Basketball Association and took up coaching. She coached girls' high school basketball in both Saskatchewan and Alberta, as well as at the University of Alberta.

Edmonton Grads - Wikipedia

And for "reel" fans of basketball enjoy this little motion picture. Shooting Stars (the Edmonton Grads story) Time well spent!

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by elly63

Your premise that the NBA is the "epitome" of basketball is disingenuous. What does "epitome" mean?

The best players and the best competition.

Originally Posted by elly63

It's as if you're saying basketball started in Canada when the Raptors arrived.

Essentially, yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Barely anyone paid any attention to basketball before the Raptors arrived, and most of the ones who did were die-hard NBA and NCAA fans. Now with the Raptors having been established in Toronto for coming up on twenty years the basketball fanbase is thousands of times larger than it was in 1983. Basketball has a real foothold in Canada that it never did before.

The all-star game will be in Toronto in 2016. I'm not a fan of the all-star game myself, but there's no question that all the hoopla will attract even more kids to the game. You've got kids all the way up to university age who've never known Toronto without an NBA team. There is a critical mass of players and fans in this country now.

I respect that you're bringing attention to accomplishments in the past, but the exciting basketball stuff is happening now.

I think my more objective attitude to this is due to the fact that I've never been a nativist. I generally don't care about Canadian things just because they're Canadian. I think it's a stretch trying to get someone to care about a bunch of guys who, admittedly, won a game against some great US college players, but let's be honest: it was a one-off. They were never going to consistently win against them. Most of those players were taken in the later rounds of the NBA draft, and spent their careers in Europe. Not very exciting or interesting, in spite of the fact that they happened to grow up in the same country I did. Basketball is getting exciting now because Canadians are getting good at it.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Barely anyone paid any attention to basketball before the Raptors arrived. I think my more objective attitude to this is due to the fact that I've never been a nativist. I generally don't care about Canadian things just because they're Canadian.

Do yourself a favour and watch this Shooting Stars (the Edmonton Grads story)

I just can't see your ignorance of history being the basis of your argument. You're total dismissal of European and South American basketball tells me you don't know much about basketball. Sorry to be blunt, but some of the stuff you're saying is severely ill informed (to say it politely).

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by elly63

Do yourself a favour and watch this Shooting Stars (the Edmonton Grads story)

I just can't see your ignorance of history being the basis of your argument.

Okay, Edmonton had a dominating women's basketball team eighty years ago. Which is terrific. Somehow their exploits and those of basketball in general in Canada stopped in 1940 and didn't pick up later (save for one year of NBA play in Toronto in 1946).

Now how does this disprove that basketball was never more than an eccentric niche sport in Canada until 1996?

[elly63]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Okay, Edmonton had a dominating women's basketball team eighty years ago. Which is terrific. Somehow their exploits and those of basketball in general in Canada stopped in 1940 and didn't pick up later (save for one year of NBA play in Toronto in 1946).

Now how does this disprove that basketball was never more than an eccentric niche sport in Canada until 1996?

And what is it now when the Raptors home opener drew a whopping 54,000 viewers on TV? That's not even a good rating for the GTA let alone Canada.

I'm gonna bow out on this one because you've obviously bought into the Canadian inferiority complex/America is the greatest attitude which is ironically so 1980s. Who was it said, 1980's called... they want their stereotype back.