ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Horst Bulau, Ski Jumping
Anne Heggtveit began to ski at the age of three, so did Betsy Clifford.
Pat Morris hit the slopes at the age of two and was jumping at six.
Horst Bulau was skiing at 2 ½ and jumping by five.
Between them, the four have skied around the world and won 8 of the 33 Associated Canadian Travellers-Cities of Ottawa and Nepean Sportsman’s Dinner athlete of the year awards.
Heggtveit and Clifford slid downhill to five titles, Heggtveit taking three including her gold medal year and Clifford back-to-back wins in 1969 and 1970.
Morris won athlete honours for ski jumping in 1967 and Bulau’s ski jumping was outstanding in 1981 and 1982.
There is a message there somewhere, but we will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.
“Yes,” said Bulau to the question of whether or not his athlete of the year awards have been useful to him. “They have allowed me to meet some important people.”
He was talking about the ACT honour during the last holiday season break on the World Cup ski jumping tour… a tour that finds him making a comeback at 23 years of age.
After a third overall finish in 1980-81 and 1981-82 and a second overall in 1982-83, the Gloucester resident hit the skids. He fell to eight then 19th in the next two seasons.
Consequently he’s been something of an enigma in a sport that requires split second timing. He appears to have lost that all-important consistency which is essential to good ski jumping.
He has collected other honours in addition to the ACT trophies and athlete of the year awards in seven consecutive dinner appearances. He has twice won the John Semelink Memorial Trophy awarded to the country’s outstanding skier.
Bulau is a business administration student at Algonquin College when not on the ski slopes. Between classroom vacations he can be found on the golf course where he can break 80.
SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR (GORD TRIVETT MEMORIAL TROPHY)
Jack Barber, speed skating
“They had me dead,” laughed Jack Barber who finished his 50th year in speed skating 11 campaigns back. “The late Jack Barber.”
The red faces belonged to the Greater Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame organizers, who made the blunder making up invitations for their 1985 induction ceremony.
In any event Barber was there as large as life as he picked up his second honor in three years. ACT sports dinner officials named him sportsman of the year 1982.
When they named him to the Gord Trivett Trophy list, the Travellers reunited him with his speed skating partner, the late Harold Costin. For years the pair were the Ottawa Speed Skating Club and their prize pupil was Gerry Cassan.
Cassan earned his first of many skating medals and trophies at the age of eight claiming his division over-all crown in the New York State championships. He also wound up internationally finishing 11th overall in the world sprint championships in 1975.
Cassan also had a world junior 500 metre sprint gold medal at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, in 41.19 in his baggage since 1973 and he owned two skating records, 1,000 metres in 1 :21.87 and 1,500 metres in 2:06.94. His other best times were: 500 metres, 40.19; 3,000 metres, 4:37.6 and 5,000 metres in 7:59.8.
Barber was “discovered” by Ed Evraire who was watching him play hockey in Hull. Evraire answered Barber’s; “I was never in a speed skating race,” with: “Well, you’ve got nothing to lose.”
“So I did it,” said Barber. And he won the race in hockey skates. That was back in 1925 and the victory gained him a pair of long bladed or speed skates for his birthday. And his last race, an oldtimer’s race in Barrie, came in 1964.
Costin and Barber literally kept speed skating alive, doing whatever was necessary in order to help youngsters as they grew up. They took executive duties with the Ontario speed skating association and the Eastern Ontario Association. They attended Canadian Sports Advisory Council meets, raised funds (the late Gerry Bisson of stock car fame was among much-appreciated benefactors said Barber); they fought for ice and even cleaned it off on occasion.
On occasion, the two skating enthusiasts also helped the RA program. It was there they spotted Linda Carbonetto and urged her to continue in the sport.
The two knew what they were talking about. Linda won the 1969 Canadian title, finishing ahead of Karen Magnussen no less.
Barber also still keeps an eagle eye on the neighborhood youth and has his bicycle repair service to help out.
Alpine Skiing — Mike Tommy
Archery — Rick Mallett
Badminton — Barbara O’Brien-Jewett
Ball Hockey — Randy Rosenthal
Baseball — Dave Fournier
Basketball — Willie Hinz
Bobsleds — Jim Carr
Bowling — Kerry Barton
Boxing — Brian Brennan
Broomball — Dave Henry
Cricket — John Vaughan
Cross-country Skiing — David Lumb
Curling — Dave VanDine, Joe Potter, Muriel Winford, Debbie Durant
Cycling — Ginette Gauthier
Darts — Robert Dupuis
Diving — John Nash
Fencing — Marc Lavoie
Field Hockey — Pat Burrows
Figure Skating — Elizabeth Manley
Football — Rick Zmich
Freestyle Skiing — Tim Simboli
Golf — Connie Baker
Gymnastics — Sean McManus
Handicap — Jacques Pilon
Hockey — Moe Lemay
Judo — Tina Takahashi
Lacrosse — Darrell Snider
Orienteering — Mike Day, Jr.
Paddling — Sue Holloway
Modern Pentathlon — Lawrence Keyte
Ringette — Sandy Potvin
Rugby — Tom Jones
Shooting — Alain Marion
Ski Jumping — Horst Bulau
Soccer — Lyndon Hooper
Sailing — Andy Roy
Softball — Dave Dixie
Speed Skating — Steve Graham
Squash — Diana Edge
Swimming — Kathy Bald
Trampoline — John Ross
Table Tennis — Mariann Domonkos
Tennis — Rob Cartwright
Track and Field — Ann Peel
Touch Football — Berry Hughes
Trap and Skeet — Steve Fountain
Volleyball — Glen Hogg
Water Polo — John Anderson
Weightlifting — Terry Hadlow
Wrestling — Ray Takahashi
Team prize — Ottawa Irish Rugby Club
Willie Hinz’s decision to play his university basketball 120 miles down the road at McGill University couldn’t have worked out better for the St. Pius grad… He won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford where he planned to read law… Soccer stars Lyndon and Charmaine Hooper set up a back-to-back brother-sister soccer double of distinction in 1962 and 1963. Rumor had it that Lyndon Hooper was bound for the North American League if it had survived… Like others before him University of Ottawa’s football quarterback Rick Zmitch learned the outstanding player tag is no quick road to pro ranks… In his final high school football game he threw five touchdowns in the first half leading Fisher to an Ottawa-Carleton title romp over J. S. Woodsworth… Squash has been flourishing and one of the reasons was Diana Edge who won her first Canadian under 19 title and fifth age class. She was to move onto Harvard University to study international law… Kathy Bald shook up the experts winning a gold in the 200 metre breaststroke at Edinburgh… A familiar name in different garb, Dave Dixie, was named the outstanding softball player of the year and would make it three in a line… Dixie was an able operator in the Central Junior Hockey League in Smiths Falls Bears colours in younger days.