{"id":15823,"date":"2016-11-16T18:19:42","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T23:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15823"},"modified":"2016-11-16T18:19:42","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T23:19:42","slug":"aurora-sports-hall-of-fame-a-family-affair-for-stemmles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-sports-hall-of-fame-a-family-affair-for-stemmles\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Sports Hall of Fame a family affair for Stemmles"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Auroran touched last week upon two new inductee\u2019s into the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame\u2019s hallowed halls, longtime NHLers Mike Murphy and Mike Kitchen.
\nThis week, Olympic skier Karen Stemmle, and Canadian figure skating legend Sheldon Galbraith, share the spotlight in rounding out the 2016 class of Aurora\u2019s most celebrated athletes and coaches.
\nIt was only fitting that Gord Stellick stepped in as a late addition to emcee the induction dinner earlier this month, as a member of the Toronto Cricket, Skating, and Curling Club.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a big plaque honouring (Mr. Galbraith),\u201d said Stellick. \u201cYou talk about his legacy, the club is run by past Olympians Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson. So many past Olympian have skated there, that is an incredible legacy that he\u2019s had a big part in building.\u201d
\nMr. Galbraith, who is inducted posthumously after passing away in April of last year, enters the Hall in the \u201ccoaches\u201d category. It is the fifth time he has been inducted into a Hall of Fame, having previously entered Canada\u2019s Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Figure Skating Hal of Fame, the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, and the Professional Skaters Association Hall of Fame.
\n\u201cMy dad always shied away from the limelight, but the induction into Aurora\u2019s Sports Hall of Fame is wonderful,\u201d said Jeannie Branston, Mr. Galbraith\u2019s daughter, in an induction speech. \u201cIt\u2019s a great honour, and I know he would have been very humbled and pleased by this recognition.\u201d
\nMr. Galbraith, whose students have won medals at all levels of World Championships as well as the Olympic Games, was famed for utilizing new methods and technologies to teach his skaters, like trampolines and pulleys.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think it was mentioned tonight, but there was a little handheld viewer that was made for dad, that is now in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame,\u201d said Ms. Branston.
\nKeeping with the hockey theme that was imposed for half of the inductee class, Ms. Branston also made sure to mention her father\u2019s involvement with the NHL.
\n\u201cHe worked with a number of hockey players,\u201d said Ms. Branston. \u201cIn particular, Frank Mahovolich, on skating and balance. They became great friends.\u201d
\nStellick, who was also connected with Mr. Murphy and Mr. Kitchen through the NHL, was quick to mention that he was, in fact, also close with the fourth and final inductee, Ms. Stemmle.
\n\u201cKaren, I didn\u2019t know you skied,\u201d joked Stellick. \u201cI just thought you partied.\u201d
\nMs. Stemmle, whose guests took up three full tables at the gala, had a bus with a backstory waiting outside of the St. Andrew\u2019s College hall for after the ceremony.
\n\u201cMy parents had this \u2018rockstar\u2019 bus that they would take down to Florida.\u201d Said Ms. Stemmle. \u201cWhen I found out months ago that I was being inducted, and I knew my parents couldn\u2019t be here, I thought \u2018oh my gosh \u2013 I\u2019m going to get the bus back.\u2019\u201d
\nAfter speaking with the new owner, Ms. Stemmle promptly bought back her parent\u2019s bus to celebrate her induction.
\nMs. Stemmle\u2019s mother passed away six years ago, while her father passed away two years ago.
\nSkiing has always loomed large in the Stemmle family, with Ms. Stemmle pointing out that their parents met while skiing.
\n\u201cIt was their first date\u2026my dad taught my mom how to ski. As many people mention, they are here because of their parents. And because of that first date, this is why Brian and I are here.\u201d
\nThe second female to be inducted into the Hall, Ms. Stemmle is also the second Stemmle, following in the footsteps of her brother Brian who was inducted in 2013 as an alpine skier.
\n\u201cI was talking to my brother about when he was inducted,\u201d said Ms. Stemmle. \u201cHe said, \u2018ya, I had one person with me here\u2019\u2026tonight we have three tables of ten! Stemmles in the house!\u201d
\nPerhaps one of the most memorable lines of the evening came from Brian, in the tribute video played to Ms. Stemmle prior to her official induction.
\n\u201cCongratulations Karen,\u201d said Brian. \u201cNow your pretty picture will be beside my ugly mug.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Auroran touched last week upon two new inductee\u2019s into the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame\u2019s hallowed halls, longtime NHLers Mike Murphy and Mike Kitchen.
\nThis week, Olympic skier Karen Stemmle, and Canadian figure skating legend Sheldon Galbraith, share the spotlight in rounding out the 2016 class of Aurora\u2019s most celebrated athletes and coaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/2016-11-17-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-47d","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 19:40:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}