{"id":19035,"date":"2017-11-22T16:10:22","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T21:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19035"},"modified":"2017-11-22T16:10:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T21:10:22","slug":"aurora-sports-hall-of-fame-recalls-former-national-sport-with-induction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-sports-hall-of-fame-recalls-former-national-sport-with-induction\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Sports Hall of Fame recalls former national sport with induction"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Aurora\u2019s sporting community was reminded at the annual Hall of Fame induction dinner that neither hockey nor lacrosse was Canada\u2019s leading sport a century ago.
\nThe Auroran touched last week on two new inductee\u2019s into the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame\u2019s hallowed halls, former NHLers Mike Palmateer and Bob Wall.
\nThis week, cricket pioneer William Fleury, and Canadian swimming legend Dan Thompson, share the spotlight in rounding out the 2017 class of Aurora\u2019s most celebrated athletes and coaches.
\nDavid Fleury, the grandson of Mr. Fleury, acknowledged the long lineage of his grandfather and thanked the induction committee while donning the green sweater.
\n\u201cBilly Fleury, or W.J. as we called him, would be so honoured to be here,\u201d said David Fleury.
\nMr. Fleury was nominated for the Hall by Shawna White, the curator and director of the Aurora museum, who saw in Mr. Fleury a pioneering athlete in what was then Canada\u2019s national sport.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s so important to keep alive our shared history,\u201d said Fleury. \u201cAurora can be so proud of this Hall and the members in it and I\u2019m incredibly proud for my grandfather to be one of them.\u201d
\nLeading the Canadian national cricket team in multiple important matchups in Europe in the late 1880s and early 1900s, Mr. Fleury\u2019s legacy was cemented by his family and friends who attended the ceremony in his honour.
\n\u201cI stand here not as an athlete, but as a historian,\u201d said David Fleury. \u201cI care about preserving history, I believe it enriches our presence, and the fact we\u2019re speaking about my grandfather while we bring something that was completely gone from Aurora\u2019s history\u2026and suddenly here we are bringing something to life that was gone is great.\u201d
\nMr. Fleury finished his storied cricket career at 45, before settling down and having children.
\n\u201cThis honour would completely astound my grandfather, though I never knew him.\u201d
\nYet from stories and history lessons David and the Fleury family have learned Mr. Fleury was \u201cdefinitely a party animal,\u201d with David claiming if his grandfather was at the ceremony he would \u201cbe in a three-piece suit with spats on, a collar that attached to the back of his jacket, his hair would be immaculate, he\u2019d have a pocket watch and he\u2019d smell like pipe tobacco.\u201d
\n\u201cHe\u2019d be the first to leap up here and take his adoration.\u201d
\nWith numerous Aurora landmarks bearing the Fleury name, Mr. Fleury is the first ASHoF inductee to have a background in the 1800s.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable that hockey was not our national sport,\u201d said David Fleury. \u201cAurora, Newmarket, Holland Landing, Richmond Hill, they all had cricket teams. Kids played cricket when they were little in school. It\u2019s partly our British heritage.\u201d
\nDan Thompson, the fourth and final inductee, also got the chance to represent the red and white on the Canadian national swim team, though his Olympic dreams were cut short by a boycott.
\nHis athletic aspirations started at a late age, recalling coming off of a Toronto golf course one day at the age of sixteen and being asked to swim some races.
\n\u201cI came off the golf course, and was recruited to country club swimming,\u201d said Mr. Thompson. \u201cThat was how the journey began.\u201d
\n\u201cMy dad simply said \u2018son, make sure you follow your passion\u2019. And it was good advice. It just took a long time to figure out what my passion was.\u201d
\nThompson, with multiple gold medals from the Commonwealth Games as well as swimming records at various age levels, joined the Aurora Masters Ducks in 2007 and continues to push the limits to this day.
\n\u201cIf you want to learn how to swim in the Town of Aurora and in a fun environment, the Ducks are the place to be,\u201d said Mr. Thompson, acknowledging the \u201cgaggle of Ducks\u201d at a table in the back of the room.
\nAfter thanking his family and friends, Mr. Thompson gave a special shout out to the Town of Aurora.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a community that\u2019s so welcoming, and encouraging to athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2017-11-23-08\"<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora\u2019s sporting community was reminded at the annual Hall of Fame induction dinner that neither hockey nor lacrosse was Canada\u2019s leading sport a century ago.
\nThe Auroran touched last week on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19035","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\/2017\/11\/2017-11-23-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4X1","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 15:59:31","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\/19035","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=19035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}