{"id":21655,"date":"2018-09-20T10:41:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T14:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21655"},"modified":"2018-09-20T10:41:57","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T14:41:57","slug":"sports-hall-of-fame-recalls-aurora-hearts-historic-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/sports-hall-of-fame-recalls-aurora-hearts-historic-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Hall of Fame recalls Aurora Hearts historic win"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

For those in the Aurora soccer community, the year 2001 stands out as a moment the town was put on the provincial soccer map.
\nAfter many years of being the bridesmaid, never the bride, the Aurora Hearts men\u2019s soccer club finally tamed the beast and took home the coveted Ontario Cup.
\n\u201cWe kept making it three or four years in a row, but we were just never able to make it over that next hump,\u201d said player-coach Ed McNally in a reunion of the team at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex. \u201cWe went down to Markham to play Niagara Falls in the semis, and I knew when we hit the semis, we were going to win.\u201d
\n\u201cWe had never gotten over that quarterfinal hump. It was just quarters, quarters, quarters, eliminated, eliminated, eliminated. That year felt different.\u201d
\nAfter taking down Niagara Falls, the Hearts met with Hamilton in the Cup finals, a tough match for those who had experienced falling short year after year.
\n\u201cHamilton always had good teams,\u201d said McNally. \u201cThey were always in the finals.\u201d
\nIt was McNally, who entered the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the 2014 class, who put home the tying goal in a hard-fought match to send it to extra time.
\nDown 1 \u2013 0, McNally converted on a free kick before it took three penalties to earn the provincial title.
\n\u201c(Keeper) Jon Cortese didn\u2019t know we won\u2026 he saved three penalties, and then got up and was wondering \u2018when\u2019s the next one?\u2019 while we\u2019re all running at him. It was a moment to remember for sure.\u201d
\nMcNally and the rest of the 2001 Hearts team will have their story told and memory kept vivid by the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame, who has chosen the Hearts as the latest to be featured in their \u201cMoments in Sports.\u201d
\nOne of over sixty stories collected by the Hall of Fame committee for the \u201cCanada 150 Moments\u201d campaign back in July of 2017, the program has developed into an ongoing series to showcase the stories that have shaped the sporting history of Aurora.
\n\u201cWhat started out as a Canada 150 special outreach project in 2017 is now an ongoing program by the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame and its partners, the Aurora Museum & Archives and Sport Aurora,\u201d said project manager Karen Merk. \u201cWhen the Moments in Sport initiative launched on Canada Day, audio clips of some of Aurora\u2019s most significant sporting moments were available on the ASHOF website as well as on-air through the Hall\u2019s radio partner, 105.9 The Region.\u201d
\nFeaturing mini exhibits across Aurora at the Aurora Community Centre, Town Hall, and the Aurora Family Leisure Complex, the Aurora Hearts are the latest to have their accomplishments exhibited alongside articles and items from the team\u2019s history.
\nThe Hall is also gearing up for the annual induction dinner on November 8, a gala bringing the best in Aurora sport from past and present together to welcome in this year\u2019s class of inductees.
\nThose getting the call to the Hall this year are triathlete Paolina Allan, pro golfer David Morland IV, NHL lineseman Loring Doolittle, and York University men\u2019s basketball coach Robert Bain.
\nFor tickets, and more information, visit www.aurorashof.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those in the Aurora soccer community, the year 2001 stands out as a moment the town was put on the provincial soccer map.
\nAfter many years of being the bridesmaid, never the bride, the Aurora Hearts men\u2019s soccer club finally tamed the beast and took home the coveted Ontario Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21658,"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-21655","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\/2018\/09\/2018-09-20-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Dh","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 20:57:48","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\/21655","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=21655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}