{"id":32253,"date":"2022-11-24T22:53:29","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T03:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32253"},"modified":"2022-11-24T22:53:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T03:53:31","slug":"hall-of-fames-honoured-members-a-golf-genius-and-a-force-on-the-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hall-of-fames-honoured-members-a-golf-genius-and-a-force-on-the-pitch\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame\u2019s Honoured Members: A golf genius and a force on the pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, you might have had the pleasure to read about two remarkable stories from the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration Dinner on November 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janice Jones and Dave Giroux made their marks on the Town of Aurora through their commitment to their respective sports and their efforts to make services in the Town that much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Sports Hall of Fame inducts four individuals annually into the Hall, and this week we conclude our coverage with Colin S. \u201cPop\u201d Nisbet and Marco Di Girolamo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nisbet moved to Aurora in 1919 and ran his family greenhouse business for many years. But, when he noticed the Aurora Golf Course wasn\u2019t taking care of their grounds, he purchased it and renamed it the Aurora Highlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The local newspaper even named it as \u201cAurora\u2019s First Place of Beauty and Pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the age of 74, he sold the course and purchased a farm at Vandorf Sideroad and Leslie Street. He purchased additional land nearby and grew it into Westview Golf Course that it is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remembered as a hard-working individual, Nisbet passed away in December of 1973 at the age of 92.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPop loved people and he would have really enjoyed an evening like this,\u201d said Nisbet\u2019s grandson Mike, in his speech, following a video recollecting Pop\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Hall of Fame induction is a great opportunity for the family to reflect on what Pop started. He would be thrilled with all of the people who called Westview and before that, the Aurora Highlands home, the generations of family have played both for the past 75 years. At Westview you still hear stories of golfers that they spent their youth there\u2026The parents would return later so it really was the perfect day care. For many it was their first job as well and for others it was their last\u2026Both properties are special for many people. Pop would have loved that and would have loved this. Thank you very much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Nisbet\u2019s story was complete, the final inductee of the evening was Marco Di Girolamo; and he had quite the supporting cast with him in the crowd for this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Di Girolamo grew up playing rugby when he moved to Maple, ON, when he was 11. He went on to represent Canada in 7\u2019s and in 15\u2019s, including appearances in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, U.K., and World Games in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rugby brought him all over the world, but what he always carried with him everywhere he went was the Town of Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1993, Di Girolamo has been a member of the Barbarians Rugby Club and led them to five-straight championship titles as well as three provincial cups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His wife, Pam, also played rugby and was inducted into the University of Western Hall of Fame, in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a hilarious 24-minute speech to the crowd, \u201cDeeeg\u201d took the stand humbled by the experience and also lit everyone up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you from the bottom of my heart. I am truly honoured and humbled by this experience. Believe, that\u2019s what I tell my kids all the time. Seven little letters that mean so much. The word from all the family, teammates and friends, who believed in this kid. There are two famous things about rugby players. You may have heard some of them. First one is God created beer, to stop rugby players from taking over the world. [Having] seen some of my teammates in action, there\u2019s a bit of truth to that. The second saying, and it\u2019s not an exaggeration, is rugby is a hooligan\u2019s game played by gentleman,\u201d Di Girolamo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI played my first men\u2019s game when I was 16. I was probably a buck-50, soaking wet. I remember I was scared. I bet my parents were scared for me, too. They must have been wondering what the hell I got myself into. Also, probably not the first time they thought that. We were rolling up on this rugby pitch, and it looked like the local prison let their inmates out for some exercise. In my 16-year-old eyes, there\u2019s these giant, scary looking men, wearing these tiny little shorts. Size didn\u2019t matter to me, neither did my age. I didn\u2019t allow the fear get the best of me. I held my own with those guys. As the year went on I got better. So, they gave me this name \u2018Super Kid.\u2019 Some in this room still here, still call me that name today even though I\u2019m 45.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Di Girolamo had a poem prepared later in his speech and in the end, shared a traditional rugby chant with the crowd in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a remarkable evening, filled with food, laughs and the sharing of memorable experiences, it left everyone in awe of what the Sport Hall of Fame offers here in Town. And what it means to the people inducted into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Belardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, you might have had the pleasure to read about two remarkable stories from the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration Dinner on November 10. Janice Jones and Dave Giroux made their marks on the Town of Aurora through their commitment to their respective sports and their efforts to make services in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32254,"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-32253","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\/2022\/11\/2022-11-24-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8od","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 14:34:13","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\/32253","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=32253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}