{"id":38332,"date":"2026-06-11T16:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38332"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:14:34","slug":"aurora-sports-hall-of-fames-class-of-2026-celebrated-at-town-hall-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-sports-hall-of-fames-class-of-2026-celebrated-at-town-hall-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Sports Hall of Fame\u2019s Class of 2026 celebrated at Town Hall ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Sports Hall of Fame\u2019s Class of 2026 was revealed at a public ceremony at Town Hall on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASHoF Nomination Committee Chair Rocco Morsillo presented the inductees, local lawmakers and members of the public alike at last Tuesday\u2019s Council meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morsillo introduced to the assembly long-time AMHA President and Coach Joe Bentolila; long distance runner George Biondic; Team Canada Paralympic Gold Medalist goaltender Paul Rosen; former Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruin centre Shayne Stevenson; and the first team to be enshrined in the ASHoF\u2014The Aurora Church Dodgers Hockey Club.  Due to illness, Rosen was absent from the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the formalities in the Chamber, a procession of red-jacketed Hall of Famers and blue-jacketed administrators accompanied by families and friends reconvened outside Town Hall for a follow-up celebratory press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bentolila, Biondi, Stevenson, and Aurora Church Dodgers team reps were presented with their red ASHoF golf shirts\u2014the \u201cfirst stage of induction,\u201d as described by President Javed Khan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long-time President addressed over fifty attendees and described the event as \u201cliterally showcasing the amazing members of this Class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about celebrating each of the inductees over the next five months leading up to their Induction.  Most importantly, it\u2019s about the community coming together and celebrating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Emcee of the presentation to Town Council, Morsillo enjoyed the celebratory vibe in the Chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an overwhelming sensation\u2014memories of all the nomination packages that our committee processed came rushing back to me. It reminded me of all the accomplishments that were presented by nominators. To hear the applause in the Chamber for each Inductee was incredible. It felt special. All the photos we presented\u2014these builders and athletes realize how special they are after giving so much.  They are a great group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently-retired AMHA President Joe Bentolila appreciated Morsillo\u2019s description about the greatness of the inductees, but noted modestly: \u201cThis is so humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been all about working with so many dedicated people, but also being inducted with people who are filled with community spirit. It\u2019ll be great to hear their stories on the Induction evening.  It\u2019s a fantastic feeling here tonight\u2014it\u2019s great to be recognized for my efforts, but I was surrounded by great people who have all bettered sport in Aurora. My goal was always to help the children of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equally-connected to his community is long-distance runner George Biondic who hopes his accomplishments inspire others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor and I\u2019m going to be an emotional guy at the Induction Ceremony. What I like most about this honor is how it could provide encouragement for the new generation of runners. They see us as pioneers. Beyond the younger generation, I hope we serve as inspiration to Seniors, too. People will read about our stories and I hope it inspires retirees. My message to them would be, \u2018Whatever inspires you, do it!\u2019 as a way of finding purpose in retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding common purpose was at the heart of the Aurora Church Dodgers hockey experience and club rep Tom McPherson described the team\u2019s connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was all about being with people with common interests and virtues.  That\u2019s what we do as human beings.  We share community.  A complete cross-section of Aurora was in the Church Dodgers.  On Sunday mornings, we\u2019d have the visitors\u2019 dressing room.  We played til noon and we had the best storytellers who would tell stories til 2:00.  We had so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 93-year-old raconteur was resplendent in this yellow and purple Church Dodgers jacket and the original club member bemoaned a golf game that started his day: \u201cIt\u2019s been a busy day. Sadly, I didn\u2019t shoot my age today on the golf course \u2013 had to settle for a 96.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shayne Stevenson, drafted 17th<\/sup> overall by the Boston Bruins in 1990, reflected fondly on both the call he received from the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame and chatting with his rep hockey coach outside the Town Hall on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe call from Rocco was super special\u2014he left a message on my phone to call him.  Sure enough\u2014when I called him back, he gave me the good news.  Tonight brought back great memories for me– seeing Lowell McClenny and Colin Graham and taking photos with my two coaches. Lowell made me his team Captain when I was twelve years old. It was at that moment with my rep coaches that I couldn\u2019t believe forty years have passed. We were even on Sportsbeat <\/em>TV together.  Having my family with me today to share these memories makes me very happy, too.  I\u2019m very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Features on each of the Inductees will appear in The Auroran beginning at the end of September and will run weekly through October as lead-ups to the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame Induction Evening on Thursday, November 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jim Stewart
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(CORRECTION \u2013 In the caption of last week\u2019s introductory story on the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame\u2019s Class of 2026, Paul Rosen\u2019s name contained a typo. We regret the error)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joe Bentolila, George Biondic, Paul Rosen, Shayne Stevenson, and Aurora Church Dodgers Hockey Club to be enshrined on November 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38333,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-06-11-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9Yg","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 04:30:12","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\/38332","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=38332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38334,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38332\/revisions\/38334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}