A pair of renowned horsemen, an inspirational Olympic Legend and a superior amateur golfer that had a promising if not short professional career will enter the Prince Edward County Sports Hall of Fame this fall.
When it was first envisioned, there was a worry by some the Hall would become an exclusive shrine devoted to those that chased a vulcanized rubber disc around a sheet of frozen water.
But that worry no longer lingers and for further proof of the diversity of Prince Edward County athletes, one would only need to look at the latest addition to the Hall's growing collection of legendary sporting figures.
Hall of Fame organizer and Nomination Committee Chair Hugh Parliament beamed with pride Tuesday morning as he unwrapped the third induction class of the Sports Hall of Fame.
“These are four very fine individuals,” Parliament told the Picton Gazette. “It's so nice to honour these men and their families and we have a really elite, diverse class.”
Local horsemen Chris Storms and Rejean Boily will join Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist Brian Price as well as golfer Mike Pero as Prince Edward County Sports Hall of Fame's Class of 2014.
Chris Storms got on the sulky at the age of 16 and never looked back, driving in over 7,000 races in a 22-year career.
Not only a top driver, Storms was an owner and trainer and raced many of his horses all over Eastern North America.
A driver of such high quality, One day in the mid-1970's, Storms raced in Montreal's $100,000 Beaver Pace Stakes Race in the morning and then flew to Toronto to take part in a $50,000 Ontario Sire Stakes Gold Race in the afternoon.
“And he won them both,” Parliament stated.
Storms is closely associated with Kojak, having driven and trained Canada's top three-year-old pacing colt in 1973 with the horse collecting over $300,000 in its seven year career.
While the late Rejean (Reg) Boily bred, broke, trained and drove hundreds of horses at his Consecon-area farm, The Quebec City native will always be known for R Yankee Wann, the fastest Canadian bred horse in 1969 and 1970 (pictured at right).
The horse, which was owned by Consecon's Campbell Wannamaker, held the Canadian pacing record 1:57.1 and sired a host of top end standardbred horses and was driven exclusively by Boily.
Boily was driver of the year at the Kawartha Downs, the Quinte Exhibition and the Kingston Park Raceway and racked up in excess of 1,250 career wins that includes a rare six-for-six outing in Belleville one Friday evening.
At age 53 and still in the prime of his driving career, Boily was killed in a farming accident at his home.
“I can tell you, the Boily family was quite happy to hear Chris was being inducted and likewise for Chris. He was really happy about Rejean being inducted. They more than likely drove against each other in the 1970's but there is a lot of respect between them,” Parliament said.
The Prince Edward County Sports Hall of Fame will induct theses sporting legends into the hall in October at a gala event to held at the Wellington & District Community Centre on a yet-to-determined date.
(with files from the Picton Gazette)