Max Low first made headlines out of local athletes with the Daily Colonist in 1971 and now its his name that will live forever in the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame.
Low retired in 1997. He is one of seven names to enter the Hall on Saturday nightB次元官网网址檚 (Oct. 29) annual induction banquet at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence.
Athletes Bob Bolitho, Gail Archibald, Roland Green and Gary Johnston will be celebrated alongside the Oak Bay Tennis Club and the 1974-75 London Boxing Club as the class of 2011.
Boots and balls
A Gorge soccer product, Bob Bolitho was selected to CanadaB次元官网网址檚 national team in 1974, competed in the 1976 Olympics, and was a member of the legendary 1978 Vancouver Whitecaps, which won the NASL Championship.
At the same time Bolitho left Gorge, the cross-town rival London Boxing Club was the first Victoria team to win the Canadian Soccer Championship in 1975, after 85 years of soccer in Victoria.
While the 1970s were marked as the glory days of Canadian soccer, a rugby revival was underway in Victoria with forward Gary Johnston leading the pack.
Johnston played for and coached the James Bay Athletic Association to provincial greatness.
A pupil of previous Hall of Fame inductee Tillman Briggs (1996), Johnston played a key role with the 1980s and B次元官网网址�90s national teams and is famous for making national rugby stars out of unsuspecting Oak Bay High students. He remains a part of JBAAB次元官网网址檚 advisory staff today.
Not so soft star
Softball star Gail Archibald was an elite pitcher in B.C. for the Polyettes and Victoria/Molson Vicettes from 1959-15 before moving to Vancouver where she played for the for Texaco and Eldorado teams from 1966-69.
During that time Archibald picked up top pitching awards while leading her teams to B.C., Canadian Northwest, Canadian Regional and Canadian Championship competitions.
Centennial recognition
What was originally the B.C. Electric Railway employeesB次元官网网址� tennis club became the modern-day Oak Bay Tennis Club when employees bought it in 1964. The club first operated at Windsor Park in 1911 and by 1923 had two courts to use and a social clubhouse on Bowker Street.
Pedalled to medal
Mountain biker Roland Green won four Canadian cycling titles and dominated the World Cup cross-country circuit for four seasons, winning the UCI championship in 2001 and 2002. Green won gold in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
sports@vicnews.com
