The Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame named six individuals and one team to its class of 2013.
The 1998 Burnaby Lakers box lacrosse team, the first in a string of five Minto Cup champions for the late Jack Crosby, headlines the list of inductees.
Lakers head co-coach Paul Dal Monte is also to be inducted in the coaching category.
Three athletes will also earn induction, including hall of fame golfer Jim Nelford, women’s basketball player Darlene Currie and veteran lacrosse player Alex MacKay.
In the builder’s category are former B.C. Cricket Association president Ben Seebaran and retired Burnaby Secondary School teacher Merv Magus.
The 1998 Lakers fashioned a near-perfect season, winning all 25 regular season games before sweeping their best-of-seven playoffs with both Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam.
In the Minto Cup, the Lakers defeated the Ontario champion Six Nations Arrows in five games – their only blemish a 7-6 double-overtime loss in game 3.
Burnaby raised its first Minto Cup in 19 years following a 10-2 win over Six Nations in the fifth and deciding game.
Minto Cup scoring leader Cam Sedgwick was named the championship MVP following the game. Kaleb Toth, who finished the season as Burnaby’s third all-time leading scorer with 69 goals, led all goal scorers with nine markers in the final series. Toth also led the league in scoring with 130 points.
The Lakers were named Sport B.C. team of the year in 1998.
Seventeen of the 23 Laker players also went on to play in the pro National Lacrosse League.
Dal Monte, who shared in three Minto Cups titles with Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame coach Dave, ‘Doc’ Lough, was a part of national championship seasons in 2000 and again in 2002, as well as eight consecutive provincial titles.
Under Dal Monte, Burnaby posted 253 victories and just 45 defeats.
Nelford graduated from Burnaby South Secondary in 1973, the same year he won both the B.C. high school and provincial junior championship titles.
He won two Canadian amateur titles before turning pro in 1977.
Nelford played on the PGA Tour until 1988, finishing a best second at two tournaments, including the Bing Crosby pro-am in 1984.
A highlight for Nelford was winning the World Cup with fellow Canadian Dan Halldorson in 1980.
Nelford was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 2013.
Currie represented Canada at three Pan American Games, captaining the women’s national basketball team to a bronze medal in 1967.
She led B.C. to three national senior women’s championships and the gold medal at the first Canada Winter Games.
Currie also coached the Canadian women’s national team at two world championships. She was inducted into Canada’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994.
MacKay was considered one of the best defensive players in the game.
In his career, MacKay won two of three Mann Cup finals as a player and coached the Vancouver Carlings to back-to-back Mann Cups in 1963 and ’64.
Seebaran represented Canada as a player from 1969 to ’73. But it was as an administrator where Seebaran left his mark, leading the B.C. Cricket association for 10 years as its president, while also as a national junior and senior team selector from 1993 to ’98.
Magus coached at three separate Burnaby high schools over a 44-year career. He was also a founding member of the Burnaby Sports Recognition Dinner and was a member of the original team that started up the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame.
Magus, an accomplished cartoonist and humourist, is also on the volunteer committee for B.C. high school boys’ and girls’ soccer championship and girls’ basketball championship committees.
The official induction ceremony will take place at the Firefighters’ Hall in Metrotown on Feb. 27.
For tickets email [email protected] or call Rosemary at 604-436-1672.
