A new group of honourees was ushered into the Simon Fraser University Athletic Hall of Fame last month, representing the sports of basketball, soccer and track and field.
The SFU’s hall inducted Joby McKenzie, NAIA champion middle distance runner Julia Howard, legendary men’s soccer goal scorer Andrew Corazza, and basketball star and distinguished health-care advocate Nadine Caron at a gala event on March 26.
“This is a well-deserved honour and an incredible achievement for this exceptional group of individuals,” said SFU senior director of athletics and recreation Theresa Hanson. “To be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame signifies the highest honour a student-athlete can achieve during their special time at SFU, and it enables us to celebrate their successes both then and now.”
McKenzie led SFU to four conference championships and four consecutive trips to the NAIA national championship tournament in her years of 1994 to 1998, including the school’s first-ever Final Four appearance in her senior season.
She also played for the Canadian national team from 1998 to 2001, winning a silver medal at the 1999 Pan American Games
Howard won 10 individual NAIA championships between 2003 and 2006, seven relay championships and was an integral part of four championship teams during her time on Burnaby Mountain.
She had a remarkable junior season in which she won six national titles and was named the Outstanding Performer at the NAIA Indoor track and field championships. Howard concluded the season winning two national titles at the NAIA outdoor championships.
Corazza arrived at SFU in 2002 and had an immediate impact, scoring 24 goals his freshmen season. Corazza went on to score 81 goals in 69 games in a career that wrapped up in 2005. In his four years, Corazza registered 24-, 12-, 24-, and 21-goal seasons and is the program’s career scoring leader with 179 points.
His goal scoring exploits helped lead SFU to four straight appearances in the NAIA national championship tournament, including a pair of fifth-place finishes.
Caron enters the Hall of Fame as just the third honoree in the Terry Fox Humanitarian category for her extraordinary efforts advocating for health-care support within Aboriginal communities in Canada. As a student-athlete from 1988 to 1992, Caron was part of legendary coach Allison McNeill’s first recruiting class. As a student-athlete, she won more than 20 major academic awards and she earned the Shrum Gold medal as the top undergraduate student at SFU.
Caron became the first female First Nations student to graduate from UBC’s School of Medicine, again as the top student, and was named one of Maclean’s “100 Canadians to Watch.”
The Terry Fox Humanitarian category was established in 2013 and is reserved to honour the benevolence of athletic alumni who make incredible humanitarian contributions to improve their communities.
