The New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame has revealed the class of ’22.
The new inductees include Ed Blanchard, who spent over 30 years with the Saint John Golden Gloves boxing club.
He’s officiated at over 75 Canadian championships, including six Canada Winter Games, and was inducted into the Boxing Canada Hall of Fame in 2020.
Basketball player Cynthia Johnston is also being called to the hall.
The Rothesay-born athlete led New Brunswick to a bronze medal at the 1985 Canada Games and played for Bishop’s University, where she was named a five-time all-star.
Longtime hockey official Guy Pellerin of Shediac started out working with high school and university leagues.
He officiated nearly 500 games in the QMJHL before becoming a supervisor of officials in the Maritimes Division. Pellerin has also worked at the Olympics, the World Juniors, and the Spengler Cup.
Fredericton-born rower Jane Thornton is also being honoured.
She spent a decade on the water as a member of Canada’s national rowing team, winning a world championship in 2006 and finishing fourth in the Women’s Eight final at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
With her pairs partner, Darcy Marquardt, she completed an undefeated international season in 2006. It finished in a victory at the 2006 World Rowing Championships.
Jim Riley and Janiva Willis are both being honoured posthumously.
Riley, of Bayfield, played hockey and baseball in the early part of the 20th century.
He was a member of the 1917 Stanley Cup champion Seattle Metropolitans, the first American team to win the trophy.
He left hockey briefly in 1918 to enlist in the Canadian military with the Sixth Field Canadian Engineer Company and served in France, attaining the rank of sergeant.
He also played major league baseball briefly becoming the first man to play both sports professionally.
Riley appeared briefly in the majors with the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators.
Janiva Willis of Irishtown started playing softball in Moncton playing for the Laforge Lasers and represented New Brunswick at the 2001 Canada Games.
She played seven seasons on the national women’s team winning a silver medal at the 2007 Pan American Games and a gold at the World University Games that year.
Willis earned a scholarship to Winthrop University in South Carolina, where she was a four-time All-Big South Conference selection.
As of 2022, she still holds team records in home runs, doubles, walks, and total bases.
NB Sports Hall of Fame 2022 Induction Class is Announced.
Watch our Executive Director and Chair's announcement.https://t.co/b4useh2MWL
hall-of-fame-2022-induction-class-announced pic.twitter.com/czMx4hGHEH— NB Sports Hall of Fame (@NBSHF) March 8, 2022
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