Hoops trailblazer inducted, twice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/04/2019 (1834 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You’ll find Isabel (Duncan) Thomson’s name on this year’s Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame (MBHOF) induction list twice, but no, it’s not a typo.

Thomson, a pioneer in Winnipeg’s women’s basketball, will make history by becoming the first individual to be inducted as a player and builder in the same year. The MBHOF revealed this year’s induction class on Wednesday morning in front of its museum inside the Duckworth Centre at the University of Winnipeg.

Thomson starred for the Winnipeg Pegs and Altomahs of the Greater Winnipeg Women’s Basketball league, a league she was also the president of, in the 1930s and 1940s. Standing 5-7 and known for playing numerous positions, Thomson led her teams to represent Manitoba six times at the western Canadian championships. Thomson, a Winnipeg native, was also vice-president of the Canadian Amateur Basketball Association (now Canada Basketball). Thomson died in 2007 at the age of 88. Her sons Bob and Neil represented her on Wednesday.

“We really feel when our mom played and administered, that was the golden age of women’s sports in Manitoba,” said Bob, who worked together with Neil to put together a scrapbook of newspaper clippings they found about their mom’s involvement on the hardwood. “Not just in the late ’20s but through the ’30s and ’40s, that was World War II. So, all the really good men athletes enlisted. And not just the good athletes, a lot of male athletes weren’t here, they were in Europe. So, the entertainment was women’s amateur athletics. So that to me, the era she played in, is the golden era of women’s sports.”

If there was a hall of fame dedicated to unique fundraising ideas, Thomson would be a first-ballot hall of famer. When her team travelled to Vancouver for the western Canadian championships, they’d ship bootleg booze made by local distillers to places such as Regina, Swift Current, Medicine Hat and Kamloops a month or two before the tournament. On their way to Vancouver, Thomson and her team would stop in those cities and pick up the money from the booze they sent out. It would cover their travel and hotel expenses.

“It’s different. In those days, you had to be creative,” Bob said. “When we were going through the book with all the clippings, we found that they also sold a table lamp as a fundraising thing. And the money they raised from it went to their train tickets to go out west.”

Also inducted in the players category is Mike Vaira — the star of the Brandon Bobcats men’s team from 1970-75. The Oregon native joined an unestablished Brandon basketball program and helped put it on the map. Vaira led the nation in scoring with an average of 26.5 points per game during the 1973-74 season and became the first Bobcats men’s player to be named an all-Canadian. Vaira died this past year at the age of 66.

“Gary Howard was the first coach at Brandon, and Mike was really his first recruit,” said Ross Wedlake, chairman of the MBHOF.

“And Brandon’s men’s teams were not very good, to be honest, during those days. But Mike was really the first player he really had. He was a leader in terms of showing this program can be really good and a trailblazer so to speak. As you know, Brandon’s men’s basketball team has a storied history and they had to start somewhere.”

The majority of the people in attendance on Wednesday were representing the Ross L. Gray Raiders — a school in the small town of Sprague, located near Minnesota and Ontario. The Raiders dominated the varsity girls basketball scene in the ’70s and ’80s, winning a combined eight Manitoba High School Athletic Association provincial titles between the A and AA levels. All eight teams are being inducted into the hall.

“It’s a huge honour,” said Gina Davis, a member of the 1980-81 championship team. “We knew we won provincials so many times, and it’s still going strong, but to have it actually acknowledged by the city of Winnipeg, that’s a city. We go to the small towns to play basketball, but to be actually acknowledged by the hall of fame, it can’t be any better than that.”

Not many Winnipeggers may be familiar with the school’s basketball success, but Davis said the areas surrounding the town are well aware.

“When you walk somewhere or go to a school and they ask where you’re from and you say you’re from Sprague, they say, ‘Oh, that’s the basketball town isn’t it?’”

The official induction takes place on Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Victoria Inn. For more information, visit mbhof.com.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31