October 25, 2007 (Toronto, ON) – More than 750 people will attend Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame 52nd Induction Gala on Thursday, October 25, 2007 at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. The changing face of Canadian sport will be in the spotlight with the latest addition of six athletes and two builders into the Sports Hall.

Inducted as athletes this year are hockey’s Mike Bossy and Cassie Campbell, pro football’s Doug Flutie, Olympic wrestler Daniel Igali, cross-country skiing Olympian Beckie Scott and Major League Baseball’s Larry Walker. Sport pioneers Sam Jacks and Dr. Robert Steadward will be entering as builders.

Sam Jacks is the inventor of the sport of ringette and floor hockey, now played by thousands of people of all ages around the world. Dr. Robert Steadward is recognized as the man whose efforts spearheaded the growth of sport for the disabled from virtually ignored recreation to world centre stage in the Paralympic Games.

In his decade-long career with the New York Islanders, Mike Bossy was perhaps the game’s consummate sharp-shooter. He still holds the NHL record for most consecutive seasons of 50 or more goals at nine, and is one of the only players to have ever scored 60 or more goals five times. Bossy was the NHL’s 1977-78 rookie of the year, won three Lady Byng Trophies, and saw his sweater retired by the Islanders.

Cassie Campbell, a national team member from 1994 through 2006 and a pioneer in the growth and development of her sport, becomes the first women’s ice hockey player honoured by the Hall. She captained the team from 2002 to her retirement in 2006 following the team’s second straight Olympic gold medal in Torino, Italy.

Pro football’s Little Engine That Could, Doug Flutie, won U.S. college football’s Heisman Trophy in 1984 and found a home in Canadian football in 1991. In Calgary, B.C. and Toronto, his dazzling play brought six league outstanding player awards, three Grey Cups and, in a 2006 poll by TSN, the No. 1 spot on the list of the all-time CFL Top 50 players. Doug is the first non-Canadian to be inducted into the Sports Hall.

Nigerian-born wrestler Daniel Igali did not return to his native country following the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria because of political unrest. Instead, he made his home in Surrey, B.C. and became a proud Canadian and one of the country’s best-known amateur athletes. He was the 1999 world champion in the 69kg freestyle class and then in 2000, became the first Canadian to win a wrestling Olympic gold medal, again in 69kg freestyle, at the Sydney Summer Olympic Games in 2000.

Beckie Scott was the first North American woman to win an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing. Her third-place finish in the five-kilometre pursuit in the 2002 Winter Games was raised to gold more than two years later when both skiers who finished ahead of her were disqualified for using a performance-enhancing drug. Ms. Scott is a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and an athlete member of the International Olympic Committee.

Larry Walker signed with the Montreal Expos in 1984 as a non-drafted free agent and quickly became one of the game’s premier attractions. Shipped to the Colorado Rockies by the Expos in 1995, he won the National League MVP award in 1997, the Lou Marsh Trophy in 1998 and was a perennial all-star and Golden Glove award winner.

Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame recognizes and honours Canada’s sports heroes. It is the Hall’s mission to inspire Canadian identity and national pride by telling the compelling stories of those outstanding achievements that make up Canada’s sports history. The addition of these athletes and builders brings the total number of Honoured Members in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame to 489. The addition of ringette brings the total number of sports represented in the Hall to 56.