ONTARIO BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2014 Every two years, Ontario Basketball opens the Ontario Basketball Hall of Fame for those with outstanding accomplishments in our sport in Ontario. 2014 inductees into the Ontario Basketball Hall of Fame were nominated by their peers and voted on by the Hall of Fame Selection Committee. The categories are athletes, coaches, builders, teams and officials. This year, OBA is honoured to announce the 2014 Ontario Basketball Hall of Fame class, as follows: Candace De Gazon (Clarkson) is a member the Hall of Fames at the University of Guelph and Brock University for her successful collegiate playing careers at both schools, De Gazon was a member of Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team from 1977-80 and 1982-84. After her playing career, she continued her association with the game as a referee and as a coach at Unionville High School and Newmarket High School. A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Candace “Candi” De Gazon was one of the best women to play in the Ontario Women’s Interuniversity Athletic Association (OWIAA) in the 1970s and 1980s. She was a four-time OWIAA All-Star and garnered All-Canadian selections from 1978 to 1980 at Guelph and again in 1983 while playing for Brock. Her 1980 Guelph Gryphons as well as 1982 Brock Badgers both finished with perfect 12-0 records and claimed the OWIAA Championship. In a 1983 game she scored 49 points for Brock, which was the most points ever scored in an OWIAA game and is a record that remains intact in Ontario University Athletics (OUA) today. De Gazon translated her collegiate success onto the international stage playing for Team Canada. She was on the Senior Women’s National Team from 1977-80 and again from 1982-84. Her greatest success as a member of the team came in 1979 when she captured the bronze medal in the FIBA World Championship, the FISU Games, and the Pan Am Games. She also was part of the teams that placed fourth in the 1983 Pan Am Games and the 1984 Olympic Games. Back when De Gazon was a student at Ancaster High and Vocational School, she experienced success on the basketball court; her team won the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) Championships in the first two years that the competition was held in 1975 and 1976. De Gazon was inducted into the Brantford Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. Mike Katz is an accomplished basketball coach who has made significant contributions to the sport in his hometown of Toronto as well as at the provincial, national, and international levels. Katz was Head Coach of the men’s team at Humber College in Toronto from 1984 to 2004, where he led his team to five National Championship banners and an unprecedented string of 12 appearances at Nationals in his final 13 seasons. Katz was named Coach of the Year twice by the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association and four times by the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA). He was inducted into the Humber College Hall of Fame in 2004 and the OCAA Hall of Fame in 2007. Following his successful career at Humber, Katz became Head Coach of the men’s team at his alma mater, the University of Toronto, where he had played for the Varsity Blues from 1968 to 1971. During his coaching tenure from 2004 to 2011, Katz received the Coach of the Year award in the 2007-08 season from both Canadian Interuniversity Sport and Ontario University Athletics. At the international level, Katz was Assistant Coach of the Canadian Senior Men’s National Team from 1993 to 1994 and again from 1999 to 2002. Highlights include silver and bronze medal finishes at the FIBA Americas Championships in 1999 and 2001, respectively, and a trip to the 2000 Olympic Games. Additionally, Katz was Head Coach for the Canadian men’s team at a number of international tournaments including the 1997 World University Games, where the team earned silver. Katz contributed to Ontario Basketball programming as Head Coach of the first-place Ontario East boys’ team in 1987 followed by Team Ontario from 1988 to 1990; the team finished second in 1988 and won gold the following year. Katz’s coaching career started in 1978 at George Harvey Collegiate Institute in Toronto, where he coached until 1984. In that time, his teams won the Metro Toronto Championships twice and made two appearances at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations Championships. The achievements of these legends will be celebrated at the Ontario Basketball Hall of Fame Gala on Saturday, March 21 at Abilities Centre in Whitby. The gala serves as a gathering of the basketball community and provides the opportunity to recognize those who have made significant contributions to the sport both past and present. Individual tickets to the Hall of Fame Dinner are $50.00 per (click here to purchase) while a table can be purchased at $500.00.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 21:50:30 +0000
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