Sports well represented among latest Waterloo Region Hall of Fame inductees including Larry Lynch and John Thompson

April 26, 2016

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ORIGINAL STORY By Christine Rivet

 

Waterloo Region Record

KITCHENER — Two inductees from the sporting world can hardly believe the company they now keep in the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame.

"What the hell am I doing in this group with war heroes and code crackers?" asked longtime fastball coach Larry Lynch after he was ushered into the region's hall with seven others on Sunday. "It just doesn't seem right."

"A fat lacrosse goalie?" Kitchener's own National Lacrosse League hall of famer Steve (Chugger) Dietrich asked incredulously after the induction ceremony.

Despite their doubts, Lynch and Dietrich were among the names called to the hall joining 400 or so of this region's most esteemed citizens past and present since its opening in 1972.

The class of 2016 included some serious movers and shakers.

Among this year's inductees were 96-year-old Second World War veteran, Distinguished Conduct Medal winner, former pro hockey player August (Augie) Herchenratter; Canadian peace researcher and security and disarmament expert Ernie Regehr; Olympic silver medallist, short track speedskater Amanda Overland Anatol; and longtime volunteer and sports organizer John Thompson.

English-born Nazi code breaker and University of Waterloo mathematician William Tutte (credited with helping to save countless lives by shortening the war) as well as former New York Ranger, Detroit Red Wing, Boston Bruin and Montreal Canadien Wilbert (Dutch) Hiller were inducted posthumously during the ceremony at the Waterloo Region Museum.

That five of this year's inductees inhabit the sporting planet illustrates how this region values its sports heroes.

Kitchener's Lynch, 62, was the longtime field manager, general manager and tournament organizer for the Waterloo CHYM'rs, who later became the Waterloo Twins, and then the Kitchener Hallman Twins.

Largely because of his resourcefulness, the club was heralded as the longest continuously operated senior men's fastball team in Canada, a run that lasted 48 years until the Twins were mothballed at the end of last season.

A former manager of engineering for the City of Kitchener, Lynch's teams have racked up nine provincial, nine national and five International Softball Congress world titles.

And Lynch isn't done yet.

This summer, the busiest man in fastball will help coach the three-time defending world champion Hill United Chiefs of Six Nations, the Dominican Republic's national team and a team of masters-aged players (50 and older) with the Toronto Gators.

"I have no intention of retiring from the game any time soon," Lynch, who was enshrined in the ISC's hall of fame in 2007, said on Sunday with a smile.

Dietrich is a former 18-year pro in the NLL who made stops in seven cities. He has won every major award his sport offers, including world indoor lacrosse gold, the pro league's Champions Cup, championship game and regular season MVP and the NLL's goalie of the year award in 2005 and '06.

The current general manager of the NLL's Buffalo Bandits, Dietrich was ushered into the pro league's hall of fame in 2012.

"My mom was my heartbeat, my rock," Dietrich said in his emotional induction speech, referring to his mother Ruth, a tireless local lacrosse promoter who died in 2002 at age 58. "I believe she deserves to be in this hall of fame more than I do."

crivet@therecord.com ;

Twitter: @RivetRecord

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Eight Inducted in Kitchener 24 April 2016

 

SEE PROGRAM

Footnote: By AlsFastball

I had the pleasure and the honour of being invited to the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies today by my good friend Larry Lynch.

As well, both Larry and John Thompson invited me to their reception after the ceremonies.

I was thrilled to be invited as I wanted to be there to help honour these two fine gentlemen for their work within their sports centred community over many many years. As well, I anticipated that a lot of fastball fans that I have not seen in a year or more would be there as well and I was not wrong.

The ceremonies were held at the beautiful Waterloo Region Museum

This is the first time I have been there however I have driven by many times on my way to Peter Hallman Ballyard.  The museum is at 10 Huron Road just off of Homer Watson Blvd. It is well worth a visit.

As usual, with any ceremony organized in this community it was extremely well run. We are all familiar with how well our friend John Thompson runs the ISC Hall of Fame Breakfast these past several years. Well, the Waterloo Region has a whole bunch more just like John that can run a ceremony and / or stand up and speak to introduce a friend and see them properly inducted into the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame. It was a very impressive ceremony.

I was there primarily of course to see my friends Larry Lynch and John Thompson inducted however I had read the backgrounds of the other inductees and as it turned out, each and every one of them had a very interesting story.

 

I ran into an old friend on entering the Museum today, Christine Rivet, star sports reporter for the Record. We exchanged notes on our good friends Larry and John and I am so pleased she was there to do a very professional job of covering this event. (See story above).

So many other old friends from fastball were there today to participate in the ceremony and I dare not try and list them all or I am sure to miss a couple. I will mention though that amongst the first to greet me were Lucille and Ray Alviano! They looked great and have changed so little since we first worked a tournament together, the 1996 Canadian Men’s at Hillside Park in Waterloo.

In Larry’s induction speech he referred to so many players, managers, fans, and volunteers it brought back a flood of memories for everyone in the room involved in fastball in the region. He centred out Christine Rivet for her long standing dedication to covering fastball for the Record. She is one of a kind and every fastball community wishes they had a reporter like her. I thank Larry for his very kind words to me during his speech, very much appreciated my friend. Larry covered a ton of fastball history in his “three minutes” to the delight of the large crowd on hand.

John Thompson never ceases to amaze me. I thought I had a pretty good idea of his community involvement but my list of his accomplishments does not even scratch the surface as I found out from his friends inducting him today. 

I will forever be convinced that John is the one who took over the ISC Annual Hall of Fame Induction Breakfast and made it the outstanding success it is today. It is the benchmark for how an event of this nature should be run.  John has left his mark on the annual ISC tournament in this and so many other ways including his daily news “Diamond Dirt” and his hard work on helping the Kitchener host committee bring the Big Show to town multiple times. I have also had the pleasure of sharing a table for a week at an ISF Men’s World Championship in Saskatoon. Yes, his hard work extends beyond the borders of Kitchener Waterloo.

 

After the ceremonies at the Museum, I was invited to join Larry and John and friends and family at the Residence and Conference Centre down the road. Here I ran into an even larger collection of old friends from the fastball community. The room was full of them. No, I will not even try to list them all. I know for sure I said hello to at least two of them that I called by the wrong name and probably that many or more I totally drew a blank on the name but I did remember the face. And they did remember me.

A long line of good speakers took turns for quite some time honouring Larry and John, and in some cases came close to roasting them. Well, not true, they did roast them. It was a love in.

Larry and John put on a great reception at the Conestoga, complete with a variety of refreshments. Thanks guys, that was appreciated.

I hope someone wrote down some of the stories that were told Sunday afternoon and into the evening. Then again, maybe its best that the stories stay in the basement of the conference centre.

One of the more memorable quotes of the day "...it seems appropriate that this event is winding up in a basement dungeon on the edge of town..."

 

 Al Doran

www.alsfastball.com