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As of Monday's official announcement of the latest five inductees into the 28-year-old hall of fame, there are 190 individuals and teams spanning 43 sports now residing there.
But no one team is nearly as prominent in the hallowed halls as the Generals, and rightly so given their storied history in Canada's national sport.
Two more will now join the fold, with former goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz and longtime athletic trainer and equipment manager Bryan Boyes among the class of 2013.
Softball star Chris Jones, swimmer Barb Loreno and the 1958 Oshawa juvenile hockey team will round out the honorees, who will be formally inducted at the 28th annual fundraising dinner on Wednesday, May 29 at the GM Centre.
"It's a big thrill for me," said Sidorkiewicz, who suited up for the Generals from 1980-84 and went on to play 246 regular season games in the NHL. "Growing up in Oshawa, some of my former coaches and managers, Sherry Bassin, Frank Jay, Ian Young, who was my goalie coach, they're already in here.
"To be going in with some of those guys who were really instrumental in helping me get to the NHL, and just being with all the other athletes in all the different sports, I'm a huge sports fan and always have been, so it's nice to get recognized. Maybe I did something half decent."
Sidorkiewicz didn't take a common route to the pros. Born in Poland, he moved to Oshawa with his family at the age of three and didn't try hockey until a softball coach convinced him to give it a shot at 10. After a couple of years in house league, he gradually improved, but never envisioned the day he'd be staring down the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
"I never ever dreamed I'd play in the NHL," said Sidorkiewicz, now an assistant coach with the Erie Otters who spends the off-season in Whitby. "There were times when I thought I wouldn't even get a chance and all of a sudden, something happens and, boom, you get your opportunity, and you'd try and make the best of it."
Among the many people Sidorkiewicz credited for his transformation from junior to pro was none other than Boyes, who has been a fixture behind the Generals' bench since he joined the team as a stick boy, at 14, in 1976. He became the head athletic therapist and equipment manager in 1982, and holds the same position to this day, with no signs of slowing.
Known by virtually all as Chetto, a shortened version of the Geppetto nickname given to him by player Don Hawkes way back in 1976, Boyes was overwhelmed when he heard the news, although typically focused on the task at hand when Gary Minacs told him prior to a recent game.
"It was on a game day here so my mind was sort of all on our game, so when he told me I was speechless, to be honest," recalled Boyes, who lives in Whitby. "You just never think about the privilege of this honour for doing something you love doing."
Boyes and Sidorkiewicz were able to share an OHL championship together in 1983, when the Generals fell a win shy of a Memorial Cup as well. But Boyes experienced that thrill in 1990, to go along with other OHL titles in 1987, 1990 and 1997 and junior world championship gold with Team Canada in 1996, 2005, 2006 and 2008.
Despite all his any accomplishments however, it's the kids who provide the highlights, he said.
"It's just the opportunity to work with all the professional young men that I've dealt with that over the years have gone on to play pro hockey, but not only that, who have gone on through to be lawyers, doctors, numerous professionals as well," he said.
Jones knows a thing or two about winning gold wearing Canada's colours as well.
Now 45 and also living in Whitby, Jones was a slick-fielding shortstop who won 12 gold medals at International Softball Congress events, including three for his country.
The Canadian team's 1999 win at the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg remains to this day his highlight.
"The one in Winnipeg meant a lot to me in '99 because it was in Canada, it was live on TSN. Matthew, my first child, was six months old, so he was there and I got to hold him on the podium and listen to the national anthem," he recalled fondly. "That's probably the biggest thing for me."
Loreno, who lives in Napanee and was unable to attend Monday's announcement, first served notice of her prowess in the water by finishing fifth at the world five-mile marathon swim at the Canadian National Exhibition.
She went on to win hundreds of medals and ribbons in masters competitions, including five medals at the first world masters games in 1985, and came just shy, twice, of becoming the first grandmother to cross Lake Ontario.
The lone team being inducted, the 1958 juveniles, played at a time when the Generals were defunct thanks to a fire that gutted Hambly Arena in 1953.
The team won the all-Ontario championship in 1958, defeating Peterborough, Kingston, Toronto Marlboros, St. Catharines and Tillsonburg before prevailing in a five-game thriller over Sault Ste. Marie, taking the decisive game 3-2 before a crowd of 4,000 in the Soo.
"I still remember it just like it was yesterday," said Dave Frolock, 72, who earned an assist on the winning goal. "It's funny how certain things stick in your mind after all those years. I can't remember what I did yesterday, but I remember that."
