Local sports greats from Burnaby are set to be honoured for their achievements.
The Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame has announced the Class of 2023 inductees with four individuals and one team.
This year's inductees are:
- Lui Passaglia (Athlete/Football)
- Mike Santorelli (Athlete/Hockey)
- Don Taylor (Builder/Broadcasting)
- Fuji Miki (Coach/Curling)
- 2008 U14 Cliff Avenue United Synergy (Team/Soccer)
Lui Passaglia helped lead Notre Dame High School to three provincial championships in 1968, 1970 and 1971, then played for SFU, according to the press release.
He caught the eye of the CFL and went fifth overall in the 1976 draft to the BC Lions.
He lived at home in Burnaby during his first four seasons with the Lions.
Passaglia played 25 seasons in the CFL, all with the Lions. No one has played more CFL games than the 408 played by Passaglia, and no one has scored more points (3,991) than him, said the release.
Passaglia kicked the winning field goal on the last play of the 1994 Grey Cup, leading BC to victory against Baltimore. The kick was named the greatest play in club history by the Lions in 2007.
Mike Santorelli played 406 regular season games in the NHL and four playoff games. He worked his way up from the BCHL and was drafted in the sixth round of the 2004 NHL draft by the Nashville Predators.
Santorelli played 49 games for his hometown Vancouver Canucks and retired in the 2016-17 season in Switzerland.
Don Taylor is the first media member to be inducted into the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame. He was most recently inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in October.
His career kicked off on CKVU's nightly Sports Page show from 1985 to 2000, and he frequently recalled his roots in Burnaby on air.
Taylor hosted Sportsnet Connected from 2001 to 2014 and now co-hosts a two-hour sports show, Donnie and Dhali – The Team, weekday mornings on CHEK-TV.
Fuji Miki lived in South Burnaby for 50 years after his family was interned during the Second World War in Midway, a border town in the West Kootenays.
He played lead for BC men's champion Glen Pierce in 1979. In 1982, Miki took up coaching.
Miki coached Japanese women's teams for 16 years through four Olympics (Salt Lake City, Torino, Vancouver and Sochi) and coached Japanese men's teams when they came to Canada to compete on the cashspiel circuit, according to the release.
The teams frequently were based out of Miki's home club, the Royal City Curling Club in New Westminster.
The 2008 U14 Cliff Avenue United Synergy "ran roughshod" over all other teams that season.
The group of North Burnaby girls went unbeaten in 32 games.
They won the Coastal Cup A Championships and the Provincial Cup Championship and captured the Canadian championship in PEI that year too.
Players went on to varsity post-secondary teams, including:
- Samantha Drescher, UBC
- Tamara Roughead, UBC
- Simran Parmar, UBC
- Shayla Chorney, UBC
- Isabella Di Trocchio, Trinity Western
- Lindsey Pulice, Trinity Western
- Goaltender Kayla Klim, University of the Fraser Valley and played professionally in Sweden
For those interested in ticket purchases for the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 induction event, visit the hall of fame's website.
