2008 BELLEVILLE SPORTS HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
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Paul Barrett
ATHLETE, WEIGHTLIFTING
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Bruce Christopher
ATHLETE, BILLIARDS
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Harold Thompson
ATHLETE, ARCHERY
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Tim Williams
ATHLETE, MULTI-SPORT
PAUL BARRETT
ATHLETE, WEIGHTLIFTING
Paul Barrett has been a champion in the gym and in the boardroom. Born in Belleville on Oct. 15, 1949, Barrett joined the Apollo Barbell Club in his teens and soon became one of its very best Olympic-style weightlifters. He set a British Empire junior record for clean and press in 1967, hoisting 200.5 pounds at a bodyweight of only 148. He won a gold medal at the 1971 Canada Games, was a member of the Canadian weightlifting team for three years from 1974 to 1976 and represented his country at the Pan American Games in Mexico in 1975.
In a seven year span, from 1969-74, Barrett broke seven provincial records and medalled at four Canadian weightlifting championships. During his competitive career, he held provincial titles at both the junior and senior levels. In 1972, at a bodyweight of 164, he became the first local lifter to achieve double bodyweight, lifting 330 pounds in the clean and jerk.
At the administrative level, Barrett was equally successful. He held the presidency of the Canadian Weightlifting Federation from 2001 to 2008 and was a director of the Canadian Olympic Committee during that same period of time. He represented Canadian lifters at the Commonwealth Games from 1997 to 2008, and was weightlifting’s representative on Sports Officials Canada from 2003 to 2008.
As a competitor or official, Barrett has represented Canada at various world championship events in Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Turkey, the Dominican Republic, South America and Europe for more than 40 years. He is a recipient of the Ontario Centennial Medal of Excellence and a life member of the Ontario Weightlifting Association.
Reflecting on his seamless transition from champion weightlifter to respected weightlifting administrator, Barrett once said: “The reason I continue to be involved with sports is to give something back. If I can make the difference for even one athlete, it will all have been worthwhile.”
BRUCE CHRISTOPHER
ATHLETE, BILLIARDS
Bruce Christopher started playing pool in his hometown of Belleville at the age of seven, using a sawed-off golf club and a bag of marbles on his mother’s kitchen table. Several years later, the man they call “Superstroke” was challenging and defeating some of the best billiards players in the world including the legendary Minnesota Fats and Willie Mosconi. From his humble beginnings in Belleville, Christopher eventually made New York City his home base, and was soon travelling the globe as a billiards player, teacher and coach in a career that spanned more than 40 years. During that time, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records after sinking 5,688 balls consecutively over a 24-hour period, a feat that was filmed for ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Christopher was named Billiards Man of the Year in 1976 by Sports Illustrated magazine and won similar honours in the American Billiards Review. Two year earlier, he won the largest single purse ever handed out at that time $70,000 for winning a match in India. At one time, Christopher had his hands insured for $400,000. He participated in the 1978 Money Players Shootout in Las Vegas which was filmed for the CBS Sports Spectacular. He acted as a billiards advisor and consultant on various TV programs and films and for three years in a row, 1975 to 1977, was named the Entertainer of the Year by the American Billiards Review. Despite many of his competitive claims to fame, Christopher’s real strength may have been as an enthusiastic promoter of his game which included the publication of his own book, My Winning Secrets, featuring tips, lessons and advice for future pool stars. Minnesota Fats once said: Bruce Christopher has opened doors that pool players would never have gotten a chance to knock on before.
HAROLD THOMPSON
ATHLETE, ARCHERY
It’s safe to say the sport of archery would probably not exist in Belleville if not for the yeoman efforts of Harold Thompson. Born in Montreal on Aug. 8, 1928, Thompson has been president of the Belleville Archery Club since 1969, adhering strictly to his motto: No child or adult shall be turned away. That means that over the span of 40 years, Thompson has introduced hundreds of children and adults to the sport of archery in Belleville. He has coached them, managed them and encouraged them, even supplied them with equipment.
As a competitor, Thompson had few peers. Over his 40-year career, he won more than 50 gold medals at various tournaments and competitions across Ontario. But as sterling as Thompson’s competitive archery career was, it may have been surpassed by his abilities as a coach – and a volunteer coach at that.
Thompson championed the sport of archery and was a driving force behind its inclusion in provincial sports programs for the physically challenged and has been a volunteer in that area since 1981. He is a past winner of the Ron Foster Award, presented in North York, for his long-time involvement with the Ontario Blind Sports Association, wheelchair and amputee athletes. Thompson has also won the Larry Coleman Memorial Award, presented in Cornwall in 1987, for dedication to the promotion and development of sport for physically disabled athletes. Thompson was named Belleville’s most outstanding minor sports volunteer in 1978, won the Ontario Archery Association’s Volunteer of the Year award in 1988 and was presented with a National Achievement Award in 1990 for distinguished service in the field of amateur sport
TIM WILLIAMS
ATHLETE, MULTI-SPORT
Born in Lion’s Head, Ontario, on February 26th, 1919, Tim Williams was already enjoying an impressive string of athletic successes as a star hockey player in Owen Sound when he was recruited by Ken Soden to play for the Belleville Reliance Sr. B hockey team in 1941. As the story goes, Williams lacked a return train ticket to Owen Sound. So he stayed. And members of the sports community of Belleville among many, many others as glad he did. Considered to be one of the finest all-around athletes by his peers, Williams starred in the hockey and baseball for various teams after his two-year stint with Reliance. After a three year hitch in the Navy, where he played senior hockey, Williams returned to Belleville and joined Walk Gerow and Leo Goyer on the formidable forward line for the CNR Diesels. A star in the old Trent Valley League, Williams was player-coach on the Point Ann Cementmen in 1952 when they won an all-Ontario intermediate championship. After retiring as a player a few years later, Williams was asked to lend his considerable experience and hockey acumen to officiating which he did, wholeheartedly. For almost 20 years, Williams refereed Senior A, Junior B and intermediate hockey in Ontario. He later coached Belleville’s Junior B hockey club and then acted as supervisor of officials in eastern Ontario. On the baseball diamond, Williams starred for Reliance teams and later for the South Hastings League. Williams’ love of sport never waned and he continued to volunteer, well after his retirement, for several years as a minor hockey coach, manager and trainer. It is without a doubt that all of those individuals who befriended Williams during his playing days or who were mentored by him during his coaching days are glad he missed that train some 67 years ago.