1991 BELLEVILLE SPORTS HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

  • Gordie Bell

    ATHLETE / HOCKEY

  • Kenneth "Ken" J. Colling

    BUILDER, MEDIA

  • Carol Anne Ireland

    ATHLETE, ARCHERY

  • Peggy and Jane McCutcheon

    ATHLETE, FIGURE SKATING

GORDIE BELL

ATHLETE, HOCKEY

Gordie Bell backstopped the Belleville McFarlands to the 1958 Allan Cup senior hockey championship of Canada, the 1959 world hockey championship in Prague, Czechoslovakia and was one of the most respected and idolized athletes in the city of Belleville in the 1950s. A native of Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Bell won a Memorial Cup with Portage La Prairie and played professional hockey in the American Hockey League from 1943 to 1956, where he still holds a league record of nine shutouts set in 1943 while with the Buffalo Bisons. A serious eye injury curtailed Bell’s playing days while tending goal for the McFarlands, but he turned to coaching both at the senior and junior levels as well as with representative teams in the Belleville Minor Hockey Association. He is a member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and was part of the Belleville Sports Hall of Fame McFarlands’ team inductions in 1989. Gordie Bell died of cancer in 1980.

KENNETH “KEN” J. COLLING

BUILDER, MEDIA

A former sports editor and police reporter at The Belleville Intelligencer, Kenneth J. Colling was also heavily involved in umpiring during the 1930s and 1940s. Recalled through the annual running of the Ken Colling Memorial Run, the former scribe was once a professional umpiring prospect. He is a life member of the Ontario Baseball Association and was instrumental in getting Eastern Ontario section of the OBA off the ground. Kenneth J. Colling died in 1949.

CAROL ANNE IRELAND

ATHLETE, ARCHERY

Carol Anne Ireland was among the elite of female archers in Canada in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a member of the Belleville Archery Club.

She won a silver medal at the world archery championships in 1969.

Carol was Canadian national ladies champion twice, Ontario indoor champion on four occasions, was a member of Canada’s world team for three years, Ontario outdoor champion three times, and a member of the Canadian Ambassador Cup team five times. She also was the first Canadian woman to shoot 1,100 FITA (Federation Internationale de Tir a l’Arc (International Archery Federation)), receiving a black FITA star. She also attended the Canadian Olympic Trials in 1972, finishing fourth.

PEGGY AND JANE MCCUTCHEON

ATHLETE, FIGURE SKATING

The McCutcheon sisters, Peggy (left) and Jane became teenage professional skaters with the Holiday on Ice troupe in 1966, spending four years touring North and South America and other international locations. The Belleville-born sisters began skating in 1954, both earning Canadian Figure Skating Association gold levels for freestyle, compulsory figures and dance but coming together as a pair for carnivals and special performances. An exhibition in Sun Valley, Idaho in 1965 led to the Holiday on Ice invitation and the girls made a decision to turn professional as a pair rather than continue singles amateur skating.