Fredericton Sports Wall of Fame

Rollie Sappier

Rollie Sappier was a rarity in the game of baseball — a catcher with speed. Four times in his seven-year New Brunswick Senior Baseball League career, he led the league in stolen bases. He was the league batting champion twice in 1975, when he hit .424 and 1976, when he hit .448, leading the league in steals both years. He was a key member of the Sutherland’s Marysville Royals 1981 Canadian Senior Baseball Championship team, catching all three games on the final day of the national tournament. He also won national silver as a member of the Chatham Ironmen.

Sappier also starred as a track athlete. He represented New Brunswick at the first Canada Games in 1969, competing in the 100, 220 and 440 yard events. He earned the Tom Longboat Award as the Indigenous Athlete of the Year in Eastern Canada in 1969.

Sappier also starred in volleyball, basketball, fast pitch and hockey, playing five seasons in the Republican Hockey League with the Florenceville Potato Kings. After retiring from senior baseball in 1982, Rollie coached junior high school basketball as well as intermediate and junior baseball teams.

Jane Thornton

Jane Thornton MD, PhD, started rowing at the Fredericton Rowing Club in the early 1990s and it took her to the Olympics and beyond.

From a novice rower in Fredericton, Thornton became a high school, university, national and World Champion and an Olympian.

The Fredericton native spent a decade on the national team, from 2001 to 2011. Thornton was a three-time national champion and a World Champion in women’s pairs in 2006. As stroke of the women’s eight, her team finished fourth at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. She won multiple World Cup medals in both the women’s pair and eight. A member of the Western University rowing team from 1997 to 2005, Thornton won a World University Rowing Championship gold medal in the women’s double sculls and a silver in the women’s single. A six-time national university champion, in 2005 she became the Canadian University Rowing Association’s inaugural female athlete of the year.

In 2006, Jane received the Rowing Canada Aviron Award of Merit, the highest award Rowing Canada confers, as well as Rowing Canada’s International Achievement Award.

Off the water, Thornton has been an Athlete Ambassador at Right to Play Canada, and a mentor with the Canadian Olympic Committee Game Plan program. In 2015 she was awarded the Athletes CAN Athlete Social Responsibility award.

Jane Thornton’s love of rowing inspired her to become a sports and exercise medicine physician, scientist, and international advocate for physical activity for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease and for female athlete health. Jane was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.

Gardiner MacDougall

The accolades continue to accumulate for University of New Brunswick men’s hockey coach Gardiner MacDougall. He has led UNB to eight national championships in his 20 years behind the bench, three silver and one bronze, captured titles at two World University Games, in 2007 and 2013, been recognized as Atlantic University Sport coach of the year five times and U Sports coach of the year twice.

He’s earned the UNB President’s Citation Award, the UNB President’s Medal, earned the Paul Harris Fellowship Medallion for community service in Fredericton and is one of the winningest coaches in U Sports hockey history. In addition, more than one third of the players on his teams are recognized annually as Academic All-Canadians, and he has sent more than 30 players on to professional hockey careers at various levels. MacDougall was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 2021. Gardiner continued his winning ways, coaching the Saint John Sea Dogs to the Memorial Cup Championship in 2022.

The William (Bill) MacGillivary Award is named in honour of the former Dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at U.N.B., Hockey Canada executive and president of Fredericton Sports Investment Ltd. The award, commissioned by his fellow members of FSI, is an engraved plaque, presented annually to “Fredericton’s outstanding sport volunteer and community worker.”
The script on the plaque reads “In memory of William “Bill” MacGillivary, honouring his volunteer service and commitment to excellence in the field of sport and recreation at the local, provincial, national and international level.” This year’s recipient is Kim Tucker.

Kim Tucker

Kim is being saluted for more than 20 years of volunteerism in figure skating in Fredericton, first as a mom and later as a board member with the Nashwaaksis Figure Skating Club and now the Capital City Skating Club.

She served in a variety of roles, beginning as a member at large and eventually becoming club treasurer and then president of the Nashwaaksis Club. When the two Fredericton clubs merged to become the Capital City Skating Club in 2008, Kim served as the new club’s first president. She served six years in her first stint in that role. After two years as past president, she returned to the president’s role, where she continues to serve.

Kim played a key role in Skate New Brunswick’s hosting of the STARSkate Nationals at Willie O’Ree Place, doing everything from helping recruit volunteers to making sure the judge’s stand was properly built and installed. She has chaired seven more provincial competitions, including the Provincial Star, Adult and Synchro competitions. The profits from those competitions have helped keep the club on firm financial footing. Kim has chaired the local club’s season ending ice show for the past three years and remains active as the director of Skate New Brunswick Region 3.

Kim received the Skate New Brunswick volunteer of the year award in 2018. She was also a valued volunteer within the Fredericton Youth Hockey Association when her two boys played hockey.

This award originated with two brothers who were strong supporters of sport in the city of Fredericton. The 1940s & 1950s were times of imported senior hockey talent in Fredericton and with the financial and moral support of Myer Budovitch and others, this city was able to ice a very competitive team. Jack Budovitch devoted his attention to the Fredericton Caps following the end of the “Import Era” in senior hockey. Jack served as president for a number of years and also was a major financial supporter of the team.

In 1956 The Budovitch family donated a trophy dedicated to Myer and Jack which was to be presented annually to Fredericton’s Outstanding Athlete. This designation was later broadened to include also Outstanding Team. The first winner of the Myer and Jack Budovitch trophy was Marjorie Squires and the last winner was Jake Thomas.

The Myer and Jack Budovitch trophy unfortunately laid dormant for intervals of time until revived by Fredericton Sports Investment in 1999. The Athlete of the Year Award is now presented at the annual Fredericton Sports Wall of Fame Induction Dinner each May.
The winner of this award for 2022 is Jesse Canney.

Jesse Canney

Sometimes, all people need to live out their dreams is a chance. That’s certainly true for Fredericton’s Athlete of the Year.

Jesse Canney was born with autism and his mother Pamela Moxon says as a toddler, he struggled to keep his energy in check and even ran away several times. But once he hit the water, joining the Fredericton Aquanauts swim team, there was no looking back. When he was 15, Jesse started training nearly every day until his swimming talent rose to the surface.

All the hard work culminated at 2019 Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi. Jesse not only did Fredericton and New Brunswick proud, but he won three gold medals and a silver for Canada.
Jesse won gold in the 800 metre freestyle, the 1,500 metre and one in the 4×100 medley relay. He added a silver in the 400-metre freestyle event.

And just this summer, Canney added to his impressive resume at the Canada Games in Niagara. He racked up two silvers and two bronze in Para swimming to become New Brunswick’s most decorated Canada Games athlete of all time. He also won three medals at the 2017 games to give him an overall total of seven.

This young man who grew up struggling to be around crowds is now a World Special Olympic champion, and seven time Canada games medallist, who has made his hometown proud.
Sometimes, all people need to live out their dreams is a chance. That’s certainly true for Fredericton’s Athlete of the Year.