The Moose Jaw and District Sports Hall of Fame has officially unveiled their 2022 induction class, with three individuals to be enshrined during a three-class ceremony in October.
Track and field and bobsleigh athlete John Graham will be joined by former baseball standout and high school coach Ned Andreoni along with longtime local baseball umpire Rocky Nickel.
John Graham
Graham, who was born in Moose Jaw in 1965, is considered one of the top athletes in University of Calgary track and field history after stringing together a host of national championships in 1985 and 1986.
A middle-distance and hurdles specialist, Graham won the 300 metres, 600 metres, 4x200 metres and 4x400 metre races at the 1985 Canada West and National Collegiate Championships before repeating the feat the following season.
Graham would go on to represent Canada in international competition from 1986 through 1991, winning three Commonwealth Games medals and running for Canada at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. All told, Graham would win 11 national championships while setting several Canadian records.
Graham also competed in bobsleigh in 1990, winning a World Cup championship with Chris Lori that year.
Ned Andreoni
Ned Andreoni is, quite simply, a legend among Moose Jaw high school coaches -- but some might not know that he is also one of the top baseball players in the history of the city.
After coming to Moose Jaw in 1967 to play with the Moose Jaw Regals, Andreoni ended up leading the team to two national championship appearances and was a multiple-time batting champion and most valuable player.
As the city fell in love with their new standout player, Andreoni fell in love with the city, and he soon moved to Moose Jaw and began his career as a teacher. Andreoni ended up spending almost as much time as a coach as he did in the classroom, spending countless hours with the Vanier Vikings and Spirits basketball programs and winning provincial tiles with both. He also worked with the Vanier football and golf teams, also claiming city titles as parts of those programs.
That alone would be enough for Andreoni to be inducted as a builder, but Ned also worked as a basketball official for more than 25 years and was a competitive athlete well after his days with the Regals came to completion.
Andreoni passed away in 2007 at the age of 61.
Rocky Nickel
Someone Andreoni undoubtedly crossed paths with many a time on the baseball field was Rockwell ‘Rocky’ Nickel, one of Moose Jaw’s most well-known umpires.
Nickel began his work on the diamond in 1991 and it wasn’t long before he moved up the ranks, eventually working hundreds of games at the highest levels of baseball not only in Saskatchewan but across Canada.
That includes hundreds of Saskatchewan Summer Games, Canada Summer Games and provincial championships over the years, not including the thousands upon thousands of minor baseball games in and around Moose Jaw over the last three decades -- pick a night, find a set of diamonds and odds are, Rocky will be around.
Currently, NIckel is a regular on the Western Canadian Baseball League circuit, working games all over southern Saskatchewan.
Nickel’s work as a baseball official continues as an educator, as he regularly hosts umpire clinics. Himself certified at Level 5 and able to work the highest level of baseball in the country, Nickel regularly helps young officials make their way up the ranks and has seen many of his up-and-coming umpires work elite competitions alongside himself.
Nickel has received close to a dozen national and provincial honours throughout his career, including his induction into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021 and the Baseball Canada Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
The Moose Jaw and District Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Saturday, Oct. 1 at Mosaic Place and will feature three classes being inducted at once after the previous two ceremonies were postponed due to the pandemic.
The 2021 class will see wrestling athlete/builder Frank Abdou, golf athlete Lorie Boyle, the 1992 Amber Holland curling team and football athlete Levi Steinhauer inducted, while the 2020 class will see volleyball athlete Darcy Busse, hockey/baseball builder John Hunter, baseball builder Charlie Meacher, wrestling builder Dave Pyle, basketball athlete Marg (Curry) Sihvon and hockey athlete Ed Staniowski enshrined.
Since the first Hall of Fame induction in 2015, a total of 29 athletes, builders and teams across 18 different sports have been enshrined on the Hall of Fame Wall on the McCaig Mezzanine in Mosaic Place.
