The Soccer Hall of Fame unveils 2009 honour list

Neil Ellett, John Limniatis, Joan McEachern and Mike Stojanovic head the list of 2009 inductees to The Soccer Hall of Fame. The four players will be inducted next 6 June along with builders Bob Sawtell (referee), Derek Wisdom (administrator) and Colin Jose (historian). Also to be honoured is Pioneer Award winner, the late Ted Slade, and the Team of Distinction Award winner, the 1986 Canadian FIFA World Cup™ team.



Limniatis represented Canada in three FIFA World Cup™ Qualifiers campaigns and three CONCACAF Gold Cup competitions. He made 44 appearances for the national team between 1987 and 1997. He played professional soccer in Canada, the United States and Greece and was an original member of the Impact de Montréal. McEachern represented Canada at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Sweden 1995, Canada’s first-ever appearance in the women’s world championship. She made 32 appearances for the national team between 1987 and 1995 and was a two-time Jubilee Trophy winner with the Edmonton Angels in club football.



Both Ellett and Stojanovic, meanwhile, represented Canada in one FIFA World Cup™ Qualifiers campaign, Ellett in 1972 and Stojanovic in 1980-81 when Canada came oh-so-close to Spain 1982™. Ellett also represented Canada in two Pan American Games (1967, 1971) and was a Challenge Trophy champion with British Columbia in 1966. Stojanovic played professional soccer in Yugoslavia, Canada and the United States. He scored 83 goals in the old North American Soccer League.



Sawtell was a FIFA referee from 1990 to 1995. He won the Ray Morgan Memorial Award in 1991 and the Sport BC Official of the Year award in 1993. Wisdom was a long-serving administrator in New Brunswick, earning the nickname Mr. Soccer over the course of his 41 years in football. He was Soccer New Brunswick’s Executive Director from 1992 to 1998. Jose is the historian who has spent much of the past 40 years writing about North American soccer. Jose was presented the Canadian Soccer Association’s President’s Award in 2007.



Slade, the 2009 Pioneer Award winner, was a player, coach and official in Ontario for 60 years. He got his start as a player with the Toronto Willys Overland in 1913 before serving in the first Great War. He then turned to coaching and later was appointed to the Committee for Minor Soccer Development. He wrote perhaps the earliest book on coaching that was published in Canada, Soccer Coaching for Schools and Colleges.



The 2009 Team of Distinction award, at last, goes to the 1986 Canadian national team that participated in the 1986 FIFA World Cup Mexico™. That 1986 team featured coach Tony Waiters, assistant coach Bob Bearpark, and manager Les Wilson – all of whom have been inducted to The Soccer Hall of Fame. The team also featured trainer Joe Parolini, equipment manager Kevin Muldoon, physiotherapist Barry Crocker and doctors Tom Fried and Ed Johnson. Fifteen of the 22 players from that team have already been inducted into The Soccer Hall of Fame: Ian Bridge, Paul Dolan, Gerry Gray, Paul James, Bob Lenarduzzi, Tino Lettieri, Colin Miller, Dale Mitchell, Terry Moore, Randy Ragan, Randy Samuel, Branko Segota, Mike Sweeney, Carl Valentine and Bruce Wilson. The team also featured players Pasquale DeLuca, Sven Habermann, Greg Ion, James Lowery, David Norman, George Pakos and Igor Vrablic.