The next class inducted into the Prince Edward County Sports Hall of Fame will feel familiar to readers of the Picton Gazette from the 1960’s and 70’s.

Or at least those of us with handy access to the archives.

After several years of inactivity due to the pandemic, the PEC Sports Hall of Fame has been resurrected with a new board — and new members.

Jim Dunlop, Carl Stacey, Ron Sivel and the Gazette Maple Leafs will take their place in the Hall on October 11. 

A mover and shaker of all things Wellington, it’s a welcome sight to see Mr. Dunlop take his rightful place in the Hall. Mr. Dunlop left a permanent legacy to the local sporting landscape, coaching and managing multiple minor softball and hockey teams to provincial titles. In later years, he was a leading member of the Wellington Dukes executive and was the catalyst for the new Wellington and District Community Centre, which replaced the venerable Dukedome.

One of the teams Mr. Dunlop coached was a starry group of players from Wellington that rattled off three straight Ontario Minor Hockey Association championships. Picton Gazette publisher Joe Cembal sponsored the team on its 1976 tour of Switzerland.

If it was a sport and it was happening in Prince Edward County, Ron Sivel was on top of it. He served as Gazette sports writer and section editor for several years, injecting life and colour into sporting exploits of County athletes old and young. Poised to cover the Gazette Maple Leafs on their overseas tour, Mr. Sivel died less than a year prior to the trip.

The late Mr. Stacey was equally apt on the diamond, on the green or in the hockey rink. He played for multiple Ontario Hockey Association and Ontario Amateur Softball Association winning entries based in Prince Edward County. In the summer, when he wasn’t firing fastballs, he was racking up a handful of club championships at Picton Golf & Country Club.