On Nov. 4, the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame honored 13 new inductees in the Class of 2010, each of whom contributed to the story of Buffalo sports.
"This class was so special in many ways," said Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame president Brian Cavanaugh. "If you take a look at each of the inductees, you'll see something special in all of them."
The new Hall of Fame inductees come from a wide range of sports. This year's inductees to the Hall of Fame are as follows:
George Breen, Swimming Olympic Medalist ?
Steve Christie, Buffalo Bills Kicker?
Charlie Dingboom, High School and Collegiate Football Coach?Jimmy Goodrich, Boxer?
Darris and Rich Kilgour, Buffalo Bandits National Lacrosse League Franchise Players?
Gail Maloney, Buffalo State College Women's Basketball Coach and Athletic Administrator?
Whitey Martin, St. Bonaventure Basketball?
Carl Roesch, Sr., High School and Collegiate Track Coach and Official?
Buddy Rosar, Major League Baseball All-Star?
Lindy Ruff, Buffalo Sabres Head Coach
?Dr. Daniel P. Starr, Canisius College Athletic Director
?George Vetter, High School and Collegiate Football Coach
A name recognizable to many Buffalo fans is Lindy Ruff. He is currently the longest tenured coach in the NHL, and also a longtime player for the Sabres. Even though Ruff hails from Western Canada, Cavanaugh was certain he deserved a place in the Hall of Fame.
"I knew [Ruff] as a player, and he was here 10 years as a player," Cavanaugh said. "He's been here for 13 or 14 years as a coach, and he just coached his 1,000th game as a coach with the same team. He is unique in those two statistics alone."
The way for athletes to get into the Hall was to be a significant sports figure in Western New York, even if the athlete is not from the area.
Currently, the Hall only exists in a small exhibition space right in front of the Sabres Store in the pavilion of HSBC Arena. The space has memorabilia from some of the 228 members of the Hall of Fame, which is more than enough for Buffalo sports fans.
"The current class' memorabilia is in the primary center case," Cavanaugh said. "After a year, it gets moved into the other cases. If you're going now, and you're just perusing, you probably have to visit more than once to look at stuff. You probably should just take your time, look at some of the pictures and see if you can associate who is involved with some of the memorabilia."
With ongoing talks of the waterfront construction, Cavanaugh hopes that the Hall can get a larger installation that allows it to display more of the history of Buffalo sports.
Although Cavanaugh said that he did not have a favorite player currently in the Hall, he was very certain that there was one future inductee that he would be more than excited to vote into the Hall.
"If there is one name that I think that someday will be an exciting person to enter into the Hall of Fame when he retires…[it'll be] Rick Jeanneret, voice of the Sabres," Cavanaugh said.
Jeanneret was offered early admittance into the Hall; however he declined, preferring to go in after retirement, as everyone else does. In his 39 years working with the Sabres, he has become iconic in Buffalo because of his creative play calls.
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