By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

EACH fall, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture honours the country’s top sporting icons of the past and present during National Sports Heritage Month.

This year the celebrations have been expanded to the entire month of November.

The traditional schedule will feature a stacked calendar of events, highlighted by the induction of 18 new members to the National Sports Hall of Fame.

The new class will bring the total number of athletes and contributors in the hall to 149. The group will be officially inducted during a ceremony hosted at Government House on November 11.

The inductees include Della Wood-Thomas, Hattie Moxey, Candace DeGregory-Culmer, Sister Annie Thompson OSB OBE, Vickey Knowles Andrews, Evander Freeman Barr, Burket Dorsett, Carlton Harris, Anthony “Poker” Huyler, Ivan Johnson, Nathaniel Knowles, Edmondo Moxey, Jayson “Peggs” Moxey, Frank Rutherford MBE and an additional four posthumous honours, including Eucal Hugh Bullard, Bertram Perigord,Roosevelt “Dog” Turner, and James “Jim” Wood.

Prior to the induction, the group is scheduled to worship during a church service at Our Lady’s on November 6, followed by a trio of school visits on November 8 (CH Reeves), Doris Johnson (November 9) and another to be announced (November 15).

The inductees will also make a courtesy call on the House of Assembly on November 16.

Sports Heritage Week originally began in 1989 with the introduction of five of our national heroes - the late great Thomas A Robinson, Sir Durward Knowles, Cecil Cooke, Andre Rodgers and Everette “Elisha Obed” Ferguson.

The Class of 2015 included 15 members, 2014 included 16 inductees, following the record number 21 inducted in 2013.

The National Hall of Fame was established as a means to show the country’s appreciation to those contributors to sports whose exploits may have gone unnoticed in the past and, at the same time, deliver recognition to those who continue to shine for the Bahamas.

“This formal recognition of elite Bahamian Sports Heroes is intended to accomplish the following: preserve for historical purposes the memories and monumental achievements of outstanding Bahamians in all sports; seek to inspire a quest for excellence among the young men and women of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas such that they themselves would seek to qualify for admittance and selection to the National Sports Hall of Fame; and to reward outstanding athletic accomplishments by Bahamian athletes at the conclusion of their active careers as participants,” said Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson.

“Their induction into this institution symbolises the highest honour of sports in the country and demonstrates the country’s appreciation for all that they achieved in their era which would have contributed to the development of sports in the country today.”

In addition to the Hall of Fame inductees, present day sports icons will have an opportunity to be recognised through the National Sports Awards Ceremony.

The event, a concert-styled awards ceremony modelled closely after ESPNs “ESPY Awards,” will be hosted November 19 at the Atlantis Resort’s Crown Ballroom under the theme “Number Uno - Still Number 1.”

“We will celebrate and award a number of different groups that have been divided into different categories. We are particularly excited about this event as we will have the opportunity to remind and showcase all of the wide number of outstanding achievements there have been in sports in this year alone.”

The selection committee and members of the media will vote on a myriad of awards honouring teams, individuals, performances, coaches and federations.