Durham College’s Sports Hall of Fame grew this fall.
The latest inductees include Sam Dempster, Colin Dempster, Allan Fournier, Julie Pickell (previously Julie Colins) and Anthony Batchelor.
Scott Dennis, director of Athletics and Recreation at Durham College, is proud of this year’s inductees even though some of them preceded his time here.
Dennis says both Batchelor and Pickell were record-breaking athletes. Batchelor was the all-time leading scorer in Canadian Collegiate basketball history.
Dennis says when he started in 2006, he remembers it was Batchelor’s final year in basketball.
“The first thing I wanted to do was get a counter so every time he scored a point, they would put the points on the board, so that was always fun,” he says.
Dennis says back then it got plenty of media coverage from CTV News and the Toronto Star which “made it a pretty big deal.”
Pickell was a record-breaking player for the women’s softball team from 1993-94 through until 1995-96.
Pickell achieved a silver medal in her first and third seasons and won a gold medal in the second season.
While Dennis was not around to see Pickell play he does mention he has heard a lot about her.
“I didn’t get to meet her personally or anything like that,” he says, “but the stories I have heard from Mike Duggan, staff member, and Ken Babcock, former AD (Athletics Director), is that she was one of the best pitchers ever to throw the ball here for the Lords.”
Sam Dempster became the Durham Lords men’s baseball program lead in 1992 and coached for 28 seasons until 2020 when he retired.
Colin Dempster, Sam’s son, spent over 20 years serving as assistant coach on the coaching staff until 2021.
Dennis says when Sam and Colin Dempster won the national championship in 2011 they got lots of praise and rekindled old connections.
“They came close so many years before that, it was just such a big deal when they won the national championship,” he says. “So many former baseball players reached out to Sam and Colin congratulating them and it was great to see that connection back then.”
Allan Fournier served as the official photographer for the Durham College Department of Athletics for the past 30 years.
“If you count it up, he would probably be the one who has attended most Durham College games since his time started as a staff photographer,” Dennis says. “If you come to the hall of fame, you will see a lot of photos on display and a majority of them will be Al’s from other the years.”
Dennis says Durham College has had a lot of success recently and he attributes that to these inductees and many other former star athletes.
“We’re having a lot of success here on the fields and on the courts and things like that,” he says. “But that wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have the success of previous years and that is kind of what we are celebrating.
“The career of five great individuals that have contributed to success here at Durham College.”