Bobcats to be enshrined in Hall

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This article was published 09/07/2019 (2444 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three of the greatest basketball teams in Brandon’s history received another honour on Monday.

The 1986-87, 1987-88 and 1988-89 Brandon University Bobcats national championship men’s basketball teams will be enshrined into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in the dynasty team category.

“When you walk into that area (in the Hall of Fame) and you look at all the names that are in there, you watched them as kids perform on the ice and on the court,” said Doug Carmichael, who attended Monday’s announcement in Winnipeg. “To be in the prestigious group …. I just look at myself as a role player on a team but now I share a spot with some pretty great individual athletes. It’s a neat experience for sure.”

To say those Bobcat teams were dominant may be an understatement. The 1986-87 team went 13-3 in Great Plains Athletic Conference play before going undefeated in the playoffs to reach nationals and win their first crown.

The following season, they went undefeated in league play and the post-season, and then continued their successful run by becoming the second school in CIAU (now U Sports) history to win three straight men’s basketball national championships in 1989.

The team had talented players like John Carson, a five-time all-Canadian who was the CIAU player of the year in 1986-87 and MVP of that year’s championship tournament. Patrick Jebbison was the CIAU player of the year in 1988 and 1989 and will be remembered for blocking a shot by Victoria’s Spencer McKay late in the 1989 final to secure Brandon’s 74-73 victory and third-straight title.

Whitney Dabney, who was on all three teams along with Jebbison, Carmichael, Gary Latty and Marvin Russell, was named a tournament all-star at all three championship tournaments and the MVP in 1988.

Other players like David Dominique and Joey Vickery played large roles as well.

The key to the team’s success, according to Carmichael, who still lives and teaches in Brandon, was the coaching from Jerry Hemmings and the teamwork.

“Everybody talks about guys and their roles and everybody accepted their role,” said Carmichael, a six-foot-seven forward who was mainly relied on for his defensive play. “It was a group that was pulled from all over. I’m standing here with Frank Bojarski, one of my teammates, and he was from Red Lake and we had guys from all over, but when you got in a gym with everybody, we gelled together and everyone knew their role.

“The top players would give the ball up to a guy who was wide open and there was no difficulty there. It was just something we did there and enjoyed.”

“Just the camaraderie we had with the teams and the success we had. It was great to share with a group of guys who were truly teammates,” Carmichael continued. “… They’re lifelong friends that you develop a bond with and being successful at a sport that you love.”

The three-peat was even more special because Brandon was the little school that could. The school was one of the smallest to compete in the CIAU, but Hemmings worked hard to recruit talented players and to have them come together as a team. He instilled a belief that they could compete with anyone else on the court as well.

Only one other team from Manitoba has captured a Canadian university men’s basketball championship since Brandon’s back-to-back-to-back crowns, and that was the Bobcats in 1996.

The three BU teams have been recognized a lot over the years. They were enshrined in the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005 and they were inducted in Brandon University’s Dick and Verda McDonald Sports Wall of Fame in 2014.

Last year, a documentary was made on the squads’ run to national glory.

All the players and coaches will forever be bonded by their success on the court, and Carmichael said when the players get back together for a reunion, it’s like they pick up where they left off as if they hadn’t been apart.

He’s looking forward to experiencing that again at the Hall of Fame banquet in Winnipeg on Nov. 2. People are already working so the Bobcats can have a large reunion that weekend.

“It’s just like family and they’re willing to take that distance and close it in and enjoy the camaraderie again with all the teammates,” Carmichael said.

The Bobcats will be joined in their Hall of Fame class by athletes Charles Baksh (cricket), Susanne Dandenault (athletics and weightlifting), Michelle Stilwell (wheelchair sports) and Russell’s Jon Montgomery (skeleton) as well as builders Don Hornby (rowing), Marueen Orchard (basketball and wheelchair basketball) and Hector Vergara (soccer).

Carmichael is looking forward to the banquet and the honour bestowed on three teams he played for.

“To be recognized at the top of your field in your sport and be amongst all the great teams and athletes is sure a thrill,” he said.

» cjaster@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @jasterch