Awards Dinners & Events

The North Bay Sports Hall of Fame induction dinner series began in 1980, three years after the Hall's founding in 1977. The first dinner was simply an induction affair, to honour the newly named members of the Hall. In 1982, the committee behind the USAF Sports Achievement Award asked that the second induction dinner be used as the vehicle to recognize the recipient of the USAF Trophy and that tradition has continued to this day. In 1984 the winners of the Reynolds (hockey), Mitchell (football), Brennan (coach/ executive) and Martyn (basketball) awards also came on board and two years later the Knapp (softball) recipients began to be honoured in this fashion as well.

In 1988 the Palangio (sportsperson) committee turned that award over to the North Bay Sports Award Committee and the NBSHF. In 1995 the newly created Britt Jessup Award winners (male and female athlete to provincial level) were recognized at the Hall of Fame affair. In recent years three other new awards were added to the dinner roster- the Kelly for Team of the year and the Handley Friend of Sport and the Jim Aspin Memorial Award for Executive of the Year – the Brennan Award was changed to recognize the coach of the year. In 2014, the Knapp Award was renamed the Dominico Family Award, and the DIA Award was renamed the Jack Burrows Memorial Sports Achievement Award.

The NBSHF dinner, which began as an induction event, has become an Induction and Awards evening, a vehicle by which the recipients of all of the major city wide individual sports awards as well as the newest members of the Hall of Fame, are recognized and feted in a public forum.

2026 Awards Dinner

Join us on May 2nd, 2026, at the Davedi Club for a special evening honouring this year’s inductees and award recipients. The event will highlight the achievements that continue to shape North Bay’s sporting legacy from young sports stars to local legends.