OTTAWA, ON – On Tuesday, May 28th at Lansdowne Park’s Horticulture Building, the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame is inducting five new members to our local sports shrine – Dr. Mark Aubry (Builder – Medical), Mike Bullard (Athlete – Hockey), James Duthie (Builder – Media), Lyndon Hooper (Athlete – Soccer) and Luke Richardson (Athlete – Hockey), while a pair of teams will be honoured for their milestone national championship victories – the 1974 Ottawa Sooners and 1999 Ottawa 67’s. Each Tuesday and Thursday until the event, the Sport Hall will post an article on an aspect of the event. Today’s article is on 2024 Inductee, Lyndon Hooper.

2024 SPORT HALL INDUCTEE – LYNDON HOOPER:

Lyndon Hooper has just about seen it all in the soccer world – from his first kicks in Zambia, to the local pitches in Nepean, to stadiums with 100,000+ fans in Mexico, and now helping the next generation of players and coaches in Ontario.

Born in Guyana, Hooper moved to Ottawa at age 11 and played for the Nepean Hotspurs and Ottawa Royals in his youth. He debuted with the Canadian under-19 men’s team in 1985 was an All-Canadian with the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks.

The steady and effective midfielder appeared in 67 senior men’s international games for Team Canada between 1986 and 2005, which still ranks him top-10 for most appearances all-time.

Hooper represented Canada at multiple CONCACAF Gold Cups and in three cycles of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. He narrowly missed securing a berth for the 1994 edition, but played in Canada’s 1-1 exhibition draw with Brazil just six weeks before the Brazilians won the World Cup. Hooper also played for Canada at the inaugural FIFA Futsal World Cup and was a Jeux de la Francophonie champion in 1989.

Hooper played professionally in Canada, England and the U.S., starting with the National Capital Pioneers in 1987. He also played for the Montreal Supra and Toronto Blizzard in the original Canadian Soccer League and later joined the Montreal Impact and Toronto Lynx in the USL A-League before concluding his playing career as a Canadian amateur club champion with Scarborough. He now works for Ontario Soccer in coaching development.

Local coaches use Hooper as a shining example of a model player and human, having played the game with incredible passion and skill, while displaying class, sportsmanship and humility.

Hooper will now join his sister Charmaine in the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame, as well as the Canadian Sports and Canada Soccer Halls, and they both share the honour of having local parks named after them.

“I think one of the biggest thrills of all was the walk-out to the game,” Hooper reflected upon his induction into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2011. “You come from under these stadiums, some of them majestic stadiums, for example in Mexico: you walk out from the underground belly of the stadium and you hear the roar from the fans, and then you get outside and the world comes at you and you’ve got 120,000 people there.

“That was always a big thrill – as equal as when we scored a goal.”

MAY 28 OTTAWA SPORT HALL OF FAME INDUCTION EVENING

Tickets for the Tuesday, May 28th Induction Ceremony are available for purchase now!

In the lead-up to the banquet, full-length features on each of the inductees will be posted on the Hall’s website at OttawaSportHall.ca and shared through the Ottawa Sports Pages.

Event tickets are $125 per person or $1,200 for a table of 10, while premium tables go for $2,000 and additional sponsorship opportunities are available. See OttawaSportHall.ca for more details.

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Contacts:

Dave Best
Chair, Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame
Chair@OttawaSportHall.ca

About the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame:

The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization, which documents, curates and celebrates outstanding achievement in local sport heritage. The Sport Hall is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors to maintain and preserve our rich sporting legacies. Each year, the Hall of Fame Board receives nominations from the public and selects new inductees to be honoured in the Hall.