OTTAWA, ON – On Wednesday, May 28th at Lansdowne Park’s Horticulture Building, the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame will induct the Class of 2025 into our local sports shrine. Each Wednesday until the ceremony, the Sport Hall will post an article on an aspect of the event. Today’s feature is a profile on 2025 Inductee Ervin Budge.

2025 SPORT HALL INDUCTEE – ERVIN BUDGE:

If you’re serious about billiards in Ottawa, then you know him as Budgie, and you also know that there wasn’t a soul in town who could touch Ervin Budge in a snooker match, and hardly any who could challenge him in Canada or abroad either.

Born into a family of 13 siblings in Maniwaki, Budge learned to play billiards at age seven in the back of a barber shop, in between shining shoes. He developed such a knack for it that the shop owner would offer his customers a free haircut if they managed to beat the boy, but Budge kept the tills well-stocked.

Over the next decades, Budge became one of the top amateur snooker players in the world. His top form came before the professional side of the sport took off, but that didn’t stop Budge from becoming well-recognized in many pockets of the world during the sport’s heyday in the 1980s.

The 1978 U.S. Open champion went on to win many International Snooker League tournaments in the U.S., England and around the globe, including a dozen world amateur team gold or silver medals.

Many of those victories came alongside Bill Olson and Ken Shea as they travelled to Toronto, Bermuda and U.S. sites such as the New York Athletic Club.

Budge was a big-time builder for the sport in the area and in Canada. He helped Broken Cue Billiards open upwards of 20 clean and bright billiards halls in the region, which helped transform the image of pool halls into a family-friendly activity.

Budge ran a nationally-renowned snooker-in-schools program that brought busloads of kids to learn the sport, and he organized local seniors’ snooker leagues.

He remains a legendary figure at the Orange Monkey – the city’s main billiards hub nowadays – and would still give up sizeable handicaps to competitors in local leagues as he neared age 80.

Budge was a founder of the Canadian Snooker Council in 1975 and was a driving force behind the first editions of the national snooker championships, which were held at the Ottawa Civic Centre in the mid-to-late 1970s.

The International Snooker League later gave Budge a special award to recognize his immense contribution to the world of snooker.

“Snooker is a fun sport,” Budge told the Ottawa Citizen‘s Bob Ferguson in 1984. “It’s a rather exacting science, too. Luck, in terms of flukes, seldom enters into championship play, but is a factor when it comes to breaks during the match.

“The old belief that snooker was a game for gamblers and deadbeats vanished long ago. I’ve been involved in holding clinics for school children and senior citizens alike. It’s a fascinating form of recreation.”

Budge always preferred the challenge of snooker over pool.

“Ask someone who the world’s best billiards player is, and nine out of 10 will say Minnesota Fats,” Budge acknowledged in a 1991 Ottawa Citizen feature on the sport. “But I can safely say that if I challenged Minnesota Fats (a professional pool player) to a game on a regulation-sized snooker table, I could kick his ass with one hand tied behind my back.”

Well-known for his wisecracks, Budgie was even better recognized as a tireless philanthropist. A co-founder and CEO of the Elvis Sighting Society out of Moe’s Newport Restaurant where he worked as manager, Budge raised funds for piles of community causes with creative and entertaining events, including the Snowsuit Fund, CHEO, the YMCA/YWCA, the Shepherds of Good Hope, the Food Bank and many more.

Budge’s induction to the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame was officially announced on his 85th birthday.

MAY 28 OTTAWA SPORT HALL OF FAME INDUCTION EVENING

Tickets for the Wednesday, May 28th Induction Ceremony are now sold out!

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

Sponsorship opportunities are still available. See OttawaSportHall.ca/Sponsorship for more details.

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Contact:

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.