The Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame has named its newest inductees.

They include four athletes and two builders.

Kenora-born karate champion Malcolm Fisher, Thunder Bay karate champ and instructor John Charry, free-style skier Doug Robinson, and the late John Schella, a two-time WHA Avco  Cup winner, join the Hall in the athlete category.

Dryden-born hockey coach Don Boyd and the late Barb Thompson, a well-known figure in 5-pin bowling, were selected to the builders category.

They will be officially recognized at a ceremony in Thunder Bay on September 27th.

Charry’s involvement in karate spans over 50 years, entering his first competition in the early 1970s.

He attained his 1st degree black belt in 1980, achieving his 7th degree in subsequent years.

Charry represented Ontario at 3 Canadian black belt championships and was a member of a team at the 1986 National Karate Association Championships, earning silver in 1988.

Charry claimed bronze medals at the 1997, 1999 and 2003 Tsuruoka Nationals, returning to competition in 2009 to bring home 2 gold medals from the same event.

He founded the John Charry School of Karate in 1991, serving as chief instructor and coach, providing instruction to several students who earned success at the provincial and national levels.

He has also served as an official at various local, provincial and national competitions.

Malcolm Fisher’s involvement in karate began while he lived in Kenora and pursued the sport full-time, which led to a move to Toronto, earning his 1st degree black belt in 1976.

He later moved to Japan, winning medals at city, regional and provincial tournaments and earning his 4th degree black-belt.

He also became the first non-Japanese student to graduate from the JKA instructor training program.

Fisher returned to Canada in the mid-1980s, earning multiple provincial titles and serving as an 18-year member of the Ontario Karate Team that claimed multiple individual and team medals at the Canadian National Karate Association Championships.

He competed on the Canadian National Team for 10 years and helped earn team gold at the 1989 and 1990 North American Championships and 1990 ITKF World Championships in Peru.

He also won an individual bronze medal at the 1987 Pan American Championships.

Reaching his 8th Degree black belt in the 2000s, he returned to competition, claiming a 2007 national Master medal, and was inducted into the Kenora Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.

Thunder Bay’s Doug Robinson took to the slopes at the age of three, later excelling at freestyle skiing that earned him a spot on the Ontario Ski Team.

Competing in moguls, aerials, ballet and combined from 1979-92, he earned multiple podium placements at Shell Cup events in Thunder Bay and won 2 gold, a silver and a bronze medal at the 1985 Ontario Winter Games.

Robinson added 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze from the 1985 and 1986 National championships.

He also enjoyed 17 World Cup starts from 1987 to 1992.

Upon his retirement from competitive skiing, he turned to coaching, focusing his attention on alpine skiing.

John Schella’s pro hockey career began in 1966 when he joined the Houston Apollos of the Central Professional Hockey League (CPHL), after a successful junior career in Fort William and Peterborough.

He was one of the first 20 players to be selected by the NHL expansion Vancouver Canucks in 1970.

He spent the first part of the year with the Canucks minor-league team in Rochester, New York, before getting the call to join the NHL club in the latter part of the 1970-71 season.

After gaining a roster spot full-time for the 1971-72 season, Schella was claimed by the New York Islanders in the 1972 expansion draft, but opted to sign with the Houston Aeros of the newly-minted World Hockey Association (WHA).

He remained with the Aeros for six seasons and helped the team to back-to-back AVCO Cups wins in 1974 and 1975.

He retired in 1979, following a season with San Diego in the Pacific Hockey League.

Don Boyd got his hockey start while growing up in Dryden, excelling at the goaltending position to gain attention nd was recruited by Bowling Green State University in the 1970s.

He moved behind the bench following his playing days, earning positions as a U.S. college hockey graduate assistant coach at Michigan and an assistant coach at North Dakota.

He later coached major junior hockey teams in Regina, London and Sault Ste. Marie, as well as in Newmarket and Sarnia.

His talents attracted the attention of the National Hockey League (NHL), where he scouted for several teams, including the Quebec Nordiques, Ottawa Senators, St. Louis Blues and Columbus Blue Jackets.

He currently serves as head scout in Ottawa

Barb Thompson’s interest in bowling started while growing up in Red Rock in the 1940s.

She continued the sport after moving to Thunder Bay, where she soon turned her attention to the administrative side of the sport.

From the 1960s to the 2010s, her participation included as a player, coach, league executive, and association member.

Over the years, she held various executive positions with the Lakehead/Thunder Bay 5 Pin Bowling Association (TB5PBA), including terms as President.

She was also a long-time Secretary-Treasurer of the Northern Ontario 5 Pin Bowling Association (NO5PBA) and became the first woman to hold the position of 2nd Vice President of the Canadian 5 Pin Bowling Association (C5PBA).

She was awarded Life Memberships by all three associations and was recently inducted into the NO5PBA Hall of Fame, marking a lasting legacy in the region’s bowling community.