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Ouderkirk Steve

Steve Ouderkirk
Sport: Hockey
Year Inducted: 2010

A fifteen year career as trainer with the Cornwall Royals paved the way for Steve Ouderkirk’s induction into the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame.

Diagnosed with Osgood Slaters disease in his teens, Steve was not permitted to play sports so he turned to helping organize and manage athletes.

He managed the CCVS football and basketball teams for five years before spending two years with the Paquette Glass Rams lacrosse team, also serving as the team’s General Manager for a short period.

Steve joined the QMJHL’s Cornwall Royals as an assistant trainer in 1974 after an invite from Orval Tessier.

Within a few short years, once Doug Carpenter took the helm of the Royals, Steve was promoted to Head Trainer and held that position until 1989.

Steve saved six players lives during games or practices including five who swallowed their tongues.

Steve’s greatest off-ice accomplishment has to be the highly successful Cornwall Royals reunion of 2000. He was the mastermind behind the event that brought more than 4 decades of hockey legends back to Cornwall for one very entertaining and memorable weekend.

That event drew exposure from across the hockey world as the team had left Cornwall 8 years earlier. A permanent memorial of the Royals Reunion is on display at the Cornwall Civic Complex in the main foyer.

Steve was the catalyst in ensuring the #10 Royals jersey of Hockey Hall of Fame member Dale Hawerchuk was lifted to the rafters of the Civic Complex.

Steve also had a six year stint as a trainer with the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Rough Riders.