Therese (Hebert) Forsyth
Sport: Basketball
Year Inducted: 1977
Therese (Hebert) Forsyth’s competitive athletic career started while she was a member of the Women’s division of the RCAF stationed at Aylmer, Ontario in 1943.
Although she competed actively and well in swimming, badminton, and track and field, she was particularly proficient in softball, and basketball.
In 1934, she played first base on the Championship team of No. One Training Command, and she was a member of the Western Ontario Basketball Champs.
She was posted overseas in 1944, and as a member of the Bomber Group Headquarters, her team won the Overseas RCAF Women’s Championship played in Edinburg, Scotland. It was while overseas that she really became interested in basketball, and it became her favourite sport. She was also a member of the RCAF Women’s track team that competed in the All Canadian Track and Field Meet held at famous Wimbley Stadium in London, England.
Upon repatriation, Terry joined the OCOT Golds Softball and Basketball teams. A string of successes followed. The 1949 Golds won the Cornwall Senior Ladies’ Softball Championship, and eliminated Ottawa and Chalk River teams on their way to the Eastern Ontario Championship.
However, her greatest success and the highlight of her sports career was achieved in basketball. This powerful OCOT Golds Team, for which Terry played guard, won the Ottawa District Intermediate Basketball Championship in 1947. They repeated again in 1948 and reached the Dominion Finals, but were eliminated by Hamilton in a two-game series by 4 points but in 1949, they won it all.
After eliminating several teams, they found themselves in Toronto against the highly favoured Toronto Montgomery Debs for the Canadian Intermediate Championship. They won the first bitterly contested game 22-16, and were on their way to a straight two-game win when the Debs rallied to tie the score at 45-45, and the game went into overtime.
Each team scored a basket in early overtime. With little time remaining, Coach Nick Kaneb sent Terry, who had been injured in the first game, in at guard. She was fouled and calmly sank the free shot, and the National Championship was theirs, the first and only for a Cornwall Team.
Marriage and raising a family of three curtailed her competitive sports activities.
She lives in Glen Walter with her family where she teaches swimming, and keeps active with bowling and skating.
She was born in 1923, and she died February 23, 2002.