Kathy Hall-Deibert stands beside her great uncle William Lauder's Sports Wall of Fame plaque alongside Pat Hall and Mayor Linnsie Clark at Thursday night's ceremony.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
A pillar of boxing in Medicine Hat was honoured in the city’s highest form Thursday night.
Boxing pioneer William ‘Billy’ Lauder was inducted to the city’s sports wall of fame in a ceremony at Big Marble Go Centre. The late Lauder was instrumental in the development of the Medicine Hat Boxing Club when he moved to the Hat in 1911 after starting his professional boxing career in 1906 at the age of 24.
Medicine Hat Coun. Allison Knodel MC’d the event with Mayor Linnsie Clark giving a speech off the top.
“Through William’s dedication to the sport of boxing, we get to bask in the glory of the community that that person is from here,” Clark said.
Lauder retired from boxing in 1914 before he enlisted in the First World War where he continued to box throughout his military service. Upon his return, Lauder ran a poster business while continuing to support the Medicine Hat boxing club, even going as far as running practices on his front lawn. Lauder passed away in 1968 at the age of 86.
Pat Hall and Kathy Hall-Deibert joined Knodel and Clark on stage.
Hall-Deibert spoke after the unveiling of the plaque about her great uncle Billy and the impact he had on boxing in Medicine Hat. She reiterated the last few paragraphs of a letter a former student of Lauder’s, Ev Niemen, provided and which Knodel read earlier in the ceremony.
“Lauder was a quiet, modest man who led by example, neither smoke or drank and gave freely of his time to others, and the sport he loved,” Hall-Deibert said. “No one has made a larger or lasting contribution to boxing in this area than Billy Lauder, the father of boxing in Medicine Hat.”
Editors note: A previous edition of the story noted Rose Page was a part of Wednesday’s ceremony when it was in fact Pat Hall.
