Former men’s T-Holders’ Association president Richard V. Howson and OUAA all-star Joe Grant were inducted into the University of Toronto Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday, May 27 at Hart House Theatre.

The captain of the Varsity Blues men’s hockey OUAA championship team in 1950-51, Howson also made his mark at the University of Toronto as an energetic and committed member of the men’s T-Holders’ Association and has been induced into the hall of fame as a builder.

During his time at U of T, Howson was on the Varsity Blues intermediate football team for two years and quarterbacked the interfaculty football team for Victoria College that won the Mulock Cup in 1947. With an astute knowledge of University of Toronto athletics, Howson began his relationship with the newlyformed T-Holders’ Association in 1965.

Over the years, he has served on many University and Faculty committees, including the University of Toronto Men’s Athletic Association and the Sports Hall of Fame selection committee. He was the Men’s T-Holders’ treasurer for 20 years (1974-94) before being elected president in 1995-96.

Howson played a large role in setting up the men’s athlete of the year award and the T-Holders’ auctions that raised funds to support Varsity intercollegiate programs. Howson received an Arbor Award in 1990 for his leadership in raising funds for a new men’s hockey dressing room at Varsity Arena.

A member of the 1977-78 Varsity Blues OUAA championship team, Grant came to the University of Toronto in 1977 after successful junior hockey careers with the Buffalo Tondas, St. Catharines Black Hawks and the Kitchener Rangers. Grant was named an OUAA first team all-star defenceman in his second year of intercollegiate competition.

Grant was selected to the national hockey team in 1979 and went on to represent Canada at the 1980 Olympic Games. Before returning to finish his degree at the University of Toronto, he played one year in the Swedish Elite League and was a player-coach for one year in Tokyo.

He arrived back in Toronto in 2982-83 and led the Blues to a first-place regular-season finish and OUAA silver medal. Grant then took to the national stage once again, where he was named the best defenceman at the Pravda Cup tournament in Leningrad, Russia.

Grant participated in the inaugural Canadian Olympic Academy (COA) in Calgary (1983) and was a member of the Canadian delegation to the International Olympic Academy in Archaia Olympia (1984). He served as a member of the COA athlete selection committee in 1986-1987.

The Sports Hall of Fame honours U of T's greatest athletes and builders. It was established by the T-Holders' Association in 1987 as part of an ongoing effort to preserve and display the records relating to the outstanding historical tradition of athletic, academic and community leadership fostered by the University of Toronto.