Editor’s note: Each year, the Star sports department contributes to the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund via Proudfoot Corner. The drive allows children from financially disadvantaged families across the GTA to enjoy a gift box Christmas morning. Proudfoot Corner is our long-standing tradition of recognizing donors. And while we do, this year we’ll take a behind-the-scenes look at some of the stories our journalists worked on.
Every December, a group of sports journalists and broadcasters from across the country gather to debate and vote for Canada’s athlete of the year. The Northern Star Award, formerly known as the Lou Marsh Trophy, has been handed out by the Toronto Star since 1936 — and it’s a competition unlike any other.
That’s because of breadth of who is considered — it can be a man or woman, professional or amateur, individual athlete or team player, in any sport — and the way it’s awarded.
The committee members change regularly. The debating and voting procedure does, too. Even determining which athletes should be given serious consideration and why is a shifting sands of interpretation.
Many committee members, and I fall in that camp since I first started voting in 2012, argue that’s part of what makes it interesting. But it does lead to regular debates and sometimes controversial decisions about how to handle sporting excellence when someone is part of a team.
That wasn’t an issue for this year’s runway winner: Summer McIntosh, the first Canadian to win three gold medals at a single Olympics. Her medals were won in individual swimming events (as was her silver medal) and she was the only female athlete in any sport to win three individual golds at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Her achievements were so great and historic that she had the Northern Star Award locked up even before the committee gathered online Tuesday.
But the individual versus team debate was still raised in the process of getting from a long list of outstanding athletes to a shortlist of five.
How could sprinter Andre De Grasse be considered without also including the other three members of Canada’s Olympic gold 4×100 relay team? Can curling skip Rachel Homan’s excellence be separated from the rest of her rink, which has dominated curling this year?
The award has never been given to a team of four but three times in the past, the award has been given to a pair of athletes, the last time being 2001, when pairs skaters Jamie Salé and David Pelletier won the award.
In 2014, the committee went the other direction and gave the award to bobsledder Kaillie Humphries alone, as the first person to defend an Olympic gold medal in women’s bobsled, even though teammate Heather Moyse was in the back of her sled.
I remember arguing that if the award was for one athlete, she was the main factor on the team having won gold medals at the Olympics, world championships and World Cup circuit with different brakewomen and she was a driving force in breaking the gender barrier by competing against men in a four-man sled. And she’s still competing, six months after giving birth — just not for Canada, having switched her sporting nationality to the U.S. after a safe sport dispute.
This year, McIntosh and Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, a perennial finalist for the award, were advanced to the list of finalists without debate.
Then, the committee debated what other athletes should be included in the final five. Through a vote, Toronto Sceptres’ MVP Natalie Spooner, Olympic hammer throw champion Ethan Katzberg and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, were included.
Committee members then voted for their top choice. The only surprise of the day, really, was that McIntosh was the overwhelming winner, rather than a unanimous winner.
On the Corner: We kick off this week with several donations made in memory of Toronto Star alumni: Tony Cahill gives $105 for reporter Jack Cahill; $250 from Catherine De Giusti for senior editor Cos De Giusti; and an anonymous gift of $500 for Star Sports’ own Randy Starkman … retired baseball columnist John Lott donates $105 in memory of “My son, Jason Botchford, a popular Vancouver hockey writer” … more $105 donations come from Leslie McIntosh, Jean and Mike Palermo, Ruth and Rick Houle, Mike and Jan Dixon, Eric and Loretta Fines, Ken and Jane Harlock, and Harish Manocha.
Vonna Bitove (sister of Toronto Star publisher Jordan Bitove) gives $500 … Leaside Baseball Association has been a friend of Proudfoot for many years and is back with $105 in memory of Darryl Harding … former Leaside Baseball Association president Howard Birnie donates $50 in memory of his grandson Dalton … Tony Manastersky chips in $1000 in memory of his father Tommy Manastersky, a Grey Cup winner with the Alouettes in 1949 and who also played for the Canadiens … Gail Miles donates $35 in memory of Brian…we also get $35 from Wendy Pegg behalf of Aidan and Maya Pegg … Edmund Ludlow donates $50 in memory of Shadow … Allan Rose has been giving to Proudfoot Corner for 20 plus years and this year he gives $300 in memory of “Three wonderful sportsmen and teacher-coaches, Danny Williams, Lennie Sparks and Jerry “Gramps” Ingham” … John Wilson contributes $70 … Ted Langdon chips in $150 as does Mrs. Betty Jacobs … and another $150 comes from Peter Voight who gives in memory of “Corner regular Ed Voight.’
Patricia Regan gives $350 in memory of James Regan … David Libman remembers Carolyn Blackman Libman with a donation of $118 … Marc-Antoine Comtois donates $35 as does Zig Elles … James Pearce gives $50 … we get $600 from Steve Lancaster … Mike and Kelly Buchanan contribute $200 in memory of Mike Rodwell and Mike Kemp … Cathy Warda gives $105 in memory of Christianne … Peter Ross donates $50 … Glenn Davis gives $105 in memory of “My parents Fred and Anne and brothers Alan and Brian Davis” … we get $350 Douglas and Carol Hara in memory of Paul and Ruth Henderson … Brenda Massey-Beauregard donates $105 in memory of Stephen Beauregard … Jim Gray remembers Al Russell with his gift of $105 … another $105 comes from Steve Barrett who donates in memory of Len and Marion Barrett … and Mark McPherson gives $200 in memory of Campbell McPherson.