John P. Metras Sports Museum Social Media Highlights

By Arlo Burness, Assistant Curator, John P. Metras Museum

Check us out on Instagram & Facebook

With a mission to engage our extraordinary network of Mustang athletes, alumni, coaches, and staff, we decided to revamp our social media this year. Our schedule has included three new themes that have highlighted untold stories and the history of the museum, Mustang sports, and the key players that have made the athletic community thrive.

With a rich collection of archival materials, every week we highlight the pieces and stories that are not regularly displayed in our museum. These highlights include a Western swimming sweatshirt from 1959, worn by swimmer Denes Szvetko, and football cleats worn by Western legend, Frank Cosentino in 1957-59. We have also highlighted the various awards and trophies that athletes have won, such as the 1932 Track & Field Championship trophy, a 1948 Olympics commemorative medal, and a 1987 honours and awards plaque for women’s curling.

This year has been a fantastic year of celebration, as we have highlighted the anniversaries of athletes, coaches, and sports. Western legends have celebrated their 10, 20, 30, and 40 year anniversaries of their inductions into the Western Mustang Sports Hall of Fame, including Ray Takahashi, Gino Fracas, Fran Eberhard, and Peter Fowler. We have also highlighted the achievements of Western sports, including 90 years of fencing, and 70 years of water polo!

Lastly, we’ve showcased Western’s rich history, highlighting our trailblazers. We have shared the stories of the creation of the W Club and WAA through Bob Gage, June Burr, and Helen Luckman. We’ve seen the standout athletes who changed the name of the game, such as Mary Lou Dresser, Jack Fairs, and Mary Wong. These posts highlight the ground breaking accomplishments of some of our most important Western athletic figures.

Within our continuous posts, we’ve connected with new groups of alumni and athletes, as we showcased the achievements of our 2024 Western Mustang Sports Hall of Fame inductions. Some of our greatest social media hits were of individual inductees Brianne Barry and Ellie Seedhouse where we garnered over 1,400 and 2,100 views on each post respectively.

In November, we kicked off a new initiative – our Athlete of the Month! These posts aim to highlight lesser-known athletes from Mustang history, starting off with Brian Conacher! Stay tuned to learn more about the history of athletics at Western!

If you are celebrating an anniversary, or know someone who should be recognized as Athlete of the Month, reach out to the museum at metrasmuseum@gmail.com.