Did You Know?

By Therese Quigley, BA’75, BEd ’77, & Mary Riezebos, BA’74, BA’75, MA’80

(left to right) Fran (Wigston) Eberhard, Peigi (Duncan) Fairs, Gary Jubenville

Queens of the Court: Lifelong friends and Mustang “Royalty!”

Fran (Wigston) Eberhard, BA’57, MA’79, and Peigi (Duncan) Fairs, BA’59, do not miss a Mustang volleyball or basketball home game or important event. They are beyond purple and proud. Their passion and support for the Mustangs does not go unnoticed, and their personal connection to our current student-athletes is celebrated. Athletes are inspired by their lifelong, deep connection to Western, and have coined the phrase “Mustang Royalty” when referring to Fran and Peigi.

Peigi and Fran have known each other since their days competing in Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics in the 1950s. Their athletic and scholastic interests brought them to Western where they became teammates in volleyball and members of the 1956 and 1957 championship swim teams. Both have deep roots as student-athletes, leaders and are proud Mustangs alumni. They taught at Althouse College together and their friendship continues in retirement, cheering on the Mustangs and celebrating a lifelong shared connection with Western.

Gary Jubenville: Keeper of the digital history of Mustangs Football

Gary Jubenville is a volunteer that is the envy of every university coach in Canada. His personal interest in information technology (IT) has been a lifelong hobby and self-taught skill. Gary’s hundreds of hours of volunteer work have resulted in the documentation and digitization of some 491 football games dating back to the 1940s and 36 special events (highlight videos, Mustangs reports, college magazine and other interviews). All tapes and films are being converted and preserved for generations to come. The Mustangs digital archives are second-to-none in Canada.

Gary states, “Greg Marshall coached my nephews at Catholic Central High School in London and asked me to come in [to Western] years ago when Larry [Haylor] got a computer. No one really knew what to do with it, so they asked if I could give them a few tips. Everything evolved from there.”

Gary and his wife Carolyn have been season ticket holders dating back to the 1970s.

Mustangs in the film and entertainment industry

All-Canadian Mustang Soccer player, Sharon Simms, MA’97, has been a stunt performer in the film industry in British Columbia for 20 years. The Golden Boot winner was the team’s top scorer in her final season and continued her pursuit of athletic excellence after graduation. Her first big break came in 2003 when she was hired as the backup stunt double for Uma Thurman in the action movie Paycheck. Sharon has performed as a stunt double for many actors in film and television including Blake Lively, Katie Holmes, Sharon Stone, Katherine Heigl and Brooke Shields.

Mustang alum Christopher Di Meo (Cheerleading) also transitioned his athletic talents to the movie industry. Chris worked as a stunt double for seven years before getting injured and returning to Western Cheerleading prior to the pandemic. Chris has since recovered and has returned to his stunt career. Chris is known for his work on Suicide Squad (2016), Arrow (2017-2018), Supergirl (2017-2019), X-Men: Dark Pheonix (2019), and Nobody (2021). He is credited as an actor in the upcoming Paige Darcy and the Case of the Stoned Cat.

Other cheerleaders have made their way into the movie industry. Simu Liu, HBA’11, starred as one of the Kens in the 2023 blockbuster Barbie. He also plays Marvel superhero Shang-Chi and previously starred as Jung Kim in Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience. Cheerleading coach David Lee “Trace” Tracey, BA’81, has been featured in documentaries and was recently hired by Backspot productions as a consultant. Of Liu, Trace states he is “Absolutely an awesome guy. Smart, strong and an extremely pleasant person all round. I wish he could have stayed on the team longer.”

Sisters Chiara and Noe DiBerto of the Mustangs Cheerleading team have been featured in two full length movies in the last three years. Their first movie was a gymnastics film called Olympians at Heart and most recently in Backspot which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be released in North America imminently.

Rounding out this list of Mustangs in the movies is cheerleading alum Emily Alatalo who has enjoyed a successful career in the Canadian entertainment industry. She is best known for her role as Ginnie McMillan on Workin’ Moms (2022) and as a lead in several holiday movies including Christmas Plus One (2022), Christmas in Maple Hills (2023), and Christmas Time Capsule (2023).

Aaron Charbonneau, BA’09, flipped his athletic acrobatic talents to become a performer in the world-famous Cirque du Solei.

Many other Mustang alumni have transitioned from the field of play at Western to interesting and inspiring careers and life journeys. We would like to hear from you and share your story. Please reach out to our Lead Curator Amy Samson at metrasmuseum@gmail.com.