The sixth annual Gathering of the Clan breakfast was held last Tuesday at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
The breakfast, which costed $200 a seat and raised $264,000 for SFU athletic scholarships, was hosted by TSN correspondent Farhan Lalji, an SFU graduate and active member of the BC high school football community. The event also honoured Lorne Davies, SFU Athletics founding athletics director and inaugural football head coach, who had passed the weekend before and for whom a moment of silence was held.
Lalji recounted how Davies gave him his first job in the sports entertainment business as a sports intern at SFU Athletics, before he eventually became the sports information director from 1991 to 1994.
“More than anything else, [Davies] gave us a great love for this university; he bled red and blue,” Lalji reflected on his former boss and mentor. “He talked a lot having that school spirit, that pride in your institution, and really made us feel good about being members of the Clan.”
Davies’ influence, it seems, was not limited to the athletics community. SFU president Andrew Petter explained that the man who ran SFU Athletics for 30 years touched all parts of the school.
“Lorne [Davies], as many of you know personally, was the heart and soul of Clan athletics from the beginning of SFU almost 50 years ago, when he became our first athletics director,” Petter told the crowd of nearly 800. “He mentored coaches, athletes, even university presidents — including this one.
“He always understood the importance of athletics to the well-being of a university: energizing campus life, embodying school spirit, and exemplifying our commitment to being the best we can be,” he concluded.
Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash was the keynote speaker for the breakfast. He told the crowd about his SFU experience — despite choosing to go to Santa Clara, an NCAA Division I school in the US, he was recruited by and considered SFU as an option.
“Simon Fraser is where I would have gone if I hadn’t gone to the States,” Nash said.
However, then-SFU head coach and current Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach Jay Triano told him to follow his dream to an American university, a moment that made him respect the Clan program.
“[Triano] said to me, ‘If you got the chance to play Division I, I think you should go,’ and that said an incredible amount about him, and his willingness to advise me in a way that was best for me and not necessarily best for him or his team. I’ll always remember that, and I’ll always be thankful for that, and it definitely spoke highly about Simon Fraser,” said Nash.
The Victoria, BC native also talked about the importance of athletic scholarships to student athletes, a key part of Davies’ vision.
“It’s an amazing thing getting an athletic scholarship and going to a great institution, to play sports, and have the resources to do it at a high level. It’s incredible. [I’m] proud that I can help, and I’m proud of what SFU has been able to do in our community,” Nash told The Peak after the breakfast.
Since the inaugural Gathering of the Clan in 2010, the event has raised a total of $1.5 million for Clan athletic scholarships.
