Written by James McGuirk

Thumbnail Photo by Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame

Saint Mary’s University is, and always has been, a school filled with extraordinary people. Since the school's founding in 1802, students have been achieving great things; this is especially obvious when considering the athletes of SMU. It has been home to some outstanding athletes who have achieved much in athletics. This article highlights just a few of the exceptional athletes that have attended Saint Mary’s.

Portrait by Barb Dorey. Photo by Shannon Doane

Malcolm Davis

Malcolm Davis attended SMU in the mid-’70s, and in the few years he was at the university, he achieved some incredible feats with the men’s hockey team. He played a pivotal role in the Huskies 76/77 AUS Championship win and came close to winning Nationals; however, the team sadly lost in the finals after Davis injured his knee the game before and could not play the last game. Davis scored 50 goals with the Huskies and was proud to be one of the team's alternate captains.

Davis’ forte in the world of hockey began right after attending SMU. Davis went from university to the NHL to play for the Detroit Red Wings. He played six games with Detroit before he moved to Detroit’s CHL equivalent team: the Kansas City Red Wings. In the following season, Davis was moved up from Kansas City to the Adirondack Red Wings in the AHL, which is the closest equivalent to the NHL. Davis mostly played for Adirondack between 79-81 but would play a few games for Detroit in two of those seasons. In the 81/82 season, he moved to the Rochester Americans, the AHL team equivalent to the Buffalo Sabres. However, in his time with the Sabres, Davis saw a lot more NHL action: in the 84/85, he only played six games in the AHL while playing 47 games in the NHL. Davis’ NHL/AHL career ended after the 85/86 season when he became a free agent. From there, Davis moved to Finland to play for the next five years before retiring from hockey. In his time in professional hockey, Davis attained many achievements. In the 83/84 season, his team won the Calder Cup, which is the AHL’s equivalent to the Stanley Cup, with Malcolm receiving the Lee Cunningham Award for being the Most Valuable Player. He ended up playing around 100 games in the NHL and scored 32 goals in that time. In the AHL, he scored a total of 212 goals.

Will Njoku

Will Njoku was born in Accra, Ghana and immigrated to Nova Scotia at age four. Njoku was a star athlete from a young age, and when it came time to go to university, over 100 school basketball teams recruited him. Sadly, Njoku’s father passed away shortly before leaving for university; so this influenced his decision, making him stay close to home and attend Saint Mary’s. Njoku was a great addition to the basketball team at SMU; he was the second all-time leading scorer in the team’s history. He was a league MVP, and in 1993, he won the Mike Moser award for Canada’s most outstanding player. Njoku also played on the Canadian Junior Men’s team in 1991, competing internationally. After university, he got drafted 41st overall in the second round of the NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers. Will’s time in the NBA was short-lived, only playing with the Pacers for one season, but his career in professional basketball didn’t end there. Njoku played for the Canadian Senior Men’s team through most of the ‘90s; he started in ‘93 before he made the NBA and remained with the team until 1998. During his time with the senior men’s team, he competed in two world championships, in 1994 and 1998.

After his basketball career, Njoku became a motivational speaker and started the organisation Will2Win to help spread his message of motivation. In his speeches, he discusses the motto he has said to himself his whole life, “Set your feet, aim high, follow through, every day.” A slogan that started with basketball, but he believes it is helpful to everyone. In 2011, Njoku was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame – cementing his status as a legend within Nova Scotia and SMU sports.

Suzanne Muir

Suzanne Muir of Dartmouth was another prized star athlete that went to SMU. Before Muir even attended Saint Mary’s, she received athletic achievements such as being a 3-time athlete of the year at her high school. Muir was an all-around athlete playing on the women’s soccer and women’s basketball teams at SMU. She had an incredible run while at SMU, starting with earning Rookie of the Year for the soccer team. Muir was also an AUS All-Star for five straight years and a two-time AUS Most Valuable Player. Even though Muir’s time at SMU must have been hectic due to being on two university sports teams, she still found the study time to be an honours student. Her time in sports didn’t end after university either, as Muir played on Canada’s National Women’s Soccer team for eight years, from 1992 to 1999. On the national women’s team, she competed in two separate world cups, in 1995 and 1999. Suzanne’s time in professional sports ended in 1999 after her last year with team Canada; however, her abilities continued to be appreciated; in 2019, Muir was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame.

Jamie Bone

Jamie Bone of Sault Saint Marie, Ontario, moved to Dartmouth at a young age. He was not always into sports, but as a teen, he discovered a love for wheelchair basketball, and from that point on, he became a natural at just about any sport he tried. Eventually, Bone developed an interest in wheelchair sprinting, which led to him becoming one of the best wheelchair sprinters in history. Bone attended SMU in the late ‘80s; during his time at the school, he competed at the highest level as an athlete. In 1987, Bone competed in the North American Championships and came 3rd place in the 100-metre event and 2nd place in the 200-metre and 400-metre wheelchair sprinting events. The following year in 1988, Jamie went to the Paralympics in Seoul, Korea, where he put on possibly the best wheelchair sprinting performance the world had ever seen. Jamie won gold in the 100-metre, 200-metre, and 400-metre events. In addition to winning gold, he set paralympic records in the 100-metre and 200-metre, and a world record in the 400-metre. This one year in particular at the Paralympics proved how Bone was more than just one of the best local or national athletes of his time, but possibly the best in the world at the time in his sport. Along with all of this, he also earned bronze in the 4x100-metre relay event. Jamie followed up the next year in 1989 by winning gold at the same three events at the Canadian Championships. In the same year, he graduated from SMU, which made his success even more exceptional - to be competing at such a high level while still a young university student. Bone retired from wheelchair sprinting at the age of 23 but continued playing basketball on the Nova Scotia Flying Wheels Basketball team. Bone’s athletic career was honoured and recognized in 1997 when he was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame.

These are only a few of the incredible students who have come through Saint Mary’s at some point in the school’s long history. Plenty of other students, athletes and otherwise, have achieved great things beyond attending SMU. Whether they became an Olympic athlete, an NBA player or something else, Saint Mary’s University students have a history of accomplishing great things.

A Spotlight on SMU’s Great Athletic Alumni

FOLLOW US