Noel MacDonald
{{Short description|Canadian basketball player}}
{{Infobox basketball biography
| name = Noel MacDonald
| image = Noel_MacDonald.jpg
| number =
| position = Captain
| height_ft = 5
| height_in = 10
| weight_lb =
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1915|1|23|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Mortlach, Saskatchewan
| death_date = {{death date and age |2008|5|13 |1915|1|23 |df=yes}}
| death_place = Edmonton, Alberta
| nationality =
| high_school =
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| career_start = 1931
| career_end = 1939
| years1 = 1931-33
| team1 = Edmonton Gradettes
| years2 = 1933-39
| team2 = Edmonton Grads
| highlights =
| stat1label = Points per game
| stat1value = 13.8
| stat2label = Points
| stat2value = 1,874
| stat3label =
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}}
Noel Marguerite Robertson (née MacDonald; January 23, 1915 – May 13, 2008) was a basketball player for the Edmonton Grads. In 1938, MacDonald was awarded the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award and Velma Springstead Trophy as the best Canadian female athlete of the year. She is one of the few people who have been inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame twice, and was also inducted into the Canada Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.
Early life and education
On January 23, 1915, Noel MacDonald was born in Mortlach, Saskatchewan.{{cite book|editor-last1=Mlazgar|editor-first1=Brian|editor-last2=Stoffel |editor-first2=Holden |title=Saskatchewan Sports: Lives Past and Present|date=2007 |publisher=University of Regina Press|isbn=978-0889771673|page=112|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k7ptThh_6qgC&pg=PA112 |accessdate=2 August 2017}} She spent her childhood in Estevan and Moose Jaw.{{cite news |title=Introducing Grad Gallery |work=Edmonton Journal |date=8 June 1936 |page=7}} MacDonald went to Edmonton as a teenager.{{cite news |title=Who's Who |work=Edmonton Bulletin |date=11 September 1936 |page=Eight}} She was on girls basketball teams while completing her education.{{cite book |last1=Wise |first1=S. F. |last2=Fisher |first2=Dogulas |title=Canada's Sporting Heroes |year=1974 |publisher=General Publishing Company Limited |location=Don Mills, Ontario |page=73 |chapter=Noel Macdonald, 1915-}}{{ISBN|0-7737-0036-1|invalid1=yes}}
Career
MacDonald started her basketball career with the Edmonton Gradettes in 1931 before joining the Edmonton Grads in 1933.{{sfn|Hall|2011|p=207}} On the Grads, she played as a forward and centre before being promoted to captain in 1936.{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=M. Ann|title=The Grads Are Playing Tonight!: The Story of the Edmonton Commercial Graduates Basketball Club |date=2011|publisher=University of Alberta |isbn=978-0888646026 |pages=207–08 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYC0AQAAQBAJ}} After her promotion to captain, MacDonald and her teammates won a demonstration basketball tournament at the 1936 Summer Olympics. MacDonald retired from the Grads in 1939 with a points per game average of 13.8 and an all-time Grads best of 1,874 points.{{cite news|last1=Gerein|first1=Keith |title=Edmonton Grad was an icon in her day|url=https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20080515/282016143063959|accessdate=18 August 2017|work=Edmonton Journal |date=15 May 2008|page=C2}} After her retirement, MacDonald became a basketball coach in Estevan, Saskatchewan and a secretary in Libya.{{cite news |last1=Chaput |first1=John|title=MacDonald was at top of Grads' class|work=Edmonton Journal |date=20 May 2008 |url=https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20080520/281900178949514 |accessdate=11 August 2017|pages=B1–B2}}
Awards and achievements
In 1938, MacDonald won the Velma Springstead Trophy for best female athlete of Canada. When MacDonald won the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award the same year, she became the first and only woman to receive the award for women's basketball.{{cite book|last1=Daly |first1=Brian I.|title=Canada's Other Game: Basketball from Naismith to Nash|date=2013 |publisher=Dundurn Press|isbn=978-1459706347|page=66|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xeCu-0EUtmgC&pg=PA66 |accessdate=11 August 2017}} In 1944, she was named by her former coach Percy Page as the best player in the history of the Edmonton Grads.{{cite news |last1=Moher|first1=Stan|title=Noel MacDonald Named as Greatest All-Time Grad|work=Edmonton Journal|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4B5lAAAAIBAJ&pg=985%2C3862327|accessdate=18 August 2017|date=11 April 1944|page=7}}
MacDonald was inducted into the Canada Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.{{cite web|title=Hall of Fame|website=basketball.ca |url=http://www.basketball.ca/en/page/hall-of-fame#1978|accessdate=2 August 2017}} She is one of only ten people who have been inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame twice. She was first awarded the Order of Sport (marking induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame) in 1971, and again as a member of the Edmonton Grads in 2017.{{Cite web |title=Canada Sports Hall of Fame {{!}} Hall of Famers Search |url=https://www.sportshall.ca/hall-of-famers/hall-of-famers-search.html?proID=671&catID=noel&lang=EN |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=www.sportshall.ca}}
Personal life
In 1939, with 17 games left in her final season MacDonald eloped with Harry Robertson, a former Canadian National hockey player turned oil businessman (in Idaho) keeping their marriage secret for the remainder of the season as married women were not allowed to play on the team. They had two children together. Son Donald, and daughter Dale Larsen, with three grandchildren. Jordan Robertson, Damion Larsen and Kalia Larsen Edmunds.
Death
On May 13, 2008, MacDonald died from Alzheimer's disease in Edmonton, Alberta.{{cite news|title=Obituaries|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=109877108|accessdate=11 August 2017|work=Arizona Republic |date=18 May 2008|page=36}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Bobbie Rosenfeld Award}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:MacDonald, Noel}}
Category:Canadian women's basketball players
Category:Neurological disease deaths in Alberta
Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Canada