Don Goodwin, who brought together CBC Sports and the Canada Games, headed for Hall of Honour

More than 50 years later, the Canada Games and CBC seem inextricable from one another.

It was Don Goodwin, who played key roles in both parties, who first orchestrated the arrangement in 1969.

Now, as the 28th Canada Games get set to begin in Niagara, Ont., Goodwin will be posthumously inducted into the event's Hall of Honour on Friday.

Goodwin died in 2018. Widow Rosemary Goodwin said the acknowledgement "means the world" to her.

"Don was never a person who gave a fig about recognition," she said. "Whenever he did something, he made sure that it was fabulous. And then at the end, it was over. And he turned around and said, 'What's next?'"

The first Canada Games were held in 1967 to acknowledge Canada's centennial. But there was no guarantee the event, which pits athletes from across the country in inter-provincial and inter-territorial competition, would continue.

Goodwin, along with colleagues Hugh Noble and Finlay MacDonald, strove to ensure the Canada Games would remain the "crown jewel" of a new landscape for Canadian sport.

Key to that success was Goodwin, an on-air personality and one-time head of CBC Sports, marrying his work and his passion. He volunteered for the Canada Games.

"So now whenever he was talking to anyone in the sports community, in the facilities community, in sponsorships, everything, he could lead with the fact that CBC is covering all this. And that just made all the difference. That's what gave it credibility," Rosemary Goodwin recalled.

Those 1969 Games took place in Halifax, which posed a problem especially when considering the travel of west-coast athletes.

But Rosemary says there was never an issue Don couldn't overcome.

"He was just very direct. This is where we are. This is where we need