Sports Hall of Fame Latest Inductees

With over 500 career wins, John Dore is a prominent figure in Canadian university basketball. He led the Concordia Stingers men’s team as head coach for 26 seasons. Under his guidance, the team made 13 appearances in the national championship tournament — securing the national title in 1990 and finishing as runners-up in 1995 and 2005.

Dore’s legacy at Concordia started as a student, where he was an all-star guard for the Loyola basketball team. After graduating, he served as an assistant coach for the women’s program from 1976 to 1978, and for the men’s team starting in 1980. He then became the men’s head coach from 1989 to 2015.

His coaching career earned numerous accolades, including the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) Coach of the Year award and the Stuart W. Aberdeen Memorial Trophy as Canadian Interuniversity Sport Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year in 1991. He was also named University Coach of the Year by the Foundation for Quebec University Athletics in 1995 and was honoured as the outstanding coach in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) conference on 14 occasions.

Additionally, he received a Special Merit award from the Concordia Council for Student Life in 1990.

Beyond Concordia, Dore contributed to basketball nationally and internationally. He was an assistant coach for Canada’s junior men’s national team in 1998 and led national teams competing in events such as the World University Games and the Maccabiah Games. His leadership extended to administrative roles, including his tenure as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) of Canada and as an international committee member of the NABC in the U.S.A.

His dedication to developing young athletes and his commitment to the sport have left a lasting impact. In recognition of his contributions, the Concordia University Alumni Association bestowed him with the Outstanding Staff Award at the 2015 Alumni Recognition Awards and renamed the basketball court in his honour in 2016. He was inducted into the YM-YWHA Montreal Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2019 and received the International Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches that same year.

Dore’s induction into the Concordia University Sports Hall of Fame as a Builder is a fitting tribute to his influence on the Concordia community and the broader basketball world.