McGill University Athletics

Hubert T. Lacroix, a former women's basketball coach who guided the McGill Martlets to a Quebec conference title in 1985-86 was inducted in the builder category.

Born Hubert Théophile Lacroix in Montreal on July 13, 1955 and raised in the Town of Mt. Royal, Que., he attended both high school and CEGEP at Collège Brébeuf in Montreal, before graduated from McGill with a law degree in 1976 and an MBA in 1981. While practising law at the firm of O'Brien, Hall & Saunders, he began a nine-year tenure as a part-time head coach of the McGill women's basketball program, donating his annual honorarium back to the team budget.

From 1978 to 1987, Lacroix guided the Martlets to a 190-137 record overall and the 1985-86 Quebec conference championship, their first league title in a dozen years. During his coaching stint at McGill, Lacroix produced 14 conference all-stars and four all-Canadians.

After stepping down to focus on his 20-year stint in the field of securities, mergers and acquisitions in public markets at the law firm of Clarkson-Tétrault (later renamed McCarthy-Tétrault), Lacroix became a full partner in 1984.

He also remained an active participant at McGill for two decades by serving on the Athletics Board and chairing its Finance Committee as well as the Sports Reclassification Committee. In 1990, that body was saddled with the challenging task of re-inventing a financing model for the University's 48 varsity teams, which paved the way for many other universities to follow suit over the next decade. He also helped champion the cause for McGill to have a full-time women's basketball coach, a project which finally came to fruition in 1996. since then, the Martlets have captured six Quebec conference banners and the program's first-ever national championship in 2017.

Lacroix also served as president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada from 2008 to 2018.