McGill University Athletics

Sylvia Sweeney, a member of the Order of Canada, was born on Oct. 3, 1956, in Montreal. The daughter of Daisy, a music teacher and James, a railway cook, Sweeney is the niece of famed jazz musician Oscar Peterson.

She was educated locally at West Hill high school, before an extensive and diverse university career. She studied music at McGill (1973-1975), communications at Concordia (1976-77), French at Sherbrooke (1977-78), philosophy and jurisprudence at Laurentian (1978-79) and journalism at Holmesglen College in Australia (1983-84).

Sweeney represented Canada at two Olympics, the 1976 Montreal Games and the 1984 Los Angeles Games, guiding the team to sixth and fourth-place finishes, respectively. The 1976 Games marked the first time that women's basketball was played at the Olympics.

Often referred to as "Canada's First Lady of Basketball", the six-foot centre also starred with the Quebec provincial team (1972) as well as a decade with the national program (1974 to 1984), where she served five years as team captain, and was named Tournament MVP at the 1979 FIBA world championships.

Sweeney played varsity hoops for McGill during the 1973-74 season, registering a lofty 22.0 points and 13.0 rebounds per game average. She captured the league scoring title with what was then a school record 374 points in 12 regular season contests. In 17 games overall, she tallied a school best of 221 rebounds.

Sweeney earned Quebec league all-star status while leading the Martlets to a 22-6 overall record that season, followed by a QUAA conference championship and their first-ever berth at the Nationals, where she merited CIAU all-tournament honours. Nearly five decades after her final contest in a McGill uniform, she still owns the school's single-game record for most points, with 41 in a victory over Sir George Williams University on Jan. 16, 1974.

She later earned QUAA all-star status again, after transferring to Concordia, where she was named All-Canadian and merited CIAU All-Tournament honours in 1976-77. That season she guided the Stingers to a Quebec conference title and an appearance at Nationals. She later transferred to Laurentian, merited OWIAA all-star status and All-Canadian honours while leading the lady Vees to a national championship in 1979.

Among other international laureates, Sweeney was voted Tournament MVP at the 1979 FIBA world championships in Seoul, won a bronze medal at the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, where she was the Canadian team flag bearer, and was a member of the bronze medal-winning team at the 1979 FISU world university summer games in Mexico. She later served as the assistant chef de mission for the Canadian mission staff at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Inducted into the Canada Basketball Hall of Fame (1994), the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame (1996) and the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame (2000), Sweeney was named in 2020 among the U SPORTS Top 100 women's basketball players of the century. She was also part of the 1976-77 Stingers basketball team that was inducted in 2006 to the Concordia Sports Hall of Fame.

Since 1994, the "Sylvia Sweeney Award" has been presented annually by U SPORTS, a national governing body, to the Canadian university women's basketball player who best exemplifies the values of athletics, academics and community involvement.

After retiring from basketball, Sweeney had a long career in television production, including a stint as a sports broadcaster with CBC-TV in Montreal. She also produced numerous award-winning documentaries.  An original board member of the NBA's Toronto Raptors, she was appointed in 2019 as an associate dean in the faculty of media and creative arts, at Humber College in Toronto.